MANILA, Philippines — Four decades after the late Sen. Ramon Revilla Sr. entrusted the career of his son, Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. to talent manager Lolit Solis, Bong and Lolit never parted ways.
Neither did they have any misunderstanding through the years. Not in the film offers that Bong accepted, not in the TV shows that he did, not in the leading ladies or co-stars he worked with and definitely not in the talent fee that they previously talked about and agreed upon.
Amazingly, Lolit doesn’t even remember getting mad at Bong. Not even once.
“Bong and I never had any misunderstanding,” Lolit disclosed on her 76th birthday last May 22, when Bong gave her a lunch treat, with her close friends in the industry invited.
“Bong is always easy to talk to. We never fought. I had misunderstandings with many personalities who had a rift with Bong. I would even fight with them. Eventually, I would find out, Bong had ironed out the kinks between them. Then, I would end up the bad one because I was still fighting with that person.”
Bong used to frequent the Avenida office that Lolit shared with the late Douglas Quijano and Alfie Lorenzo, who both handled talents under Regal Films of Mother Lily Monteverde.
“Bong would often hang around there,” Lolit shared. “At that time, I was already managing Gabby (Concepcion), while Douglas was handling William Martinez and Alfie had Alfie Anido.”
Although Bong was not the first talent Lolit managed — Gabby was the one, curtailed by the infamous Manila Film Festival scam in 1994 — the former is the longest she has handled.
Lolit said, “Our relationship is not just manager and talent. Beyond that. He and Lani are always concerned about me. They are like my children.”
Lolit will never forget when Bong gave her his credit card after she was confined in a hospital eight months ago that led her to start her dialysis. She needed to undergo regular dialysis that continues to this day.
Bong was only 17 years young when his dad introduced him to Lolit. At that time, father and son just wrapped up the memorable Dugong Buhay (1983), megged by Carlo Caparas.
“The first film that I handled for Bong as his manager was for Tower Productions,” Lolit recalled. “After that, there was no more turning back for us. We worked together through the years, both professionally and personally. Until today.”
Bong returns to TV with the forthcoming remake of the comedy-action flick, Walang Matigas na Pulis sa Matinik na Misis, a film he and Lani previously starred in and it was shown in 1994. He resurrects his Capt. Bartolome Reynaldo character, popularly known as Tolome. The film even had a sequel, Yes Darling… Walang Matigas na Pulis 2 (1997).
This time around, Beauty Gonzalez plays Bong’s Visayan wife in the sitcom. They will be joined by a number of action stars including Jeric Raval, Ronnie Ricketts, ER Ejercito, with Niño Muhlach, Dennis Padilla, Jimmy Santos and Max Collins. The series will premiere on June 4 at 7:45 p.m. on GMA 7.
At the helm are Frasco Mortiz and Enzo Williams. So far, Bong has wrapped up five days of shoot for his sitcom. “But that’s not equivalent to five episodes because one episode takes three days to shoot,” Bong said. “We shoot many action scenes and that takes a long time.”
In the future, Bong said he will be open to collaborations. “First film of Star Cinema, Adan Ronquillo: Tubong Cavite, Laking Tondo with me and Sheryl Cruz (shown in 1993), collaboration na agad at that time.”