TJ Trinidad believes politics not necessary to help people

MANILA, Philippines – TJ Trinidad has changed his mind about politics.

In 2013, he vied for the position of councilor in Pasay City only he failed. But this experience made him realize that politics is not really for him.

“I tried it because I wanted to help. I was curious also,” he said in an interview on Thursday. “But I decided that it’s really not for me.”

What changed his mind were the different political controversies that surfaced and the situations of the people that are being neglected by the politicians.

“It opened my eyes to a lot of things,” he said. “It made me realize of course that first of all a lot of people need help. At that time, the Napoles thing broke out and 10 billion pesos being siphoned, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Tapos you go around and see mga families nakatira in between buildings, you see kids being born into poverty and not being given the opportunity that other people have, magagalit ka talaga.”

This led him to coordinate with Operation Smile, where they started by looking for kids in different baranggays and brought them to the organization.

“It just needs a little effort but even a very little effort will go a long way,” he said, smiling. “It takes so little effort galing sa personal time ko. It will affect the lives of kids that otherwise I would not have met.”

Aside from his desire to help, the project is close to his heart since he has two kids with wife Marga.

Meanwhile, TJ is busy with the number of films he’s currently working on.

He just finished shooting for the biopic “Felix Manalo” which stars Dennis Trillio. He was also done filming for the suspense-thriller film “Hawa,” that he said is similar with the foreign film “World War Z.”

What makes the story different is “[there’re] three different timelines. Ako yung nasa third part na, parang hindi na naapektuhan ng virus na kinakatakutan ng tao. It’s man versus man na kasi nagiging cannibals na yung man. Kasi wala na ‘yong resources.”

He’ll soon start working on a film with Q Cinema with a working title “Sleepless,” and a TV series which he can’t announce yet.