The original ‘Mama Mama:’ Janice de Belen’s 40-year reign as Filipino TV’s mother figure

From horror films to heartwarming dramas, Janice de Belen has perfected the art of being “mama mama.”

There is a familiar role in every Filipino childhood.

When children gather to play bahay-bahayan, someone always becomes the mother—the one who cooks imaginary meals, scolds gently, and makes sure everyone in the game feels taken care of. It is rarely a role people fight for; it is simply given to the person who feels most natural in it.

For decades in Philippine entertainment, that role has quietly belonged to Janice de Belen.

Long before TikTok comment sections began chanting “mama mama” for women who radiate nurturing authority, Janice had already built a career—and a reputation—around that exact presence. 

From the early days of the phrase “Anak ni Janice” that circulated after her iconic horror film “Tiyanak,” to the countless television roles where she anchors entire families, the industry has repeatedly placed her in the same position.

The mother.

From ‘Anak ni Janice’ to the mother of many stories

There was a time when the phrase “Anak ni Janice” echoed across pop culture. It came from the cult horror film “Tiyanak,” where she played a woman who adopts an abandoned baby that turns out to be a monstrous creature. The line became so iconic that people jokingly used it for years whenever they saw something eerie or unexpected. 

But the irony of that phrase is that it foreshadowed the role Janice would repeatedly inhabit across decades of storytelling: motherhood.

In television, she portrayed mothers whose presence shaped the emotional core of their stories—from wealthy matriarchs to protective parents navigating complicated families. In ‘Ina, Kapatid, Anak,’ for instance, she played Beatrice Marasigan, the powerful adoptive mother of Margaux whose decisions ripple through the series’ central conflict. 

Even in film, that maternal energy persists. In the 2024 Netflix movie “Road Trip,” she plays Gigi—one of four lifelong friends confronting life, grief, and the complicated realities of adulthood while navigating a journey across the Philippines. 

Whether on television or on the big screen, Janice often becomes the emotional center of the story—the person everyone eventually circles back to.

The mother of the room.

The mother beyond the script

What makes the “mama mama” label feel natural for Janice is that the role does not end when the cameras stop rolling.

In real life, she is also a mother of five children: Luigi Muhlach, and her four children with actor John Estrada—Inah, Moira, Kaila, and Yuan. 

For years, she raised them largely as a single parent while maintaining a demanding acting career. The balancing act required discipline, honesty, and resilience, qualities she often brings to the mothers she portrays on screen. 

Motherhood, for Janice, was never just a character.

It was a life lived in parallel with the stories she told.

Perhaps that is why younger actors often describe working with her in the same way audiences perceive her roles: reassuring, attentive, quietly authoritative. She carries decades of experience, but instead of distance, it creates warmth, the kind that allows a set to feel less intimidating.

The kind of presence that remembers everyone’s name.

The internet may have invented a catchy phrase for it, but the energy itself is older than TikTok.

The women people call “mother” online are usually the same ones who instinctively hold a space together—guiding conversations, offering advice, and grounding everyone else when things become chaotic.

Janice has spent more than four decades doing exactly that.

From the child star who became a household name through the classic soap “Flordeluna,” to the veteran actress who now anchors multigenerational casts, her career traces the same arc as a Filipino family story: the child grows up, becomes a parent, and eventually becomes the one everyone looks to for steadiness. 

So when people online comment “mama mama” under women who radiate that quiet authority, the phrase almost feels like a delayed recognition.

Because long before the internet gave it a name, Janice had already been playing that role.

The one who always becomes the mother in the story. The one who always ends up as the mama in everyone’s bahay-bahayan.

 

 

Long before TikTok comment sections began chanting “mama mama” for women who radiate nurturing authority, Janice de Belen had already built a career—and a reputation—around that exact presence.

 

 

READ: