Heart: Chiz will take love over surveys

Are you happy?

Yes. It’s a liberating kind of happiness. I have a lot of fears, a lot of things I don’t know, I anticipate a lot of things. But it’s liberating because I’m happy, I feel like I’m free to decide on my own now, and that’s a big step.

Were you unhappy before?

I was content, I guess. I didn’t want myself to want anything else, let’s just say I was a bit bored with my life at that time.

Is it only love that’s making you happy or is it everything else?

A lot of people think that I was born in February, my name is Heart, it’s a curse ’cause it seems like I’m always in love. People say that I have a “You and I against the world” syndrome. But no. Unfortunately, love is not the only thing that makes my world go round. 

There’s just so much that I’d like to do. I’d like to travel. I’d like to see a clear schedule on my calendar. I’d like to wake up at 12 noon. I wanna eat pasta, yeah, I wanna walk around a different country, maybe Paris wearing sneakers. Not usually in your Louboutins. So, yeah, I was just a bit bored then.

Was it Chiz Escudero who made it exciting?

No. A big part though, but it was when I turned 28 that I realized that what I do today will make my life 10 years from now, my biological clock is ticking. That’s not good, and I just started to like other things.

I don’t wanna go out partying. I wanna have my own home. I wanna paint my walls the colors I want, I want to decide which plates I can eat with today. Those things. Or if I don’t wanna have a maid anymore. If I wanna do things on my own, or if ‘today I can use this car.’ I didn’t have those decisions before, or choices. So, yeah. (Chiz, Heart: Against all odds?)

But Chiz, he makes my life all cheesy and lovely and fun, I laugh a lot when I’m with him, I learn so much. I think it was timely that he entered my life ’cause he introduced me to a lot of different things. He makes me feel guilty when I buy something expensive. I think I can save my money more now.

What makes him worth fighting for?

The people I’ve been with that I loved at that time, not everybody could understand what I was going through, not everyone could stand by my side and not have a moment of, “Wait, let me think of myself first.” 

This guy that I’m with, he’s brave, he stands for what’s right, he knows he loves me, and he doesn’t even doubt that we wouldn’t make it out of this situation and he stood by my side. I think that’s why it’s worth fighting for.

Do you see a future with him?

Yes I do.

Do you think he would make a good senator?

I think he’s amazing, I think he’s a brilliant guy, and I think he’s a really good dad, a good son, and a good friend. Someone that’s a full of love kind of guy—partner. I think he could be somebody really great, and since he is a senator, I think he’s done a lot to our country and I’m really proud of him and I think there is so much more that he could do.

Do you think he would make a good president?

Yeah, no doubt about that. He has all these ideas, he’s so fair with everything, even when people are hitting him left and right and beating him black and blue, he accepts it but yet he doesn’t plan anything evil against them he plans a solution to the problem, he never turns his back on anything. He just goes forward and fights for what is right, so I think he would be a great president.

 

Do you think you would make a great first lady?

I never really thought of that, to be honest. I think it’s ridiculous that people tease me na “o, First Lady,” ganyan-ganyan. I already have a problem with being an artista sometimes, and you have to smile when you’re really devastated about something, and you’re in public and you always have to have this smile on your face. I’m already struggling with that, but any kind of situation that—or anything that you’re destined.

Kunwari, you’re destined to be this person, I wouldn’t turn it down if you were made to help people. But I don’t think you have to be a politician to help anyone.

Do you think, as a girlfriend, would you have been attracted to the senator if he weren’t a senator?

Yeah, I think he’s my dream guy.

It’s funny, I have this book I read when I was young, Memoirs of a Geisha, and when she was young she had a crush on somebody much older. I do remember a couple of years ago I saw Chiz and I was taken aback by his presence. He was wearing a shirt and shorts and tsinelas and it was in Serendra. He had no bodyguards. So it was actually the opposite, that he was actually such a normal person.

I think he is full of character, he’s brilliant, he’s smart, the way he talks he’s dignified, the way he stands, without the title, I think I’d still be attracted to him, definitely.

Physically, what attracts you to the senator?

He has nice eyes. He has puppy eyes. They’re tricky. They always seem like they’re serious or sad or something but that’s what makes it so cute. I melt all the time he looks at me, I get kilig up to this day when he picks me up, just the way he stands, the way he puts his hands in his pockets, or you know, the way he laughs. I get so kilig up to this day.

If you found out that you were politically dangerous to the senator, that you were not good for his survey ratings, would you give him up? 

I’ll tell you I question that. When this whole thing came out and my parents had a presscon I was devastated, which even makes me want to cry at this point, because I really did question that I wasn’t good for him. I thought I was a curse to anybody to be with, because I had other people that just loved me so much that didn’t believe that anybody could love me the way they did, and I questioned myself and I told him that, that maybe I’m not good for you, and I know a lot of people say I’m not good for him. But he just told me one thing, he said, “If this is what it takes to keep you and to have you in my life, then I’d go for it.” (Read: Chiz chides Heart’s parents)

When he said that I just said, wow, he doesn’t care, you know? Power isn’t the only thing that’s important to this guy or it’s not even important to him, what makes him happy is life and how you’d want to spend life.  What makes you happy is what’s important to him. Aside from knowing he’s a really great guy, then definitely he’s worth fighting for.

This video is produced in partnership with Esquire Magazine Philippines, whose cover for this month’s election issue features re-electionist Chiz Escudero’s controversial girlfriend Heart Evangelista. 

---

You might also want to check out:

• Chiz compares story to Romeo and Juliet
• Heart to mom: Let me learn on my own
• Chiz: Heart’s parents want us to split up
• Chiz, Heart: Against all odds?
• Chiz chides Heart’s parents: ‘It’s just not right’