Dear Manay Ichu,
Forty days after you quietly joined your Creator, we continue to marvel at your mala-telenovela romance with life, in general, and the movie Industry, in particular.
You were to the Manor born; a product of genteel upbringing by your Vera-Perez ancestors. Breeding was your middle name. You were a genuine Class Act. But you were a Child of the Movies, and happily for us in the industry, you stepped down from the now iconic tower of the Valencia Mansion. Instead, you chose to work with, and for, the underpaid, the underemployed and the underserved in the industry by supporting the Movie Workers Welfare Foundation ( Mowelfund) through its 46-year history as trustee and board chairman.
We owe it to the movie world to herald your painstaking initiatives and achievements to uphold the film industry and its marginalized workers. We witnessed firsthand your care and compassion for the last, the least and the lost among our co-workers, whom you endearingly called your “alipores” (the “small fries” or little ones).
Thank you, Manay Ichu, for always ”being there” for us with your self-effacing but formidable presence. Thank you for the many years of constant effort to sustain Mowelfund’s mission of welfare, health and subsidized film education for our thousands of beneficiaries. And thank you for bearing with and participating in our creative but sometimes unconventional fundraisers like horse races, billiards, bowling, marathons, ukay-ukay and even poker tournaments. Matindi kasi ang pangangailangan.
But, of course, only you could’ve pulled a “coup de grace” like your “death-defying” (pun intended) fundraiser for Mowelfund. Death defying because until your last breath, you still took pains to instruct your heirs to solicit donations to Mowelfund in lieu of flowers at your wake.
Your ultimate fundraiser raised P1.571M for Mowelfund as of Oct. 7. The Macedas and the Vera-Perezes lovingly carried your instructions to the hilt. And your numerous friends and supporters quickly heeded their appeal in your name.
On behalf of our truly founding chairman, Joseph Estrada and our board members, yours truly as chairman, president Rez Cortez, vice president Julius Topacio, Gina Alajar, Jim Baltazar and direk Boy Vinarao, our management, staff and beneficiaries, please know that we are establishing a Manay Ichu Maceda Trust Fund for special projects that are closest to your heart, beginning with webinars on film production and a mini festival highlighted by your own MVP Films.
At the instance of the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF), a Manay Ichu Award for Outstanding Service will be conferred in your honor to a deserving industry practitioner at its forthcoming awards night in December.
We will truly miss you, Manay. But we know that you will always be with us in spirit and that you will be our staunchest intercessor with the Almighty at the Pearly Gates.
By the way, please use your fool-proof “ensaymada diplomacy” when you lobby for Mowelfund’s cause. Lastly, muster the trademark Manay Ichu charm offensive and ask the Lord to drop Manna from Heaven at our next fundraiser.
Love,
Your “Alipores” in Mowelfund