Esperanza is a Philippine television drama series broadcast by ABS-CBN. Directed by Jerry Lopez Sineneng, Rory B. Quintos and Don M. Cuaresma, it stars Judy Ann Santos in the title role. It aired on the network's evening line up from February 17, 1997 to July 30, 1999, replacing Mara Clara and was replaced by Labs Ko Si Babe.
This series is streaming online on YouTube.
Premise Beginning of the story The series starts on Isabel's (Charo Santos) trip with her three children to Manila to transfer to their new home. They rode on a bus but were involved in an accident. Isabel's children were saved before the bus exploded. Juan (Dante Rivero), who returned from his work abroad, was devastated by what happened. He believed that his wife and children died but the authorities could not find their bodies.
The three siblings survive, but due to their very young age, with nothing to identify them, they are adopted by families in the same neighborhood.
The eldest Socorro is renamed Esperanza (Judy Ann Santos) by a poor couple, Celia (Sylvia Sanchez) and Raul (Joel Torre), who takes her in but never tells her she is adopted. She grows up in this environment where she is mistreated or ignored by her adoptive illiterate mother, Celia, and yet sees her lavish attention towards her own children JunJun (Emman Abeleda) and Andrea (Tanya Garcia). Esperanza's only bright moment while growing up is spending time with her childhood friend, and later her sweetheart, Anton (Wowie de Guzman).
Raphael (Marvin Agustin), Esperanza's younger brother, is more fortunate. He is rescued by another poor family: Ester (Chat Silayan-Baylon) and Luis (Bembol Roco) who have a son named Noel (Spencer Reyes), and they treat him as if he were their own son. He thrives in the happy and loving environment and is renamed Danilo.
Regina (Angelika Dela Cruz), the youngest of the three siblings, is adopted by a rich couple, Belinda (Teresa Loyzaga) and Mayor Joaquin Montejo (Lito Legaspi) who are childless. They renamed her Cecille. She grows up in wealth but her father secretly beats her.
Search for real family While Celia was drunk, she expressed her frustrations by blaming the adoption of Esperanza as a reason of the poverty of their family. As a result, Esperanza learned that she is just an adopted child of the Estrera couple. Later, she learned about her parentage, and sought to find out the truth about her real family. She thought her mother and brother died in the accident, and her adoptive father saved her and youngest sister, Regina, but could not support them both so he gave up Regina to the Montejos. Meanwhile, Raul was falsely accused of killing a man named Ricardo and he was imprisoned. While he was imprisoned, his wife Celia betrayed him and had a relationship with a man named Duarte (Ronnie Lazaro)
Mayor Joaquin Montejo became the most influential person to the life of Esperanza, to the adoptive family of Danilo, and to Anton because of the following reasons: 1. He was the one responsible for making Raul imprisoned for the murder of Ricardo (the lover of Belinda) which was actually planned by the Mayor; 2. It was his right-hand man Delfin (Rez Cortez), the adoptive father of Anton, who killed Ricardo; 3. Danilo witnessed the crime which gave death threats to the family of Luis Miguel; 4. At the later part of the story, he killed Delfin for betraying him; and 5. He destroyed many lives of people to the extent of gaining control of the landless people in the squatters area in Manila.
Esperanza stumbled upon the newspaper article featuring Juan's story about his search for his missing family. Piecing together the information stated in the article fit their story and both realize they are siblings. Esperanza also learned the truth from his adoptive father Raul that Cecille was her sister. She convinced Cecille to join her on searching their biological father. Anton helped Esperanza to escape Cecille from Mayor Joaquin.
Life in Metro Manila Esperanza, Anton, and Cecille make their escape from the hands of Mayor Joaquin Montejo and managed to go to Manila where they were orphaned by Lola Pacita (Gloria Sevilla) together with her grandson Carlo in the slum area. It was also the time where Cecil met Buboy (Jericho Rosales). Love and friendship had developed between Cecille and Buboy which made them very close. Esperanza and Cecille were still determined to search for their father but Lola Pacita had premonitions that upon finding their long-lost father, they will experience so much sufferings they never had before. Life was not easy during their stay in Manila which made them experienced the reality of life between rich and poor. However, the siblings were still fortunate to have Lola Pacita, Bayani (Diego Castro), Buboy, and Lolo Cirilo (Amado Cortez) who were on their side at times of happiness and crisis.
In the city, they even experienced bullying from the hands of Oca (Allan Paule), the henchmen of Sargeant Mulong Garido (Val Iglesias), the corrupt policeman assigned in the nearby community where they lived. Luckily, Aling Rita (Ana Capri), the mistress of Mulong, was there to defend them. Many struggles in the city were confronted by the Esperanza, Anton, Buboy, and Cecille together with Lola Pacita which enabled them to escape and transfer to another area in Manila where they found Danilo and his adoptive family who were also living in Manila during that time.
