Being Rudy Fernandez

For years, a few decades in fact, we shared the fame of movie superstar Rudy Fernandez simply because he was a namesake.

We often realized his popularity not only among the masa moviegoers but also among those in the upper bracket of society when the audience in a forum came to a hush following our introduction as participant or resource person and all heads turned to the direction where we were.

Always, we humored the crowd with the hope that they were not dismayed when they saw us in person for the first time. In recent years, we always asked our audience to pray for the recovery of the movie star in his bout with cancer.

We had not had the opportunity to personally meet Rudy Fernandez the Movie Star, who finally lost his “last battle” with the Big C. But a movie editor-friend of ours had told us years back that we were about as tall and had “soft palms.”

One time, we missed him by a few minutes when he went to the National Press Club to settle a spat with another movie star through the intercession of our friend, then NPC president Marcelo Lagmay and former FAMAS president Rudy Salandanan.

The misunderstanding between the movie actors was resolved, all right. Which reflected to peace-loving nature of Daboy — he went out of his way to settle a row.

He had a soft heart for the small people, too.

Consider: In one of those times when I dropped by the Press Club, I was thanked by some of the NPC employees for supposed Christmas gifts to them.

When I asked them about it, they pointed to the sacks of rice which they said came from Rudy Fernandez, thinking that it was us.

Actually, I used to contribute cash gifts for the NPC employees during Christmas but not in kind. I told them that the sacks of rice did not come from us.

When the NPC staff rechecked the gift’s accompanying letter, they noted that it was the movie actor and his lovely wife Lorna who sent the rice.

As a science/research and development (R&D)/environment journalist, we were usually invited to speak in seminar-workshop for campus writers and budding media practitioners.

One such occasion was an Environment Reporting Workshop organized by our good friend, journalist-lawyer Manny “Jun” Satorre of Cebu City. Since Jun did not have the time to fetch us at the airport, he sent his son, who brought a placard bearing the name Rudy Fernandez.

The placard, the young Satorre told us later, attracted many people in the airport, who waited with him for the arrival of Rudy Fernandez, thinking that he was the silver screen idol.

We did not arrive on time because we took the “PAL-aging late” plane (in recent years, though, the air carrier had always been on time). And by the time we stepped out of the plane, the well-wishers had left — mostly to eating places because their hunger took the most of them.

Once, too, we were guests of a Filipino family in Bangkok, Thailand.

The lady of the house cheerfully introduced us to their small girl as the actor from Manila. The little angel stared at us from head to foot as she walked aroud us. Her verdict: “He is not the movie actor!” Laughter.

One semester when we were yet teaching Science Reporting in a state university, many students enrolled in our subject, perhaps (we surmised) attracted by the teacher‘s name: Rudy Fernandez. It was a tough course (writing features or news articles out of scientific studies so that the research results could be understood and made use of by ordinary people). But by the middle of the semester, some of the students had backed out.

Over the past few years, we had conducted workshops on Science/Development Reporting for student journalists and government R&D agencies.

The task had taken us to, among other institutions, the Benguet State University (for the writers in the Cordilleras), the Department of Agriculture-Philippine Rice Research Institute (for those in Central Luzon), Aklan State University (for those of state colleges and universities in Western Visayas, and University of Southeastern Philippines in Davao City (for those in Southern Mindanao).

Almost always, the streamer announcing the name of the seminar-workshop lecturer (Rudy Fernandez) attracted curious people.

But, of course, there are a thousand and one Rudy Fernandez across the length and breadth of the archipelago.

Once, former Laguna Gov. Joey Lina and this writer were seated side by side in a gathering in Calamba City, the two of us being among the invited speakers. He had told us that I was the third person named Rudy Fernandez that he had met.

In a research forum we attended in Baguio City one time, we unwound in one of the hotel rooms after a hard day’s work. When we ran out of finger foods, we called up the hotel management to send more canapés.

After a while came the waiter with our order. His name, as written in his nameplate Rudy Fernandez.

At The STAR, some of the staff members fondly address us Daboy.

By the way, for almost two decades, we were division head of a Philippine government-hosted Southeast Asian Center. And did you know that my long-time secretary’s name is Lorna?

Rudy Fernandez was a good actor, who epitomized the just and defender of the oppressed. And Rudy Fernandez the Writer admits he relished his movies.

One time, we flew to Tuguegarao City (Cagayan) to speak in a seminar on Development Communication. The following day, we were bleary-eyed because the night before, though tired, we finished a Rudy Fernandez starrer depicting the life of feisty police officer Bobby Ortega or Bungo shown in our room’s television set.

Tinseltown has just lost one icon it can really be proud of. But his legacy lives on.