The prime of Bembol Roco

MANILA, Philippines - In one of his first team-ups with Nora Aunor, Bembol Roco plays a smalltown politician felled by an assassin’s grenade during a political rally in TV5’s latest teleserye titled Sa Ngalan Ng Ina.

It is a role reminiscent of Ninoy Aquino’s last few hours; it was a scene which easily recalls the Plaza Miranda bombing.

Before the rally, his wife (played by Aunor) prayed for guidance; he is seen as a people-loving man and a gentle and loving husband.

Throughout this brief but powerful exposure, Bembol holds his own and comes out a natural performer. His instant death all the more magnified a noble life he led and these layers of character build-up Bembol managed to project with unerring grace.

It was — as usual — a winning role by Roco and it was all worth the investments he had made for the industry.

Some years back in the play Ulilang Tahanan (Forsaken House) by Wilfredo Ma. Guerrero, Roco played the opposite of the gentle patriarch in Sa Ngalan Ng Ina.

In that CCP play many years back, he was a stern patriarch whose family fell apart as the siblings resisted the father’s idea of discipline. In the tragic play masquerading as melodrama, Bembol doubled as the eldest son Tony who unearths fond memories of a once happy family.

In both roles, Bembol delineated an interpretation probably carved out of his own life

For indeed  at some point in his early youth  he was the black sheep in the family. He was aware of the pain he caused his parents.

Now, he is a father of five (four boys and a girl) including the twins Felix and Dominic who are now into showbiz.

Bembol Roco in his award-winning role as Julio Madriaga in Lino Brocka’s Maynila Sa Mga Kuko ng Liwanag

When the kids were still young, his day began waking up with them and cooking breakfast and bringing them to school.  “Fatherhood had a lot to do with my mellowing,” he had intimated once. “It opened my eyes to bigger family responsibility.”

Born Rafael Roco Jr. on Nov. 20, 1953, Bembol is a holder of two Best Actor trophies (FAMAS award for Maynila Sa Mga Kuko Ng Liwanag megged by Lino Brocka and an Urian award for Sa Piling Ng Mga Sugapa directed by Gil Portes) and two other awards for TV. Some years back, he was cited as Best Actor in Drama (for Esperanza) in one edition of Star Awards. He appeared in a minor role in the previous year’s Dagim, a Cinema One Original film directed by Joaquin Pedro Valdes, about the strange goings-on in a remote mountain province.

But the thing that made this actor memorable to me was after one of the last performances of Ulilang Tahanan at the CCP where he was seen wiping away tears in the privacy of his dressing room. Here, he once reflected on his role as father and the father he grew up with and how showbiz changed his life.

Yes, it was hard not to be carried away by this stage role because it’s about vulnerable father figures and about siblings gone astray.

In the beginning, he thought he would be a miscast. “Talagang alangan ako. But the director (Nonon Padilla) and my co-actors helped me get into the part. It’s one of my most emotionally draining roles.”

There are two persons who figure as his father in his reel and real life and he adores both of them. He is a Scorpio. They say people born under this sign are very strong personalities but very quiet. “Pero masamang magalit,” as they say. Otherwise, they are easy to get along with. He admitted he was like that too. “I am the fourth in a family of eight. I had a happy childhood, very balanced, very simple and ordinary but happy.”

He is pretty much content with what he has now — a family and a consistent career. “I try to be as good as I can be. I have to do a lot of things for myself to make life better. I take time out to check what I have to do, set up priorities as they say and try to achieve them. As it is now after more than 30 years in showbiz, I have no illusion of greatness.”

But when he looked back at how he started, he considered it a miracle that he got to be where he is now.

“As I have said, I had a happy childhood but everything changed drastically in my early youth. In my late teens, I was the one who created problems for myself and for my family. It was part of growing up. I was rebellious about things I was not sure of. I wanted things that I know I could not have. Puro unreasonable ’yong mga gusto ko. I was really completely out of the line there. I was forcing the issue pagkatapos ibabato ko pa sa kanila. I really gave my family a very difficult time. Talagang hindi na nila maintindihan. They didn’t know how to cope with me.”

Through all that and until he came to his senses, he remembered his father who stood by him. He was a civil engineer but he never practiced his profession. He taught algebra and mathematics in Mapua and Ateneo. He was also a basketball coach. He grew up surrounded by hard court paraphernalia and ended up a basketball player himself.

Bembol’s parents were very religious but his father was unique in a sense. He hadn’t seen a person as saintly as his father. He was one person who strived to be Christ-like. “I was a witness to that transformation. He had the inner strength to accept the challenge that he had to change if that is what it takes to make things right. He was willing to let go of his personal needs just to pursue what is right. And he was a devoted husband to his wife. He did not go astray in as far as his married life was concerned. That I am sure of. Nakaka-bilib siya talaga. After he passed away, I told my mother, ‘If I could only be half of what my father was, I’d be more than happy.’”