At this point, they learned about their true father Juan Salgado and they find their father but learn that their father remarried his ex fiancé, Sandra (Elizabeth Oropesa). They were reunited with their father but had so much sufferings from the hands of Sandra, her personal assistant Ramona (Mel Kimura), and her daughter from her first husband Paula (Dimples Romana). Juan Salgado did not even defend his daughters against Sandra and Paula which caused extreme regrets and sadness on the part of the Salgado siblings. All these years, Sandra knows his children are alive and has been keeping this secret from him.
The search for the lost brother of Esperanza and Cecille begun as Juan Salgado travelled to San Isidro to investigate. As Esther revealed everything, Danilo now knew the truth that he was the long-lost brother of Cecille and Esperanza. Danilo initially refused to join in Esperanza's search for their father because his heart was with the family who loved him and they were the only family he wanted. Esperanza understood and she went on to tell Cecille the truth, and she begged Esperanza to take her away.
Back to the province of Quezon Meanwhile, the Salgado siblings met Emil Peralta (Romnick Sarmienta) and his sister Issa, who opened another life opportunity in the province and brought them to San Miguel where they lived together once again. Without knowing, Emil was the right-hand man of Monica De Dios (Jackielou Blanco), the long-lost friend of their mother Isabel and wealthy administrator of the hacienda owned by Donya Consuelo Bermudez (Rosa Rosal). Emil was secretly tasked by Monica to investigate the whereabouts of the Salgado siblings and bring them to the province to start a new life. The opportunities of living in the province of Quezon enabled the Salgado siblings, Anton and his mother Elena (Melissa Mendez), together with the Miguel family to leave Manila. It was a sad moment of their life that Esperanza and Danilo left their father, their friends, and adoptive grandmother Lola Pacita in the city.
Cecille was once again within custody of her adoptive father Mayor Joaquin Montejo. Through the help of Emil, the company of Buboy, Anton, Danilo, and Noel had work in the field as well as in the hacienda. The siblings did not know that the real person behind helping them to have work and live in the hacienda was no other than their grandmother, Donya Consuelo. New problems on their way were experienced by the siblings while living in the San Miguel province such as the love triangle between Danilo, Noel, and Emil's sister named Issa (Monina Diaz-Bagatsing), the betrayal of Emil to Esperanza and Miguel Family as he connived with Mayor Montejo, the maltreatment and human rights abuses of Duarte to Celia's family, the extra-marital relationship of Raul and Karla (Stella Ruiz White), the revelation of Karla to what happened to Esther during her overseas work, the political struggles and killings during the election, and the adoption of Mayor Joaquin Montejo to Cecille just because Belinda left all her wealth to Cecille according to the last will and testament.
On the meanwhile, the election in the town of San Isidro is approaching. As part of political plan of Mayor Montejo during the campaign period, Raul Estrera was initially released from the imprisonment yet it became an opportunity for Estrera to fight Mayor Montejo in a political campaign after the death of Councilor Martin. Raul Estrera, the adoptive father of Esperanza became the new Mayor of San Isidro. Mayor Montejo faced many charges against him yet he still managed to escape when the police were about to arrest him. Emil, being one of the witnesses, was still imprisoned being an accessory to the crimes committed by Montejo.
Revelation in the hacienda and political life Moreover, it was also the time of the golden age of political career for Mayor Raul Estrera while Celia exhibited a character who is hunger for power and fame. Mayor Estrera exhibited an epitome of service-oriented public servant in spite of her wife. Series of political destabilizations happened, caused by the former Mayor Montejo joining forces with the former Vice Mayor Robles and newly appointed Vice Mayor Aguirre. After the election, it was also a turning point wherein they were finally introduced to Monica De Dios (Jackielou Blanco) in the hacienda and she revealed her true identity to help them. Monica's real objective was to reunite the Salgado siblings as secretly instructed by their legitimate grandmother Donya Consuelo (Rosa Rosal).
Sandra and Monica became rivals as they both want to reunite the siblings and take them as their own family. Sandra had diabolic reasons behind this plan and told the siblings that their father Juan was already dead. On the other hand, Monica's plan was genuine but she was not successful for making the siblings reunited in the hacienda due to many struggles and because Esperanza and Danilo did not want to leave their adoptive family who became important part of their lives. It was also revealed that Monica had plans of taking revenge against Sandra because of what happened to her brother, Ramon, the biological father of Paula. Ramon committed suicide after Sandra left him for Juan Salgado. One of the highlights of this story was when Monica fell in loved with Buboy, Cecille's boyfriend.
During the time in the hacienda, a series of life developments happened for Esperanza, Danilo, Cecille, Anton, Buboy, and Noel. Esperanza and Anton were supposed to be engaged but everything in the plan of the two lovers were destroyed by Cristy (Corrine Mendez), the granddaughter of Lola Belen, who also secretly in loved with Anton. The whole fiasco was also plotted by Sandra who paid Cristy just to stop the engagement. Esperanza was really saddened and hurt which made her developed close relationship with Robbie (Dominic Ochoa), the brother of Sandra Salgado. Robbie and Esperanza had relationship yet it did not last long because Robbie died of leukemia. Sandra also believed that Esperanza has to be blamed for not telling the truth behind Robbie's illness. Thus, Anton and Esperanza became more separated from each other due to many problems happened.
The test in Bermudez family