Bugso is a ‘family affair’

Last Saturday, our group – Ethel Ramos, Ronald Constantino, Nestor Cuartero, Mario Bautista, Dolor Guevarra and husband Boots Plata, Nora Calderon and June Rufino – dropped by the set of the GMA telesine Bugso in Lipa City upon the invitation of Bugso topbiller, Lipa City Mayor Vilma Santos, and another prominent Lipeño, Danny Dolor, in whose beautiful vacation house some of the telesine’s crucial scenes were shot.

It was the second and last shooting day of Bugso and Danny laid out a buffet of Filipino goodies for everybody, playing his role as "host with the most" to the hilt, asking everybody to get more platefuls from the buffet table and reminding everybody to take merienda before hearing Mass at the Carmelite Church on the way back to Manila.

On hand to help entertain us were Christopher’s wife, Sandy Andolong, and Lyn Ynchausti-Cruz, wife of Tirso Cruz III who’s co-starring with Vilma in Bugso, along with Mandy Ochoa, Christopher’s son (with Nora Aunor) Ian de Leon. Sandy and Lyn are line-producing Bugso for Christopher’s Green Thumb Productions. Bugso will be the re-opening episode of GMA 7’s Telesine which has been off the air for more than a year now, airing again effective next month as a monthly special and not the weekly offering that it used to be.

The project is virtually a "family affair," as you must have noticed by now, with Christopher and Sandy’s son Gabriel also doing a bit role, along with teenage actress Aiza Marquez. Yes, Bugso is the telesine Christopher is directing (he also does a bit part in it as Vilma’s dead husband). It’s not correct to say that Bugso is a telesine version of the classic Audrey Hepburn starrer Wait Until Dark, although, like Audrey, Vilma also plays a blind lady toyed around by greedy relatives (Tirso being one of them) who want the inheritance all to themselves.

When we arrived before lunchtime (good timing!), direk Christopher had already wrapped several scenes and he was working double time to finish the rest of the day-effect scenes before dusk fell. Because they were limited to only two shooting days, opting for Lipa as location in deference to Mayor Vilma who couldn’t be away from the city of her affection, direk Christopher said that he had to do away with some of the night scenes without disrupting the flow of the suspense-thriller.

Direk Christopher was a delight to watch at work, very different from when he’s only acting. Bugso is not his first directorial job, having already megged Komiks (part of a twin bill produced by ex-wife Nora Aunor, starring a very young Ian de Leon as a komiks freak), part of Kislap sa Dilim which he took over from Lino Brocka who died in a car accident before putting the movie to can and all of Huwag Mo Akong Salingin, the other movie Lino was supposed to start shooting three days before his untimely death.

Bugso is made more interesting by the fact that, besides being a "family affair," three of the people whose lives have been inter-twined with that of Nora Aunor are involved in the project – Christopher is Nora’s ex-husband, Tirso is Nora’s ex-boyfriend and Vilma, although a kumare, is considered until now to be Nora’s arch rival. (Vilmanians will insist, however, that Vilma has beaten her kumare by miles, with Vilma still enjoying a well-oiled career, a happy family life and a successful transition from showbiz to politics, a field Nora has failed miserably to conquer.)

Over sumptuous lunch (burp, burp, burp!), the conversation revolved around – what else? – the break-up of Joey Marquez and Alma Moreno, with most everybody going tsk-tsk-tsk, keeping their fingers crossed that, when all is said and done, Joey and Alma would get back together again. Sayang naman ang kanilang 12 years together, di ba?

Sandy understood Joey and Alma’s situation because she and Christopher also went through a series of break-ups, no thanks to Christopher’s drug addiction at that time.

"I left our house (in Parañaque) 10 times, karga-karga ko ang mga anak namin," recalled Sandy with a laugh. "We would flee to my parents’ house in White Plains (Quezon City). Everytime, Boyet (Christopher) would fetch me. On the 11th time I threatened to leave, Boyet told me, ‘If you go, hindi na kita susunduin; napapagod na ako.’ So I stayed." For keeps.

Happily, Lyn didn’t have similar break-up stories to tell. Or was she just being secretive?

Today, Vilma and Christopher will resume shooting their much delayed Star Cinema starrer, Dekada ’70, directed by Chito Roño.

A cool breeze was blowing as we bade gracious host Danny Dolor goodbye ("Sa uulitin, ha?"). After seeing us off, direk Christopher went right back to work, with the "blind" Vilma taking a leisurely stroll under the trees, guided by a cane and Aiza Marquez.

Night would soon fall and they’d wrap the telesine with Vilma pitted against her tormentors, beating them all under cover of darkness.

Chito Roño tackles the Balanguiga Massacre

Do we really need the Americans or we don’t?

That’s the current political issue not just in the halls of Congress and the Senate, but also in the streets.

As far as director Chito Roño is concerned, we did not need them exactly a hundred and one years ago, as the Americans ravished the countryside of Samar, killing Samareños and slaughtering livestock so people would starve and will not have the strength to fight them.

Yes, Chito has begun pre-production on his filmization of the Balanguiga Massacre, a pretty violent tale of the Fil-American war a century ago. Pete Lacaba, who is writing the script, started extensive research last year. He may leave for Korea or Wyoming to find out which of the two places has the authentic bells of Balanguiga.

"It’s close to my heart," Chito said. "I’m from Samar (Calbayog City)."

His producers are from Samar who are pooling all their investments together to come up with enough to finance the project which is rather quite expensive to mount. Chito has to import professional American actors for at least four major roles, while Filipino actors will be taken in not just for their names but also for their looks – brown, tanned skin and slim bodies.

While his staff is doing research and some of his actors are trying to lose considerable weight, Chito will finish first Dekada 70 and The Spirit Warriors 2.

There’s a problem, though. Both the Spirit sequel and Balanguiga are meant for the December filmfest. "I don’t think that’s a problem. Si Mother (Lily) nga tatlo ang entries last year!"