It looked like the start of a beautiful friendship between a frontliner and a supporter of frontliners.
The latter person in this equation is Frontliners Ang Bida Party-list nominee Celine Pialago, who ran a little "date search" on her social media for Valentine's Day Monday, Feb. 14. The former beauty queen contestant's only two criteria? Her date must be a frontliner, and of course single.
Nicodemus Muguerza, a nurse attendant from Dr. Jose Rodriguez Memorial Hospital and Sanitarium, turned out to be the lucky guy.
Pialago uploaded Monday night on Facebook two short videos of her and the jittery Muguerza having dinner. The former Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) spokesperson appeared to become immediately comfortable with Muguerza and even gave him a pet name--"Nics".
But their night wasn't filled with just small talk as there were serious topics discussed too.
"Kahit paano nagkwentuhan kami doon sa mga struggles ng frontliners pero siguro, sa proper venue natin i-aaddress yun. Pero at least alam natin kung paano sila matutulungan (We also discussed about the struggles of frontliners, but we will address that in the proper venue. But we at least we now know how to help them)," said the candidate for party-list representation in the House of Representatives.
"Regards sa lahat ng mga frontliners na nagta-trabaho more than 15 hours a day (Regards to all the frontliners who work more than 15 hours a day)," Pialago said in her Valentine's Day message to all Filipino frontliners.
But her attention was focused on her date. "How's your night? Kumusta naman (How was it), Nics?" Pialago asked him while they were having dessert.
"OK naman, masaya. Nakaka-relieve lahat ng problema (It was OK, I'm happy. It relieved all of my problems)," Muguerza answered shyly.
Pialago, like any other good date, said she would want to see him again, along with his friends and co-workers. "And by then siguro mas close na kami ni Nics (Maybe Nics and I would be close by then)," she said.
Muguerza later posted photos of his special night with the Frontliners Ang Bida nominee on his own Facebook account.