Eddie: Moderation in everything

Curtain-raisers:

• Rhian Ramos’ loss is Marian Rivera’s gain. Marian has taken over as female lead of the GMA soap My Beloved which will start airing middle of next year, still with Dingdong Dantes (in photo with Marian) as leading man. The love team of Marian and Dingdong is tried and tested, featured in previous GMA soaps Dyesebel, Ang Babaeng Hinugot sa Aking Tadyang and Endless Love.

• KC Concepcion (photo) stays as Kapamilya in the midst of speculations that she was following in the footsteps of her mom, Sharon Cuneta, to TV5 after her tear-drenched confession on national television about her break-up with Piolo Pascual. The other day, KC signed a one-year contract (with an option for renewal upon expiration) with ABS-CBN. Having cut her ties with Star Magic, KC is now being managed by Viva boss Vic del Rosario Jr. like her mom. Meanwhile, Piolo also remains a Kapamilya also despite reports that he’s moving to the Kapatid Network.

• Congratulations to ABS-CBN reporter and dzMM radio host Nina Corpuz (photo) who’s pregnant with her and husband Vince Rodriguez’s first baby. Due to give birth in May, Nina said she will know what the baby’s gender is when she undergoes an ultrasound during her sixth month of pregnancy. “But it doesn’t matter if it’s a boy or a girl as long as the baby is healthy,” said Nina.

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When I interviewed Eddie Garcia in 1984 on what kept him running, he said that he ate a little and exercised a lot, and he was taking 19 kinds of vitamins and minerals every day, namely: Tocopherol (to improve circulation and delay aging), Vitron-E with Lecithin (to keep blood pressure normal), Yeast /Natural B-Complex and RNA, Vitamin C (to prevent certain types of viral and bacterial infections), B-Pollen with royal jelly (for that “rebirth” feeling), Seavit (for relief of some ailments), Kelp/Lecithin B-6 (for reducing weight), Pantothenic Acid (against stress and to prevent premature greying of hair), Pharmaton Capsules (to restore physical and mental powers), Ginseng (to heighten sexual appetite), Magnesium Phostate (to prevent muscle cramps), Garlic Oil (also to keep blood pressure normal), Raw-Gland Concentrate (to help the pancreas function better), Zinc (to help eliminate carbon dioxide), a certain Chinese medicine (for recovery of youth), a certain hair-booster, Iron, Paba Amino-Benzoic Acid (to prevent advanced greying of hair) and Vitamin B-Complex (to control stress).

Asked during a recent interview if he’s still taking all of them, Eddie smiled, “Yes, I still do. Plus two more, kaya 21 na lahat.”

But his best health regimen then and now is still this: “Moderation in everything,” including sex.

The paradigm of enduring machismo, Eddie said that he simply ignores women giving him the “I’m available” look, insisting that, being a “monogamist,” he’s faithful to his current love (his wife, whom he married in 1951, died in 1995).

He doesn’t look his age, 82, even if he has deliberately misled people into believing that he’s much older.

“Here,” he said, showing his senior-citizen identification card. “I was born on May 20, 1929, in Juban, Sorsogon (next to Irosin town where Celia Rodriguez was born).”

Until that interview, Eddie’s age has been the object of speculation and he seemed to enjoy it, especially when people would tell him that, that’s it, he doesn’t look his age.

“I think it was (the late) Ike Lozada who started it all. He interviewed me and guessed how old I was. Dinagdagan niya ang edad ko.”

After chain-smoking for 21 years, Eddie said he stopped the habit in 1971, cold turkey. “I just stopped. I haven’t touched a stick since then. I still had three unopened packs and I gave them to the crew. My lighter I gave to the cameraman.”

He sees to it that he gets enough sleep, eight hours per night, making up for lack of it due to extended shoot by sleeping the whole day.

“When I travel long haul, I don’t suffer from jetlag. I sleep on the plane. I take a nap every chance I get.”

Discovered in 1949 while on furlough after serving three years as a Philippine Scout, Eddie has outlived most, if not all, of the leading men (Ric Rodrigo, Luis Gonzales, Oscar Moreno, Pancho Magalona and Eddie Arenas among them) of Sampaguita Pictures where he started his career as a kontrabida, and survived changing trends in showbiz by, according to him “going with the flow,” so that when bold flicks were the rage, he readily jumped into the bold-wagon.

It was Eddie Romero who discovered Eddie who was then staying at an aunt’s house across from the Sampaguita Studio.

“I would watch a movie shoot from the window,” recalled Eddie. “Direk Eddie was then shooting a movie with Mario Montenegro. He asked me if I wanted to try acting. Later, I applied as one of the stars of Manuel Conde’s Siete Infantes de Lara. I haven’t stopped acting since then.”

In his latest movie, Carlo J. Caparas’ Ang Panday 2, starring Bong Revilla (whose family company Imus Productions co-produced it with GMA Films), Eddie plays Daluyong, head of the Ragona Tribe. At 5’10” still ramrod straight, Eddie cut a figure as fit as his co-stars half his age.

One more tip from Eddie: See your doctor regularly, have an executive check-up.

“Many people are afraid of the doctor,” he warned. “Ayaw magpa-eksamin, natatakot malaman kung ano ang sakit nila. But I’m different. The sooner I discover what’s wrong with me, the better so that it can be treated at once. It amounts to the same thing. Ang ibang tao kung kailan malala na ang sakit saka pupunta sa duktor. By that time, it’s already too late.”

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