Archive for June, 2009

“The Miracle of My Gray Hair and Santino’s Front Teeth”

 Before I was informed that I was chosen to play the role of Father Jude (Father Ngot) in “May Bukas Pa”, we had a meeting with Director Jerome Pobocan. During that meeting, Direk Jerome’s only requirement for me was to grow my moustache and beard. I had it shaved clean during our meeting. I told him that I can easily grow my moustache and beard but it will be white as snow already. To my mind however, that meant goodbye to my dyed hair. Since more than ten years ago, I started to dye my then “salt and pepper” hair. I had been regularly dying my hair almost every two months with black brown color to cover my graying hair. Since I had to grow my white moustache and beard, I had to grow my gray hair too, sans the regular black brown hair dye. Otherwise, I would look funny with white moustache and beard but with black brown dyed hair! The color of my hair must be same as the color of my moustache and beard. So, what’s the fuss? What a small sacrifice to do, I got the role anyway! It then became my trademark: my patented look, the image of a grumpy old priest with white hair, white moustache and beard from the moment that we started to tape last January 18, 2009. Of course, vain as I am, I feel the look is a minus “pogi” point. I indeed feel that I look older than my biological age. As vain guys would move heaven and earth to make themselves looks younger than their real age, sporting my cranky old man look is a sacrifice! But, never mind, I am a regular cast of the show! I consoled myself then that anyway, aside from the fact that I got what I had been praying for the longest time, that of a regular role in a weekly soap opera, we were told by management that the show will only be till March 31, or for two months only. After that, I can have my hair dyed again! However, only a few days after we first aired on February 2, we were getting high ratings! We were consistently getting above 40% viewership! The advertisers went gaga and were making the beeline to buy commercial spots! Miracle of all miracles, the lightweight show intended to go only for two months, became the number show nationwide! One could simply make a mental mathematical calculation as to how much the show had been drawing in the revenues! Consequently, the management announced that the March 31 end of the show had been moved to hold your breath, January of 2010! It is understandable since with the commercials coming in, it is farfetched to terminate and pull out the show at its peak! If the consistently high ratings that we get is miracle, another miracle is happening to my gray hair! Late last year, a fraternity brother gave me an unsolicited proposal: for me to have youthful thick hair, apply Virgin Coconut Oil on my scalp. When I stopped dying my hair last January, I decided to apply Virgin Coconut Oil on my scalp every night before going to bed. My wife complained that I smell like a freshly prepared “biko”! Nevertheless, I religiously applied the VCO and had used Lauat Shampoo only three times a week. I scheduled my shampoo application on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, which are our taping days for “May Bukas Pa”. When I had my hair cut early this month, my barber was excited to tell me that aside from the fact that my hair has grown thicker, there are new growth of black hair making it look like the “salt and pepper” hair I had ten years ago! Salamat sa Dios! The six months of the show resulted into a miracle of my gray hair turning to salt and pepper! And as my officemate who is an avid fan of May Bukas Pa has observed, the show has been that long that Santino’s from teeth have already grown such that he is no longer wearing his false teeth! Who knows, if the show continues to get new extension, my hair will turn to pure black as Santino will likewise have all his milk teeth replaced with permanent teeth!

“Reunions, Reunions, Are you Regularly Attending?”

