Daniel now a Pinoy at heart

MANILA, Philippines - Heart Evangelista has so smitten Daniel Matsunaga he not only wants to stay with her forever and a day. The Brazilian-Japanese (Brapanese) wants to adopt Heart’s citizenship by becoming a Filipino himself.

“I like living here. I like the culture, the climate, the food — and Heart, of course,” he says at the location shoot of GMA 7’s drama-fantasy Grazilda at Norzagaray, Bulacan.

Daniel, dashing as usual in his warrior costume, plays Kasmir, a cold-hearted prince who will fall in love with Grazilda (Glaiza de Castro) in the series.

For starters, Daniel is trying his darndest best to learn as many Tagalog words as he can. He still can’t eat balut, no matter what Heart and his Pinoy friends say. But he does eat adobo and is excited at the prospect of learning how to cook calderata from Heart. He plans to try isaw next year.

Daniel also plans to tell his parents and sister, who will visit him for the first time in the Philippines before his 22nd birthday on Nov. 20 that “they better get used to coming here often.”

And just like him, Daniel is positive his family will enjoy the Philippines, especially now that they’ll be staying over for the Christmas holidays.

Daniel talks like a true-blue Pinoy when he says, “Instead of going to different countries, I want to show them around here first so they know more about the culture and what I have here.”

His one-and-a-half year stay in the Philippines has given him a good idea about the places he will take his family the minute they arrive. Heart will come to the rescue, of course.

Daniel can see it now: Heart, his mother and sister swapping stories as only women can about anything under the sun.

The three ladies may be seeing each other in the flesh for the first time. But they’re actually no strangers to each other.

Daniel says his mom watched Heart’s soap, Langit sa Piling Mo, where he first met his girlfriend of three months for the first time.

“My mom pitied Heart’s character,” recalls Daniel.

Heart and his mother also talked to each other via Skype, with Daniel translating what the two most important ladies in his life were saying.

“It’s hard for my parents to speak in English,” explains Daniel. But it was a good start just the same.

Daniel himself gets along well with Heart’s family. In fact, Heart’s mom gave him a T-shirt last September, when they celebrated their second monthsary.

What did Daniel do to win the usually reserved Mrs. Cecile Ongpauco over?

“I’m just honest with them. I don’t hide anything,” answers Daniel.

The parents must have seen through Daniel’s heart and found nothing but love for their daughter inside.

“I’m not with Heart because of money,” he says, knowing that his girlfriend’s family owns the Barrio Fiesta chain of restaurants.

He’s with Heart, simply because “everything became right between us” when they finally became a twosome. He courted her for three months — hanging out and having fun, first with the cast and crew. When the sparks started flying and Daniel himself says “the rainbows started showing up,” they started dating exclusively.

Now, Daniel acts like a teenager in love when talking of Heart (Heart is as open about Daniel).

So his girl is petite and he stands more than six feet tall?

“I can always crouch like this,” he answers while bending his knees a bit.

Daniel points out that he sticks to one woman — Heart.

Felix Roco, Glaiza’s rumored boyfriend has nothing to fear then. Glaiza and Daniel may be each other’s love interest in the series, but they will never carry the role over in real life.

In fact, Daniel may just hop over to the set of Heart’s new starrer, Dwarfina, after wrapping up work on Grazilda.

The only fireworks that would fly on the Grazilda set are the ones between Kasmir and Grazilda, when their eyes meet and their lips — lock?

This, we have to find out.