The priceless things in Piolo Pascual’s life during pandemic
MAKATI CITY, Philippines – September 10, 2021 — Piolo Pascual has hied off to his beach property in Batangas, lying low and relishing the unhurried pace of provincial life to ride out the pandemic.
He hardly checks his phone, even.
LX2 Entertainment’s Round the Clock on YouTube spends a day with the 44-year-old actor, and we see him going around in a tank top, currently his OOTD staple, but still looking every inch a star with the sun as his natural lighting.
He has taken a breather from the harried environment of showbiz, and basically enjoying the company of his family.
He tells Round the Clock, “Priceless things I wake up to every day.
“You hear the birds chirping, yung kuliglig, yung crickets, you hear the wind, and that’s the perfect time to meditate, that’s the perfect time to commune with nature.
“So I look forward to that, that’s my motivation, you know. That’s why I sleep early, so I can wake up early for that.”
He savors those early hours, “before everyone is awake… the quietness, the stillness of the morning.”
A stickler for routine, he starts his day at 5 a.m.
He reveals, “Five o’clock I start it, I pray right away. If I shower the night before, I don’t shower that day, I just brush my teeth and take my quick workout and start my hike.”
Piolo’s activities for the day are pretty much set. He and his trainer leave the house at around “5:15 or 5:20” in the morning.
He continues, “We hike up the mountain two kilometers, and then from there, you can catch a glimpse of the sun rising. Perfect!
“And then we stop for a bit. And then we go around probably four to five barangays, small towns…”
The trip back home usually takes him “less than three hours.”
The next activity in his schedule: Workout.
“As soon as I get home, it’s about, probably seven o’clock or eight o’clock depending on my pace, that’s when I do my workout.
“Basically the reason why I wake up early is so I can start my day early, I can do more during the day.
“Since I have been a gym enthusiast for more than half my life already, I have come to a point wherein I have to diversify and change my program from time to time.”
Piolo alternates HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training) with circuit training and weight lifting.
Sometimes, he swims.
SURPRISE! PIOLO, TOO, A PLANTITO!
His next activity, Piolo declares, is “the biggest thing that has changed in my life!”
Yup, Piolo is a plantito!
He beams, “I have so much plants at home. It takes me about an hour minimum to water them, to check on them.
“Each one, check on the leaves and just making sure they are alive and that they’re watered.
Bougainvilleas abound because they’re “the easiest to grow and maintain.”
But, alas, the location of his house poses a problem.
Check out the video here:
He rues, “Since I live in the province, our place is by the beach so it’s hard to grow plants, especially because of saltwater and the air.
“It took me sometime before I could grow and plant, cultivate my own plants…”
Piolo recalls one devastating moment that left him traumatized.
He relates,“There was one time that I planted so much in the resort, and just one typhoon wiped out everything.
“And that totally traumatized me. For 30 minutes, I didn’t move.
He had no choice but to start all over again. It was painstaking.
“ It took me more than probably five times, five trips just to get the plants from Laguna, Bulacan, Batangas, Paranaque, everywhere.
“I would travel, you know…I would drive myself to these places so I could get plants…”
As with all heartbreaks, there was a lesson to be learned from the loss and moving on.
Piolo says, “It made me appreciate the value of patience and just the discipline, you know, of having to understand what I had to go through for them to thrive.”
He pauses, realizes the absurdity of the moment, and laughs.
“Halaman lang pinag-uusapan. Ba’t ba ako umabot dun?”
He recovers, and life goes on.
RICE, FRESH PRODUCE FOR LIFE
So from 9:00 a.m. until before noon, he’s with his plants.
Afterwards, he takes a shower then takes his lunch, his favorite meal of the day.
“It’s the middle of the day, I don’t wanna eat as much at night, so by lunch, I really look forward to eating after workout, after being out in the sun.
“And I love to experiment on my food. When I was still busy with work, I wouldn’t even eat rice.
“But now, you know, when you’re domesticated, you have no choice but to eat rice because everybody, anyone else eats rice.
“If I’m in Manila, I like Japanese. Even with my son Inigo, whenever we think of what to eat, Japanese.
“But when I’m in Batangas, fresh catch. That’s one of the perks of living by the beach, our veggies, fresh produce—sitaw, cucumber, papaya, okra, kamatis, sili.”
Piolo pauses again before saying, “We have Bahay Kubo.”
The highlight of his day: family bonding.
“With your mom, with your family, the best pastime is playing tong-its [a card game].
“If not, I watch movies, still kind of want to work my mind and be creative so I get my inspiration from the movies that I watch,
“Most of the time, if I’m just at home, I hardly check my phone.”
He does go online from time to time, and mostly it’s work-related.
For the rest of the day, he is just relaxing and cavorting with his siblings, nephews, and nieces.
Will there ever come a time when true love—not his plants—join the idyllic setting?
Piolo says It has been part of his prayers.
In the meantime, “I wait for the sunset” to appreciate what life has to offer.”