“REUNIONS… REUNIONS… ARE YOU REGULARLY ATTENDING?” Aside from being the month of fiestas, the month of May is also considered as the month of reunions. The reason is that most of the students are on summer vacation and therefore have the time to go home to the provinces to attend reunions whether these are clan reunions, school reunions or organization reunions. Last 31st of May 2009, I attended our clan reunion in Butuan City. I arrived Bancasi Airport in Butuan City a day earlier. On board the service vehicle of our town Mayor Fidel Garcia (a godson of my father) who offered to have me fetched by his driver, I noticed several streamers announcing the dates and venues of several clan reunions hanged along the highway. This is a common sight in a province when even a daughter’s passing of the nursing board exam is likewise being publicly announced through streamers hanged along the highway! However, unlike the other clan reunions, for security reasons, my relatives deliberately opted not to publicly announce our clan reunion. By the way, a few weeks before our clan reunion, relatives from my grandfather side texted me that the Mission clan will also have a reunion on the 30th of May. So, since I was already there, I decided to proceed to the Cabadbaran City Gym where the Mission Clan reunion was held. It was scheduled from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. only. Since my PAL flight arrived at 12:00 pm when I reached the venue, my relatives were already going home! Only a handful stayed at 2:30 pm! Now, back to the reason of my latest visit to my home province of Agusan del Norte: our Clan Reunion – the Ong Oh-Libre Clan. To say that it was a big event is definitely an understatement! We trace our roots to Jose Ong Oh – a Chinese from mainland China who was the second husband of our grandmother Telesfora Libre – a beautiful lady with Spanish blood from Toledo City. Lola Telesfora’s first husband Ricardo Mission died a few years after my mother Purita was born. My mother Purita who married my Papa David Sandalo had eight half brothers and sisters from the second marriage of lola Telesfora Libre and Jose Ong Oh. They are: Concepcion who married Joaquin Chu Te, Thelma who married Teodoro Ong Yiu, Trinidad who married Gonzalo Go, Miriam who married Ismael Andaya, Teresita (Babe) who married William Lim, Johnny married Victoria Tiangco, Jose, Jr (a.k.a. Joker) who married Dionesia Almendra, and Arthur who married Amparo Gosotto. Now, with those names I am giving you hint why my relatives deliberately opted not to publicly announce our clan reunion! The Ong Yiu Family was this year’s reunion host. Venue was the Butuan City’s Almont Inland Resort function rooms (actually three adjoining function rooms were converted into one large function room to accommodate us). Our host, the Ong Yiu family showed what it means to be being very generous: they made it a free registration for all of us who attended the reunion! They paid for everything: from the rent of the venue to the catered food, to the fees of the entertainers, everything! Our family, the Sandalo family enjoyed an additional freebee: our stay in our cousin Yazmin Ong Yiu-Burgos’ Royal Plaza Hotel was for free! You see, since the reunion lasted till the late evening, it would be very risky to travel from Butuan City to the municipality of Tubay where our ancestral house is located. The reunion started at 9:00 a.m. with the registration. The biggest delegation was of course from the host Ong Yiu family. The second largest delegation was the Andaya Family followed by the Chu Te family. We, from the Sandalo came the fourth largest with 10 family members. The family of uncle Joker (Jose, Jr.), uncle Johnny, auntie Babe, auntie Trining and uncle Arthur came with less number of members such that during the parlor games portion, they had to combine together to form one team. The idea to have a non-clan member to be the reunion facilitator/emcee was a brilliant one: it prevented the danger of one family monopolizing the use of the microphone or even for someone to be hugging the limelight for longer period. There was the usual opening formality. The families were introduced. Then the rest of the morning was spent with parlor games where the relatives had fun and enjoyed bonding moments through friendly competitive games. The buffet lunch prepared by the caterer hired by the Ong Yiu family was very delicious capped with crunchy native lechon. After the great lunch, we continued with the parlor games. Winners received valuable prizes prepared by the Ong Yiu family. There was a raffle drawn with a cash prize courtesy of the host family. After the last parlor game at 4:00 p.m., a free time was declared. We assembled again at 6:00 p.m. The sons of auntie Babe Lim made a powerpoint presentation on their latest research works. Watching the gentlemen doing their piece made us realize that our clan indeed has a superior bloodline! Their detailed presentation about their DNA studies was very interesting, although a lot of us were expecting that a specific DNA thread for the Ong Oh –Libre Clan will be presented! The dinner was again overflowing with sumptuous food in two buffet tables. After the dinner, we had ballroom dancing complete with Dance Instructors and karaoke singing which lasted till 10:00 p.m. With the majority of the participants in their late 50’s, the younger generation did not have a choice but to join the older relatives in queuing for the exit door. Next reunion’s host will be our family, the Sandalos. The challenge to have it at par if not better than this year’s Ong Yiu-hosted reunion is enormous! This early, we invite all the members of our clan to join us in Butuan City and enjoy each other’s company! See you!