What could be Vicky's fondest wish?

MANILA, Philippines – When you’ve been on top of the game for eight straight years, you don’t panic at the slightest sign of a threat to your throne.

Vicky Morales, host of GMA 7’s top public service program Wish Ko Lang is not having sleepless nights over Shalani Soledad, whom TV5 fielded as Willie Revillame’s co-host right smack in the Saturday afternoon timeslot she (Vicky) is currently lording over.

In fact, Vicky welcomes Shalani’s entry into the scene.

“That means more help for those in need,” explains Vicky.

That sunshiny attitude that brightens up the most hopeless situations in show hearkens back to her childhood.

“Everyone in our family is always joking,” reveals Vicky. “We’re typical Pinoy. We laugh even when we have problems. We were brought up to deal with bumps along the road.”

That’s why she’s far from depressed, even if the cases she features look grim. Affected yes, but never depressed. Vicky would rather look for the silver lining.

“The stories don’t bring me down because they always have a happy ending,” she explains. “There’s always a resolution.”

Kind-hearted souls offer to help. Generous sponsors underwrite the aggrieved person’s transportation fare, give scholarships, an array of items to start a sari-sari store, etc.

A couple of cases stand out in Vicky’s mind to this day. One is that of a lady with a chest the size of a basin. People were mocking her. She just stayed home out of sheer shame. Wish Ko Lang gave her a new lease on life after it tapped a surgeon to operate on her.

The woman’s case is similar to that of Boy Bayag, who is featured in the show’s eighth anniversary presentation on Dec. 11. The man, Gildo, has filiariasis. It made his genitals grow so big it has actually touched the floor. The guy from Davao was so ashamed he hid himself at home for 10 years. Until Wish Ko Lang ran to the rescue and performed a successful operation on him. Gildo, now a new man, can go wherever he pleases — the mall, the corner sari-sari store, and the church, where he thanks God for his blessings.

Before that, the show goes to Cebu, where Elizabeth Oropesa disguises as a prisoner in the Good Samaritan segment. Hopefully, a kind soul will stop by and make her feel better in part two of the show’s Pangarap Tour presentation for its eighth anniversary on Dec.4.

Acts of kindness, are things you don’t easily forget. Vicky still remembers the words of someone the show helped in the Luzon leg of its anniversary episode: “You can forget what kind of help you gave to others. But the person you helped will never forget it.”

That’s why Vicky always stops and listens to anyone who approaches her in the mall and asks if Wish Ko Lang can help him/her. She gets the person’s name and waits for him to write a short account of his story. Then, Vicky submits it to the staff to research on.

She also gets referrals from Mike Enriquez’s Imbestigador , news anchor Mariz Umali and others.

“I get sacks upon sacks of letters and e-mails,” relates Vicky.

Vicky refers them all to her staff, since she doesn’t want to give the wrong message that she is favoring one letter sender over another.

The hardest cases are the medical ones, like appeals for help for chemotherapy and dialysis. It is fraught with risks like complications and the show refers these cases to the experts.

And since Wish Ko Lang’s coffers are not bottomless, Vicky and the staff either defray cost of a few months of say, dialysis. Or they ask about what other wish the sick person has and tries to make it come true.

Is it a long-delayed reunion with a loved one? Is it a son searching for his long-lost father? Or a wheelchair for an invalid who longs for the warmth of sunshine and the sight of flowers outside his home?

Wish Ko Lang has done that. It even follows up the cases the people it has helped.

Vicky’s drive to help has grown by leaps and bounds now that she is a mother of three (two twin boys and a girl, aged two and one, respectively).

“I feel deeper for a suffering mom, “ she explains. “I can really feel the anguish. What if it happened to my own kid?”

Motherhood, in other words, has made her a better host. Nothing, they say, can take the place of experience. And Vicky, a mom thrice over, brings a mother’s compassion and a homemaker’s heart on the table.

She will again bank on this asset when she co-hosts Puso ng Pasko Artista Challenge with Richard Gutierrez starting Monday, Dec. 6 on GMA.

Since Day One, Vicky need not look far when it comes to lessons in compassion. From her cardiologist-dad who doesn’t charge needy patients, to her loving lawyer-husband and children, she is learning her best lessons where it’s supposed to come from in the first place: The home.

Now, televiewers are learning from her, week after inspiring week.