Edu's role in Manero incident

Now it can be retold (the story having been told once upon a -- forgotten? -- time on the centerspread of a broadsheet): Makati Vice-Mayor Edu Manzano and director Mike de Leon and another Mike acting as cameraman went to Tulunan, North Cotabato, on April 12, 1985, the day after Italian priest Fr. Tullio Favali was murdered, a gruesome crime that resulted in the imprisonment of Norberto Manero, Jr. whose original life sentence was reduced to 12 years during the Ramos Administration, thus qualifying Manero for the "conditional pardon" by the Erap Administration, which is now the bone of contention between two impassioned groups (the pro and the con).

Funfare doesn't know (honest!) if Edu and Mike de Leon's group were commissioned (by whom?) to take that very dangerous mission in North Cotabato where they stayed for two days to do a documentary on Fr. Favali who was shot by Manero and his companions in cold blood (22 bullets all in all), his head bashed, spilling on the ground his brains, parts of them eaten as pulutan (kinilaw-style, meaning raw) by the drunken culprits.

Contacted by Funfare (following a tip-off), Edu confessed that, as he looks back now, that North Cotabato mission could have cost them their lives.

Recalls Edu, "We went there ready for anything because we knew that we went there not for a picnic or for sight-seeing but to accomplish posthaste our mission."

Instead of asking Edu to reveal more details about their "mission," Funfare lets Edu relate the tortuous -- and, I should say, terrifying -- journey that led them to Kidapawan where the wake for Fr. Favali was held.

"We took a plane to Cotabato City the next day after Fr. Favali was murdered. When we arrived, priests met us at the airport and gave us the necessary directions in going to Kidapawan. I thought that it would be as simple as taking a bus and we would get there. It turned out to be a nightmarish trip.

"We took a 'chicken express,' a bus packed full not only with people but with chicken and other animals. The road was bumpy, so you can imagine what a torture that trip was.

"We were carrying very expensive shooting equipment. I was in-charge of the still photography and the two Mikes of the video-coverage.

"One kilometer away from Kidapawan, the driver refused to proceed because, he said, the ones manning the checkpoints and patrolling the area were not the police anymore but the rebels. It was nighttime, remember.

"So we had no choice but to walk the rest of the one-kilometer road to Kidapawan, carrying on our backs the expensive shooting equipment.

"When we arrived at Fr. Favali's wake and started filming, word got around that the church would be bombed because nga we were filming there, interviewing witnesses also. Fortunately, no such bombing happened.

"We finished the shooting in two days, including the funeral procession which was the longest ever in the history of the province. Hundreds and hundreds of mourners joined the procession.

"Back in Manila, we had the negatives (of the video coverage and the still photographs) developed. We heaved a big sigh of relief. We accomplished the mission with all three of us alive and kicking -- intact!"

And that's Edu's "role" in the continuing gruesome saga of Manero.

(Postscript: A Vatican emissary flew to Manila to personally deliver the videotape to Pope John Paul II who then personally wrote an appeal to then President Ferdinand Marcos to hasten the prosecution of Fr. Favali's murderers. The rest is history. Incidentally, the Manero incident was also the basis of the controversial movie Orapronobis, banned during the Marcos Era, directed by the late Lino Brocka.)

Seen last week in Hong Kong in time for the start of the Year of the Dragon was the barkada of Fanny Serrano, Lorna Tolentino, Amy Austria, Evelyn Alvaran-Cruz, Lolit Solis, Abante Tonight's Jerry Olea and others, not merely enjoying the scenery (all of them have been to Hong Kong before, so what for is another trip to the Ocean Park or the Victoria Peak?) but taking advantage of the big Chinese New Year bargain (not at the "night market," of course!).

A Funfare DPA who was also in Hong Kong at that time, nursing a broken heart, reported that it was the barkada's treat for Fanny who was celebrating his birthday.

"Precy Vitug, wife of San Juan Mayor Jinggoy Estrada," according to the DPA, "was also with the group tailed around by a presidential guard."

Incidentally, Evelyn Alvaran-Cruz, executive producer and organizer of Hair Asia, is busy coordinating the details of the Ninth National Open Championship for Hairstyling and Make-Up set for March 6 at the Exhibition Hall of the World Trade Center.

The over-all champion will win a round-trip ticket to Berlin, site of the Hairworld Olympics 2000, a side trip to the L'Oreal technical studio in Paris and Presidential Trophy from President Joseph Estrada. Category champion will receive P10,000 in cash; first runner-up, P5,000; and second runner-up; P5,000. Major sponsors are Splash Manufacturing, makers of Kolours Premium Colouring Créme, Tricks Styling Line, HBC exclusive distributors of Joe Blasco Cosmetics and L'Oreal Professionnel.