Marco would rather play it clean

Other kuyas may find their birth order a pain in the neck. It means more responsibilities, more pressure to set a good example. Not Marco Alcaraz. He looks at it as a privilege and source of joy. As the eldest in the family, the Bench model enjoys setting the example for his siblings.  And this doesn’t apply only to appearing irresistible to the ladies out there.

Marco takes it upon himself  to turn his Business Management degree into something income and job generating. Thus, he is opening his first business,  a cell phone repair shop called Cellphone Clinic and the loading station The Load Shop at the ground floor of Sta. Lucia East Grand Mall, Cainta, Rizal.

The Load Shop, which opens April 1, will be selling Smart, Globe and Sun cell phone loads. The Cellphone Clinic, which is adjacent to the loading station, will open the same day.  Marco will make sure he drops by to check on how the business he put up with a friend is doing.

“I  must be a good role model,” explains the towering GMA 7 talent.  “That’s why I finished my studies.”

Turns  out he’s achieving his goal, not just for his family, but for those there looking for stars they can talk about without discussing scandals.  Marco may not be the subject of juicy blind items, but he doesn’t mind. He has put those days of  being at the center of controversy behind him. After all, he has patched things up with ex-girlfriend Isabel Oli when they bumped into each other recently.

Besides, why dwell on intrigues, when people are noticing Marco for something better: His acting. Marco feels blessed GMA Talent Center gave him a meaty role in the just-concluded My Only Love.  The network is not leaving Marco empty-handed after the soap. It is casting him again, this time, as one  of the Mermen, in Marian Rivera’s next primetime series, Dyesebel.

Regal Films is testing his acting mettle once more as Rufa Mae Quinto’s gold digger of a boyfriend in Manay Po 2: Overload. Marco plunges headlong into a comedy scene  with Rufa Mae the minute the movie starts.

It may be something new for Marco, whose roles have been confined to serious drama outings so far.  But the exacting Manay Po director Joel Lamangan seems satisfied with what he saw in Marco.

“Direk wanted performance level acting even when we’re just rehearsing.  And mine was not just any kind of scene. I had fight scenes in the movie. Am I glad direk Joel didn’t shout at me,” relates Marco.

Co-star Cherry Pie Picache (who plays the matriarch of the Dimagiba family) also showed Marco a thing or two about giving one’s all even if the director is only asking for a rehearsal.

“Manay Po 2 was a learning experience,” Marco reports.

Offscreen, he  is also learning a lot, this time, about service to others as part of the Artista Kabalikat sa Bayanihan (AKBAY), a group of civic-minded young celebrities Sen. Miguel Zubiri and Arnold Vegafria organized recently. As part of the pioneer batch, Marco joined Cheska and Patrick Garcia in distributing relief goods to flood-stricken areas in Bicol a few weeks back.

Days after, Marco joined Zubiri , Jay-R, Iya Villania and others in Barangay Sto. Domingo, Quezon City, where they distributed Bench goods  and more relief items to families displaced by a recent fire that gutted the area.

All work and no play make Marco a dull boy.  So he’s donning his jersey again for a series of basketball matches with GMA which starts on April 30 in Qatar and ends May 5.

“This is the first time I’m playing basketball abroad, so I’m excited,” admits Marco.

He’s just as excited for fellow Bench model Dingdong Dantes, who is getting  the lion’s share of attention these days.

“No,” Marco wants that clear.  “I don’t feel envious of my fellow Bench endorser’s blessings. Not at all. Dingdong deserves it.”

Same thing applies to Marco, who knows that scandals and controversies do not an actor make. He’d rather focus on something more worthwhile and career-enhancing: Giving his role everything he’s got.  Marco knows this is his only ticket to another meaty assignment in a primetime show or a big-budget movie. And he is proving himself right.