Director Maryo J. De Los Reyes Aims To Instill Good Values With His New Inspirational Soap About A Young Priest, 'Pari Koy' With Dingdong Dantes

DIRECTOR MARYO J. de los Reyes is at his best when directed the inspirational soap, “Niño”, which is about hope and faith. He’s now at it again in “Pari Koy”, the story of a young priest, Fr. Kokoy (Dingdong Dantes), who has served in the rural town of San Agustin for four years but is suddenly uprooted to serve as parish priest in a God-forsaken slum district in the city called Pinagpala.

“With all the problems we are facing today like climate change, super typhoons and the Mamasapano tragedy, we need something to uplift us and strengthen our faith in God and our fellowmen, to instill good values in people and bring out the best in them,” he says at the presscon of “Pari Koy”. “I can relate with the priest in the story because I almost became a priest myself. Five years ako sa San Carlos Seminary. And I think this is a great vehicle for Dingdong Dantes who’s not only a great actor kundi isang mabait na tao. We did ‘Pahiram ng Sandali’ and we’ve become comfortable with each other. He welcomes the challenge of playing a priest for the first time in his career and he’s very good in it. Hindi siya yung traditional priest dito na very authoritative kundi very non-conformist in his ways to bring people closer to God. I’m also happy that we’re working with a powerhouse cast na karamihan, nakatrabaho ko na before.”

Supporting Dingdong are Sunshine Dizon as the church secretary who’s married to an abusive husband, Carlo Gonzales, with Jillian Ward as their daughter; Chanda Romero, Luz Valdez and Dexter Doria as the Tres Marias, lay workers in the parish who can be hypocritical or gossipy at times; Gabby Eigenmann as the corrupt barangay chairman with Rap Fernandez and JC Tiuseco as his cohorts; Hiro Peralta as the closet gay brother of Dingdong; Jeric Gonzales as the son of Dexter who’s in love with Lindsay de Vera, the grand daughter of Chanda Romero; and child actor David Remo as Pinggoy, the high spirited boy who brightens the life of the people around him. “Pari Koy” will start airing on March 9 to replace “More Than Words” that will end this Friday.