Sofia Robles

Sofia was born the daughter of Hernando Robles and his wife, Marita (née Dela Cruz). Hernando works as a butcher, and Marita a maid in a hotel. Initially, Sofia was planning to study to become a doctor. In fact she completed her undergraduate pre-med degree and applied successfully to medical school. 

Between visits home during her studies, however, Sofia started to become concerned about her younger brother, Gabriel. They hadn't grown up in the safest neighbourhood and it became increasingly clear that Gabriel was falling in with a dangerous group. The gang that he inevitably was recruited into was one of the more notorious organised crime groups in the area, and Sofia was much too late to dissuade him from becoming involved.

Through Gabriel she met Rico, a more senior member of the group, who ended up becoming her on-again-off-again boyfriend for a number of years. By the time that she was in medical school, in spite of picking up waitressing shifts between studies, Sofia was already in significant amounts of debt. This meant that, when she subsequently discovered that she was pregnant with their child, she was forced to put the dream of studying medicine on hold.

At the same time, a feud with a rival gang was escalating rapidly. Gabriel and Rico were both involved in a brutal fight between the two warring groups, in which they were each seriously injured. While Rico was killed, Gabriel was taken by a couple of other members of the group to Sofia, who they knew had enough medical experience to at least stabilise him.

It eventually was clear though that he wouldn't survive without more extensive medical attention and so, against the wishes of the more senior gang members, Sofia took him to hospital. After giving birth to her son Daniel, Sofia was approached by one such individual. Having realised the potential of having her available to give medical attention to his crew, he offered her a deal — be on call to help them whenever somebody needed patched up, and he would offer funds both for Gabriel's medical bills and to support Sofia in raising Daniel in lieu of Rico being able to.

It was an offer that Sofia could not refuse. She lives alone with Dani in an apartment above a cinema, and works part-time as a 911 dispatcher. By night, she puts to use the skills that she gained during the time that she did spend in medical school, trying to work off her debt.