A fattened heart

PIOLO Pascual, Lea Salonga and Gary Valenciano in “ABS-CBN Presents … Tulong Na, Tabang Na, Tayo Na! An All-Star Benefit Concert”

There is an expression that gives me a little giggle whenever I hear it: Nakakataba ng puso. If we’re speaking literally, a fat heart is one that would send a cardiologist panicking.

The more figurative, and truly more beautiful meaning has never been more evident than in the days following Supertyphoon “Yolanda.” The entire world has come to help.

The videos shown on the news channels are awe-inspiring. Countries are sending not only relief and relief workers, but also vehicles of all kinds. The sight is unbelievable! Add to this people volunteering to pack goods—food, hygiene kits, clothes—and send them off by truck to the waiting citizens of Tacloban, the city hardest hit by Yolanda, as well as other affected towns and provinces.

Benefit concerts are being organized and staged around the metropolis, as well as in Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia to raise funds. Artists from all over are getting together to get our Visayan brothers and sisters back on their feet.

Star-studded

One such concert held last Saturday (televised on Sunday) was one for the ages. Although serious in its efforts to raise relief funds, the show was a lot of fun to do.

“Tulong Na, Tabang Na, Tayo Na” was ABS-CBN’s benefit concert to help Sagip Kapamilya do its job for calamity survivors (for more information, visit www.abs-cbnfoundation.com/sk).

The event was star-studded: Gary Valenciano, Piolo Pascual, Sam Milby, John Lloyd Cruz, Martin Nievera, “The Voice of the Philippines” singers Darryl Shy, Radha, and Mitoy (all from Team Lea, by the way!); Empress Schuck, Venus Raj, Mutya Datul, Ariella Arida, 6CycleMind, El Gamma Penumbra, Noel Cabangon, AKA JAM and many more.

The concert itself began at around 8 p.m. It seemed as though artists kept on arriving to perform. By the time I left at close to 11, there were still singers who hadn’t arrived at the Big Dome.

A rehearsal was called in the afternoon for all the singers to grab some time for sound check. Given how many people were on the bill, each of us was allowed maybe 10 minutes. I was slated to sing “Bayan Ko” (the same one sung at Corazon Aquino’s funeral mass, arranged by Marvin Querido), and since the band (led by Homer Flores) had never played this chart, we allowed a few passes at the piece before we could breathe easy.

After I was done, all the artists involved in the opening number were called to the stage to rehearse “Magkasama Tayo sa Kuwento ng Pasko” (ABS-CBN’s 2013 station ID theme) and Yeng Constantino’s “Hawak Kamay.”

Blazing stars

Artists and audience members were united in wearing white “Tulong Na, Tabang Na, Tayo Na” T-shirts. At the actual performance, before “Hawak Kamay” was sung, Gary Valenciano asked everyone in the sold-out house to take out their cell phones and turn on the bright LED lights. The house lights were then dimmed. The entire audience looked like the night sky blazing with thousands of stars, each symbolizing what we would all wish to be for every single person who survived Yolanda: a light of hope.

The sight was breathtaking; it made many of us on stage cry.

Within the actual telethon on Sunday, during breaks in the concert airing, even more ABS-CBN stars manned telephones, and fielded calls from people wanting to donate … from people whose family members had not been found … people wanting to help.

Hosts Karen Davila, Julius Babao, Robi Domingo and Alex Gonzaga gave the TV audience updates on how much had been pledged thus far. Yes, Visayas … help is on its way.

Even with all the aid that has arrived thus far, there is still more work that needs to be done. It will take years before these cities are back to normal. Some communities that were wiped out cannot and will not be rebuilt.

However, there is something about watching the whole world come together, putting differences aside, to help. And just watching it gives me a fattened heart. Nakakataba ng puso. My storehouse of hope is full again.