It’s 5pm on a Wednesday in Singapore and Heart Evangelista is speaking to me via a Zoom call from her home in the Philippines. She apologises quickly for the ambient noises and the flurry of activity around her. “They are preparing dinner,” she says. Then, picking up her laptop between her manicured hands, she gives me a virtual tour of her home. Or so I think, but Evangelista is in fact looking for a better angle for the interview. She quickly veers away from a corridor view with an “Oh, too much glare”, and settles back at the first spot. We are barely five minutes into the interview, and I can already see that things like the right articulation, lighting and location are all second nature to her. The first lady of the province of Sorsogon-her husband Francis Escudero is the governor-has it all under control.
