Dingdong Dantes
For the past five years through his show “Amazing Earth,” Dingdong Dantes has been presenting stories on wildlife, uncharted destinations and profiles on local adventurers and environmental advocates.
And in his own little way, the Kapuso star hopes to promote the beauty of the Philippines, its people and its culture.
“As Filipinos, we should all be ambassadors for our beautiful country. That’s what we do through the show every week. We highlight the beauty of our country by showcasing its beautiful places and lesser-known spots. But more than the places and natural resources, we also have to promote the beauty of our culture and the goodness of every Filipino,” Dingdong said at a recent press conference for the fifth anniversary of “Amazing Earth.”
“And we try to do this not only through visuals, but through heart and stories people can relate to,” Dingdong added.
Impressive feat
The weekly infotainment program’s three-part special, which kicked off last July 14, continues on July 21 and July 28. Dingdong was especially inspired by his feature on Marco Puzon, who recently completed the impressive feat of visiting all of the Philippines’ 148 cities and 1,486 municipalities.
“You don’t encounter stories like this every day. We talked about why and how he started that challenge and the difficulties that he encountered along the way. He met a lot of people and learned more about their cultures,” Dingdong related. “There was so much to talk about. I feel like he could write a book about his adventures.”
Dingdong will also feature the Minalayo Island or the so-called “Snake Island” in Masbate and the jellyfish sanctuary in Surigao del Norte. In the show, he chats to a fisherman vlogger about his risky encounter with an octopus in Palawan, and tapped the Sparkle love team of Sofia Pablo and Allen Ansay for a cleanup activity in Pasig River. “We compile these stories and dig deeper,” he said.
‘Better citizen’
From its previous Sunday evening time slot “Amazing Earth” has been moved to Fridays at 9:35 p.m.
“We wanted to try new things for our fifth anniversary. We also hope to attract new viewers on this time slot. After all, Friday night is the start of our weekend. So it’s like saying that our weekend adventures start here,” he said, adding that hosting the show has helped him become a “better citizen” because of the “many things I learn every episode.”
The show also promotes environmental preservations and sustainability, which he hopes to teach his children, Zia and Sixto.
“It has to be a lifestyle, a way of life. It should be ingrained in our routines. We should take small steps toward helping save the environment and I want to make sure that my kids learn about that from a young age. After all, our goal is to educate through entertainment,” he said.
Hectic schedule
Aside from “Amazing Earth,” Dingdong hosts the game show “Family Feud,” topbills the primetime drama “Royal Blood,” and is set to film the Metro Manila Film Festival entry “Rewind” with his wife, Marian Rivera. But despite his hectic work schedule, Dingdong sees to it that none of his projects suffers.
“I’m fortunate to have good managers and people around me who make sure that all my projects are humanly possible without sacrificing quality and my bandwidth. My priority is time with my family,” he said. INQ