When asked if he would ever want to be president, Jericho Rosales didn’t give the usual answer. Instead, he spoke from the kind of sincerity you don’t often hear in politics.
“I never graduated. I never even went to college,” he said during the media conference for Quezon at The Manila Hotel. “But what I learned from life, from art, is that everything can be studied. What you can’t fake is care.”
Rosales, who portrays Manuel L. Quezon in the upcoming historical biopic directed by Jerrold Tarog, said that playing the former president gave him a deeper understanding of what leadership should mean. “If care and service aren’t in your heart, then nothing will happen, not even on a personal level, much less for an entire country.”
It’s a rare moment to hear an actor speak about leadership in such a grounded way. While he admitted that the thought of being president is “no joke,” his words cut to the core of what many Filipinos have long wished for, a leader with a genuine heart.
The conversation turned reflective when Rosales recalled joining a free walking tour years ago. “At the end, the guide said something that stayed with me: ‘We just need leaders who genuinely care.’ That’s all we need,” he said.
Playing Quezon also forced him to look back at how much he didn’t care about history when he was younger.
“I used to fall asleep in history class,” he admitted, “because I didn’t care about the country.”
But through the film, he said he rediscovered what it means to love the Philippines—to care enough to understand its past and how it shaped the present.
That rediscovery, he said, is the key to solving corruption.
“It’s care that makes you move. You love your family and your friends. You do things for them because you care. It’s the same with the country,” the 46-year-old actor related.
Rosales compared corruption to “a pit bull—a byproduct of greed and decay,” something that can’t be solved by one person alone.
“We all have to take responsibility. That’s why we called it I Am Philippines,” he said, referring to the film’s message of collective accountability.
As Quezon prepares for its nationwide release on Oct. 15, TBA Studios positions it as both a cinematic event and an educational tool. The film concludes the studio’s “Bayaniverse” trilogy after Heneral Luna and Goyo: Ang Batang Heneral, and it aims to reignite interest in Philippine history among students and educators.
For Rosales, however, the bigger lesson goes beyond the screen. Portraying the country’s second president reminded him—and perhaps all of us—that leadership begins with empathy.
“What we truly wish for,” he said, “is a leader with a genuine heart — the heart of a true president.”
Quezon features an all-star ensemble including Benjamin Alves, Mon Confiado, Arron Villaflor, Cris Villanueva, Romnick Sarmenta, Karylle, JC Santos, Jake Macapagal, Bodjie Pascua, Angeli Bayani, Jojit Lorenzo, Joross Gamboa, Therese Malvar, Ana Abad Santos, Ketchup Eusebio, and Nico Locco. International actor Iain Glen, best known for his role in Game of Thrones, plays U.S. Governor-General Leonard Wood.
The movie, which had a successful red carpet premiere on Oct. 12 at SM Cinemas in The Block, SM North EDSA, Quezon City, is produced by Daphne O. Chiu-Soon with the support of TBA Studios Chairman Emeritus Fernando Ortigas and TBA Studios CEO E. A. Rocha.
The film is a recipient of the CreatePHFilms incentive from the Film Development Council of the Philippines.
After opening in Philippine theaters on Oct. 15, Quezon will make its international premiere at the 45th Hawai’i International Film Festival on Oct. 26 at the Consolidated Kahala Theater and on Oct. 28 at the Consolidated Kapolei Theater.
Quezon will also have screenings in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the Middle East this October.
