From being buddies, we witnessed how the partnership of police officers Ulysses Balthazar and Eugene Reyes, exceptionally portrayed by veteran actors Gardo Versoza and Ariel Rivera respectively, crumbled as their principles clashed and the former became the latter’s eventual toughest enemy in the afternoon soap opera Sandugo.
Now that the series is on its final week, let’s take a look back on 10 of the most exhilarating, intense encounters of Eugene and Ulysses through this Kapamilya Toplist.
Policemen are expected to adhere to their motto “to serve and to protect”, and that’s what Eugene has been doing ever since he took his oath, which Ulysses wasn’t able to fulfil as he opted to veer on the erroneous path because of his concern and affection for the distressed Cordelia (Vina Morales). He betrayed his colleague by stealing the gun of and evidences against criminal Roman Gomez (Jan Urbano) in exchange of the hefty amount of bribe he received from him.
As Ulysses chose to live a brand new life with Cordelia and as he turned his back from his sworn duty, he found himself crossing paths again with his former partner after so many years since Eugene was the one in-charge of leading the investigation of his assault. Since then, their meetings would never be complete without Ulysses uttering sarcasm and threats towards Eugene, and the latter showing that he’s unfazed with everything he had said and done via his intense clapbacks.
Being an honorable and righteous policeman that he is, Eugene refused every gift that came from the Balthazars in their attempt to bribe him and even their whole unit, telling them that not all can be bought by money. Instead, he vowed Ulysses to not stop in seizing then punishing the leaders of the human trafficking syndicate, in which he’s one of them.
Another sizzling confrontation of them happened when Ulysses met Eugene head-on when they arrested his wife Cordelia for ordering the arson of Sitio Lahar and alleging him of intentionally jailing her during the holidays, when there were no available lawyers and the offices were close. As soon as he bailed her out, Ulysses delivered an ominous warning to Eugene by telling him to “get ready for the storm”.
Knowing about their connection, Eugene summoned Ulysses to their station to interrogate him about the death of notorious human trafficker Dante Lozano (Mike Magat), who also took his estranged son Aris away many years ago. He tried to evade their questions by insisting to them that he’s nothing to do with Dante, but they told him that they knew that the deceased criminal would speak up against him and about the syndicate. But what made Eugene more enraged was when Ulysses deceived them in the raid they did by giving them false information regarding the whereabouts of Señor Dinero (Teroy Guzman).
With Ulysses already aware that Leo is Eugene’s son, he tried to threaten him of harming Leo if he would not stop his investigations about him. Much to his dismay, his statement failed to send chills down his spine as Eugene faced him sternly.
Now that Eugene’s already dead, does this mean that Ulysses already triumphed? Well, that’s for us to find out in the remaining episodes of Sandugo, weekdays after Love Thy Woman in Kapamilya Gold.