Budoy

Plot

The story is about a renowned family of doctors, the Maniegos. Bound to success but with no child, Dr. Anton Maniego performs an artificial insemination on his wife Luisa. She gives birth to their child "Budoy". Budoy's birth is a family blessing, but later on turns into the family in shame when they discover that Budoy is suffering from Angelman syndrome, which delays his intellectual development. Predicaments arise against Luisa, who becomes very protective of Budoy and the rest of the Maniego family. On Budoy's fifth birthday, he goes 'missing' after his grandmother gave him to a caretaker to save their family from shame. After Budoy's caretaker dies, Elroy aker's hired maid for Budoy, adopts him. Meanwhile, to save Luisa's sanity, Grace, the wife of her brother-in-law, suggests to their family to present a fake Benjamin. Unbeknownst to them, the fake Benjamin "BJ" is in fact Grace's son.

Years later, Junjun is recently moved out of his other home with his guardian Elena. They later live with her father Renato and Budoy befriends Max. He works at university and finds his old friend Jackie and befriends BJ. Budoy learns that the school is going to kick him out because of an accident. So, at a party in BJ's house, Budoy speaks with people who work for BJ's father's company to give some money to donate so he can be able to go to college. Everything starts to be fine until BJ bragging that he and Jackie did it. Then they get accepted to Pilipinas IQ, a game show, so the school for special children can be built. They win, but Jackie is still upset with BJ. After they exit the game show, it starts raining. Jackie tries to run away from BJ since he wants to apologize. Budoy, who went to see the game show, followed them and tried to stop BJ from hurting Jackie. BJ hits Budoy knocking him out, and leaves him. Thunderstorms start growling, and Budoy later wakes up. He tries to find them but ends up falling and rolling down a hill. Then, his foot gets zapped and hits his head in a rock.

Weeks later, he luckily survives, but the Maniegos already figured out that Budoy was their real son and BJ isn't. This makes them more associated with Budoy, especially Jackie. Budoy starts recovering from Angelman syndrome, for example, looking directly and sometimes talking normally. Meanwhile, BJ gets in a car accident, but survives. He starts getting upset about the fact that Budoy keeps receiving the love of his parents. With Budoy out of the hospital, his parents decide that he would live with them. The more they are with Budoy, the more upset BJ gets. One day Budoy wanted to play with BJ, he started getting angry, throwing his beer causing a fire. Budoy starts panicking and later goes into a temporary state where he is focused. He gets a fire extinguisher and stopped the fire. BJ tried to talk to him and Budoy replied in a regular voice, then BJ knew he was starting to change. In order to uprise BJ's familial and academic bases, BJ and his biological mother, Grace devised plans to exile Budoy in the Maniego University and that's the start of secretive strategic battle of Budoy and BJ. Budoy decides to find BJ's mother with the help of his father's private ivestigator. Grace figures out and destroys Budoy's plan. BJ had enough of Budoy stealing everything, he intends to jump out of a building until he finds out the truth about his mother. Grace tells the truth that she is BJ's biological mother and kept the two a secret. His father tells him that his mother was dead. Budoy's intellectual capacity started to increase to that of a genius. He even got accepted to Pilipinas IQ when one of the participant from their college backed out. Budoy confessed his love to Jackie and they started a relationship. BJ continue to harness his hatred towards Budoy. Every plans he made to embarrass Budoy failed.

As the story goes, BJ realized that his father is still alive. He met Henry Chavez, an ex-convict and later a fugitive. BJ spends some time with his father and they set things up to pretend it to be a failed kidnap attempt for BJ to get back to the Maniegos while Henry conveys a plan to steal fortune from the Maniegos and get BJ and Grace to his side. As the series progresses, Budoy suffers from a severe headache which later turns out to be a brain tumor and he also investigates his kidnapping when he was 5 years old. The suspects include his godmother and father. Later, Budoy and his mother were shot while chasing Henry Chavez. Budoy returns to his old abnormal self, while Luisa cannot speak. During the trial, his grandmother admitted that she was the mastermind of Budoy's abduction and was sentenced to lifetime imprisonment while the Maniego brothers were imprisoned only for 6 months for obstruction of justice. The entire clan was freed, eventually Luisa also recovered from her injury. In the grass, Jackie was attacked by a snake. Budoy attacked the snake and at the same time, called BJ for help. At the hospital, Budoy witnessed BJ kissing Jackie which made him upset. Budoy, then underwent brain surgery and survived. BJ also apologizes for all the times he threatens Budoy after the surgery. During his birthday, Budoy, who finally accepts BJ as Jackie's boyfriend again, sets up their proposal during his birthday. Suddenly, Grace ruins the moment as she points the gun at Budoy. Jackie married BJ and gave birth to a son named Benjo, and Budoy was one of the sponsors (godfathers). BJ became a doctor of the Maniego Hospital. Eventually, a group of syndicates led by Duke abducted BJ and Jackie, who were eventually killed by a gunshot and Budoy promised to raise their son. Duke, in the other hand was killed by Grace. While Budoy was building as special school for children, Grace once again ruins the moment, as she abducted her own grandson and this time, she became very insane and claims that Benjo is BJ. In the end, Budoy provided education for mentally challenged children. When now, Budoy is became to wished as a priest of the Roman Catholic Church is became as Fr. Budoy also known as Reverend Father Benjamin Maniego S.J.

Main cast

Supporting cast

Extended Cast

Guest cast

Ratings

Budoy's pilot episode garnered an impressive rating of 27.2% nationwide behind perrenial top-rater 100 Days to Heaven according to the October 10 data released by Kantar Media-TNS survey whereas it premiered with a rating of 19.4% in the GMA dominated area from a data by AGB Nielsen Mega Manila survey. Budoy has been neck-to-neck with GMA's Munting Heredera in GMA's stronghold of Mega Manila.

On the national ratings scale, the show's highest rating so far is a 32.4% national household rating (against its rival's 19.8%) on November 22, 2011 by Kantar Media/TNS.

On AGB Nielsen Mega Manila People & Household Ratings; the show's final episode, it garnered a 13.9% rating beating its rival show Legacy (GMA-7) who got 12.6%. Over-all the show became the second most watched show of the day behind Walang Hanggan.

Criticism

The show has gained criticism and controversy in regards to the main character's depiction as a person with Angelman syndrome. Special education expert Yolanda Bautista and pediatrician Dr. Tippy Tanchanco, have observed some inconsistencies and factual inaccuracies in the protagonist, especially when he got out of a coma after suffering from an accident, as he was shown to be able to speak clearly, and at one point, become a genius. They also stressed that for the producers to brand the show as an "advocacy-serye", they shouldn't deviate from reality and refrain from adding any "cinematic effects", as it might give parents a misleading message.

The show also gained some stir among online communities as the portrayal of Gerald Anderson of Budoy is somewhat similar to Leonardo DiCaprio's character Arnie in the movie What's Eating Gilbert Grape with Johnny Depp.