And so back to his rebellious stage, he admitted those were really the confused and chaotic part of his youth, where he got into drugs.

On the other hand, what happened was inevitable. That was the time of the Flower Power, Make-Love-Not-War kind of era. “Natapat lang siguro ako. My going into drugs had nothing to do with my family problems. Until now, I couldn’t figure out why I got into that. I had a very loving family in as far as I was concerned.”

As a result of that youthful rebellion, he was confined in a rehabilitation center for 18 months. He couldn’t describe those isolated years. The program was rigid and stern and it was something adopted from American rehabilitation centers. They attack the bad attitude and directly so. “Talagang malupit. It was while I was there that I learned humility.”

He finished the program and decided to work in that same environment afterwards. “I was lost at hindi ko alam kung saan ako papunta. I was 22 then and a college dropout. Hindi ko alam ang gagawin ko at that time. So I decided to work as one of the staff of the rehab center.”

It was while he was working there that he met the other father-figure of his acting life — Lino Brocka. Indeed, he was like a real father to him. “I cannot describe how close he was to me on a professional and personal level. He was my mentor, brother and friend.”

At any rate, Lino came to the rehab center to ask permission to shoot his film, Tatlo, Dalawa, Isa and Bembol was the one who attended to them. After a week, they got their permit. Then Lino asked him if he wanted to be part of the film. “The role was that of a drug user and friend Jay Ilagan was part of the story. What attracted me was the offer of P200 per day and as a worker in that rehabilitation center, I was earning P600 a month. Imagine, I’d be earning P1,000 for only five days!”

At that time, becoming a movie star was far from his mind. He could not even read straight Tagalog. After that movie, he was invited to join the cast of Hanggang Dito Na Po Lamang At Maraming Salamat Po mounted by PETA. That was his stage debut. He enjoyed doing it not because it would lead him to bigger things. It was something new and it was like meeting a new family. It was something that would keep him busy.

After another round of performance of the same play in the South, he got closer to the lead part of Julio Madriaga in Maynila Sa Mga Kuko ng Liwanag without knowing it. He was already in the cast of that film as one of the callboys. Suddenly, the bit role became a starring role.

The role was originally for Jay but after a few shooting days, Lino saw the rushes and realized the late actor didn’t look the part of a despondent, hungry probinsiyano. There were only two choices left: Get a well-known star or a complete newcomer. Lino opted to do the latter.

He felt embarrassed for Jay because he didn’t ask for that role. He accepted it knowing it was meant for somebody else. “Lino gave me a crash lesson on acting with one-on-one workshops on a personal basis,” he added. “We had to work on a lot of things. Unang una, monotone ako magbitaw ng lines. He taught me how to get the stress points, how to use my eyes. He shot the film according to the sequence of the story para hindi ako maligaw sa characterization except for a few instances na hindi talaga maiwasan.”

As it turned out, Maynila changed his life completely. It opened new things to him that he did not think were possible. “Here I realized that film had tremendous power comparable to big-time politics. It was after that film that I seriously thought of joining showbiz for good.”

Close to three decades in film taught him a lot of things but it was Lino who showed the way. “He explained to me that as an actor, I have responsibility to the public. I didn’t know what that meant. That my privacy would be invaded I felt right away. Pero ’yong kapalit naman was much greater. Para kang Diyos. Anywhere you go, people know you and will take care of you. At that time, it didn’t make sense to me that people would value privacy when they stand to gain more by having fame and fortune.”

For now, he remembered Lino for a lot of things. “He was indeed an actor’s director in the sense that he knew exactly what to get from you and what emotions to draw. He knew what he wanted from a particular scene all the time and to the point. The way he motivated his actors was very clear and easily understood. Magaling siya magkuwento at magpaliwanag. Actually he was very demanding. He expected so much from his performers. But he gave you time to be ready. Kaya masarap katrabaho.”

When Lino died in 1991, it was like losing a father. “Talagang malaking kawalan. I took it very hard. Matagal kong iniiyakan iyon.

“If I didn’t meet Lino, many things could have happened to me. I probably would have led a simple, non-showbiz life. Still, I would not have finished my studies because sa totoo lang, wala akong hilig mag-aral. I preferred playing basketball than anything else. I wouldn’t be surprised if I went back to the drug world. That was very big possibility.”

Now he is very much in control of himself and his career. “I know I can do much more. I don’t look forward to doing starring roles. I am content with my status at the moment. The good thing is I can deliver when asked the essential things.”