Is Nora not to blame?

Let me begin by telling you a little story that happened during the 2001 Gawad Urian at the UP Theater.

This was the year that the members of the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino chose the best films of the ’90s — along with the two Best Actresses (Nora Aunor and Vilma Santos) and Best Actor of the decade (Richard Gomez).

One of the films honored was The Fatima Buen Story, which was directed by Mario O’Hara. When the film made it to the list during the deliberations, I immediately realized that there was going to be a tiny problem here because O’Hara is a recluse and couldn’t be counted on to accept the trophy during the awards presentation.

I already had this traumatic experience with him when The Fatima Buen Story won Best Picture and Best Direction in the 1994 Gawad Urian. Days before the awards night, I was already calling up his house, but he wouldn’t get my calls and neither would he confirm his attendance. During the awards presentation, the stars of the movie — Kris Aquino (then pregnant with Joshua) and Janice de Belen — ended up accepting the Best Picture and Best Direction trophies on O’Hara’s behalf.

Since I had given up on O’Hara, I thought that the next best person to accept the best of the decade trophy for Fatima Buen was its lead star, Kris Aquino (she was nominated for Best Actress here), and I promptly called her on the cell phone.

Unfortunately, Kris and her mother, former President Cory Aquino, had a dinner appointment on the night of the Urian. But if we put the award for Fatima Buen in the last part, maybe Kris would be able to catch up.

With that agreement, we merrily went along with the awards presentation until we in the production staff realized that the portion honoring the best of the decade was coming to an end and Kris was still nowhere in sight.

It was actually my fault. I told Kris that she could show up at close to 11 p.m. because — as per my calculation (I miscalculated obviously) — her portion won’t come in until that time. But the proceedings went fast because most of the winners gave very short acceptance speeches.

Our producer, Tessie Celestino, of course, began to panic and called up Kris, who at that very moment was in the middle of traffic near the Quezon City Hall.

Left with no other choice, we had to halt the proceedings for about 15 minutes and told the audience that we were going on a break (the event was aired on a delayed telecast), but didn’t tell them why. The crowd — quite expectedly — got impatient and when news stories about the Urian came out in the papers two days later, everyone was blaming Nora Aunor for the delay!

"Nora Aunor — cause of delay" — so said one tabloid. I could only shake my head over those wrong newspaper accounts because Ms. Aunor came way, way ahead of her portion — all dolled up for the proceedings.

Poor Nora! It’s so easy for people to throw the blame at her. Surely, Nora Aunor is no angel and has caused production delays in the past. But in some cases, the accusations hurled toward her are really baseless.

This is one reason why Ms. Aunor’s manager, Norie Sayo, is on pins and needles these days. Scheduled toward the end of this year, you see, is the staging of Himala, which is based on the masterpiece of the late Ishmael Bernal.

Himala is supposed to be the opening of the National Theater Festival, which is organized by the Cultural Center of the Philippines. To be presented as a musical, Himala is supposed to star Nora Aunor once more as the visionary Elsa. The stage presentation is supposed to dwell on the events that happen some 20 years later.

Unfortunately, the presentation of the Himala musical had been postponed and Norie Sayo fears that everyone will blame Nora Aunor once more as "the cause of delay." Not true — says Norie. According to her, the decision came from the CCP management and even furnished me with a copy of a statement issued by the CCP.

So that we don’t blame Nora Aunor again with something that is not of her doing, I am publishing the CCP statement below:

The 3rd National Theater Festival which was originally scheduled for this year has been postponed to 2004.

In this regard, the CCP Management has decided to move the playdates of the grand musical Himala starring Nora Aunor — who will reprise her role as the faith healer Elsa in the acclaimed film — to November 2004. The grand musical Himala at the CCP Main Theater has been designated as the opening salvo for the 3rd National Theater Festival next year.

However, Tanghalang Pilipino, the CCP’s resident theater company, will put up a chamber version of Himala in November this year at the CCP Tanghalang Huseng Batute. The production will feature actors of Tanghalang Pilipino.

The 3rd National Theater Festival will focus on the evolution of musical theater in the Philippines. The event is envisioned to be a gathering of artists, cultural workers, theater groups and audiences with the following objectives: showcase artistic trends in theater, engage theater artists in dialogue, invigorate the theater community with new works, develop new audiences for the theater arts and assess the state of theater arts in the country.

With this CCP statement, we hope to nip in the bud any rumor, gossip or intrigue about Nora Aunor being the reason for the postponement of the Himala — stage version.