What’s keeping Jomari from reconciling with Aiko?
He is her shoulder to cry on when the going gets tough. He helps her make sense of the problem by looking at it from all angles.
So, are Jomari Yllana and Aiko Melendez finally reconciling after years of being apart? This will surely make their teenaged only son, Andrei happy. But they are not ready to make that big move – yet.
“Nagkamali na kami noon,” Jomari recalls. “Ayaw na namin pagdaanan yung pinagdaanan namin noon.”
True, they don’t argue and fight the way they used to when they were still husband and wife. Jomari says he and Aiko have matured.
“Pero mahirap magmadali pagdating dyan (reconciliation),” Jomari points out. “Natutunan ko yan dahil nagmadali kami noon.”
It’s enough that Jomari understands Aiko more than ever.
“Alam ko na may problema si Aiko sa relasyon kapag malungkot siya o umiiyak,” explains Jomari. She runs to him for comfort and advice and he doesn’t mind it at all.
“I understand. She’s not a bad person. There’s nothing wrong with her,” Jomari says.
It’s just that Aiko has yet to find the best guy for her, he goes on. For Jomari, what’s more important is Andrei feels the bond between him and his parents are as strong as ever.
“Pilit namin pinaparamdam sa bata na kahit hiwalay kami, buo pa rin ang connection naming tatlo,” relates Jomari.
He shared these thoughts at the presscon of Star Cinema’s “Ikaw ang Pag-ibig,” written and directed by Marilou Diaz-Abaya.
'Ikaw ang Pag-ibig'
The film, which was graded A by the Cinema Evaluation Board, casts Jomari as a doctor who complicates Vangie’s (Ina Feleo) life more with his marriage proposal.
The CBCP (Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines) has endorsed the family drama about a young woman (Ina) who wrestles with her inner demons after she finds out that her brother (Marvin Agustin) needs a donor for a bone marrow transplant.
Ina, Jomari, Marvin and their co-actors Nonie Buencamino and Shamaine Centenera-Buencamino believe shooting the film was a miracle in itself.
“She was not sick the whole time we were shooting the film,” reveals Ina. “Others in the production team got sick, one by one. Not Direk. A check-up showed that she was on remission,” says Ina.
She looked at it as a sign that God gave her the strength to finish the film. The (breast) cancer, Ina adds, returned with a vengeance after the film was done.
“Direk went for a checkup and found out that the cancer has progressed to Stage four.”
Shamaine adds, “When Direk Marilou was writing the script, she thought someone else will direct the film because she was sick. But the illness went away so she decided to direct ‘Ikaw ang Pag-ibig’ herself.”
Shamaine agrees that what happened was a miracle, especially since the cancer returned after direk Marilou finished editing the film.
Archbishop Leonardo Z. Legazpi of the Archdiocese of Caceres, producer of film in commemoration of the Tercentenary of the Devotion to Our Lady of Penafrancia, experienced a miracle himself.
“His lung tumor disappeared while we were making the movie,” Jomari reports.
The doctors know such things happen, he points out. But they can’t explain it in medical terms.
“Ikaw ang Pag-ibig” opens Sept. 14 in theaters nationwide. Special screenings are set Sept. 9 at St. Paul’s College,Quezon City and Sept. 10 at UP Theater.
