In her 12 years in show business, we’ve witnessed her brilliance and versatility as an actress through her superb and remarkable performances both in television and film. She has already taken on various characters – a delicate or fierce leading lady, a terrifying kontrabida, a doting mom – in which most of them were women, who are entangled in complicated or unhappy romances, making her a ‘hugot’ authority.
But Bela Padilla let us see her in a totally different light through her remarkable portrayal in the one-of-a-kind primetime series Sino Ang Maysala? Mea Culpa, which follows the story of her character who did everything she could just to keep the child she has taken care of and considered as her own away from its biological mother Fina Baniaga (Jodi Sta. Maria). She is Atty. Juris Agoncillo-Montelibano, a lawyer who got involved in a freak accident with her friends and is guilty of kidnapping a child she refuses to return to its real parents.
She used to be a cheerful and kindhearted woman, but she gradually changed negatively when her fight to protect her adoptive daughter Leyna (Iyannah Sumalpong) began. Her condition got worsen when her estranged mom Dolores (Agot Isidro) returned in her life, which triggered all the traumatic experiences she had in her younger years to come flashing back in her mind.
The change in her behavior was highly notable as she became restless and went hysterical most of the time – as what the frequent clenching of her fists and talking to herself, her sharp gazes, her sudden breakdowns, and her impulsive actions suggest. Besides, she has developed hallucinations already for there are instances that her sane self is talking right in front of her, telling her cracked up self that her friends indeed betrayed her and she can get past through it no matter what since she’s a great lawyer.
She also gets disturbingly rattled everytime she’s in hot water, such as when her husband Drei (Tony Labrusca) interrogated her about her role in their friend Bogs’ (Ketchup Eusebio) death, and has the tendency to be hurtful as she almost hurt Leyna whenever she blabs about Fina.
Indeed, from warming our hearts with her previous roles, Bela effectively made us despise her as Juris. Take a look on some of her mind-blowing and nerve-wracking ‘baliw’ acting on Sino Ang Maysala? Mea Culpa in this Kapamilya Toplist.
Will Juris get finally caught for her crimes? You better not miss the much-awaited finale of Sino Ang Maysala? Mea Culpa for you to find out!