Dina not just ‘another politician’s wife’

Dina Bonnevie

At the beginning of her marriage to Ilocos Sur Rep. Deogracias Savellano, actress Dina Bonnevie wanted to be as lowkey as possible. She was to be a mere “politician’s wife,” she thought—happy to stay behind her husband, and always ready to support.

But later on, Dina realized that being married to a public servant is “a calling” one has “to embrace… [since] the responsibilities of your husband to his constituents become your responsibilities, too.”

And so, Dina, who tied the knot with Savellano in 2012, learned how to speak Ilocano and vowed to help people in her own little way. From her own pocket, Dina bought looms and threads, and traveled all around the province in hopes of enticing local weavers—who had given up on the craft for faster means of earning money—to start anew.

“I didn’t want to simply give away money; I wanted to provide people business opportunities,” she said in a recent chat with reporters.

Now, Dina said, she and her husband supply a Filipino crafts retail chain with cloth produced by the weavers she had tapped.

The 57-year-old celeb also reached out to makers of Vigan longganisa and bagnet, and offered to help them market their products for free. “I recently gathered them and suggested that we should perhaps come up with a single recipe that we can hawk,” she related. “Now, we supply two big supermarket chains.”

Such experiences, Dina admitted, have “humbled” her. “You realize that there are a lot of people living in tough conditions, while I’m here, living in comfort,” she said.

Dina insisted that “she has no interest” in entering politics. “It’s just not my world. You know me well, I hate plastikan,” she said, laughing.

Besides, she’s very much active in show biz and still enjoys the craft. Dina is the main antagonist in the ABS-CBN soap “The Blood Sisters,” topbilled by Erich Gonzales.