Walang Sugat: October 2014

One of the propsmen busily painting a platform.

Idiot boards are of big help during rehearsals.

Actresses transforming their faces to a more theatrical one.

A young actor and an actress looks old with their cosmetics.

Staffs had find time to bond to ease the pressure.

The dressing room is quite a busy room.

Dalagang Pilipinas are just sitting on the floor, beside the hallway.

Actors and Actresses taking the throwing of lines seriously.

There must be a room for dress rehearsals.

Her job makes her look stressful.

The props were waiting to be on stage and get captured by the spotlight.

Everyone needs some blush- on!

The Cast and Staffs of Walang Sugat Revival pf the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.

courtesy of ABTA people

Gigi Felix Velarde, writer of this article, with Dr. Herminio Velarde, Jr., her father.

I’m proud of my mother but most especially of my father.

Dr. Herminio Velarde, Jr. with his family.

Like Don Quixote, he was full of dreams yet no one believed in him for it was too far out for the people he loved, but like Pancho, I believed him, I adored and liked his visions. As early as 10 years old, I knew his dreams will be a reality, I just felt it when everyone made fun about it.

My father, Dr. Herminio Velarde Jr. was so driven. He did things right and left burning his candles on both ends. I love that he loved the arts; song, dance, theater. I saw it in my early age with his Bachelor’s Club; the singing and dancing that happened in our home with all the artists and special people is an unimaginative world. I would sneak out from my bedroom once in a while to see who arrived; trying to find out it was Amalia Fuentes, Maggie dela Riva, Nestor de Villa, or a beauty queen, maybe a famous doctor, a writer perhaps, politician, or simply a friend or a relative.

But what amazed me was behind the party was a dad who did not just love the party people, but a man with a vision trying to convince everyone of a certain project to help change society for the better. I remember him saying, “We can be rich, famous, and beautiful, but still, we must be relevant to the society, we must be of service to our people who need our expertise”.

In my own lingo, the word is “talent”. He had the talent to cure, my mother had the talent to teach dance and a model who shines in the fashion shows extraordinaire, and so, he would always think of a project at the end of the year.

He would always come up with something creative, innovative, something new, different, so different that at some point, no one even believed and no one listened to him. To name a few:

1. “In ten years, people will need to live far from Manila because there will be too many people in here.” So, he thought of Antipolo Condominium.

“We will need to build our houses upward or vertically (Condominium) if we want to live in the city”. So he thought of Pacifica Condominiums where no one wanted to believe and support his vision. I saw how the investors fooled him until he came short of funds.

Everyone was disillusioned and disappointed for the dream which did not come true. This was the time when I saw my father so sad and frustrated for he felt he failed his own family and friends who invested money in the first ever condominium in the country.

Why did he fail?

The investments were not enough and the people who were supposed to build it and take responsibility on permits and finances fooled him. Just like Don Quixote, he turned out to be a fool, a laughing stock and a man who died with his dream buried under the ground. Together with the dead condominium dream was his rejuvenation clinic wherein he tried to build side by side.

2. “We must have an eye clinic for Asia where we all can run to with the best doctors." Since he was an eye doctor who studied in New York and with all his connections and power, he had brought the best doctors in our country in order to help fulfill this dream.

3. The stem cells of today were the same stem cells he thought of in the 80’s.

Funny it may seem but he always tagged me along in his dreams and visions. I was always there to see if he would be successful or if he would fail to convince the people of his project.

He brought the stem cells from Germany where he further studied it there and eventually opened the Bavarian Health Clinic in Green Valley, Baguio but since he was born too early for his time, it failed, for only few supported it, and I was one of the few.

I had terrible asthma attacks when I was younger and had some lung stem cells injected in me and believe it or not, I have no asthma attacks anymore. If you don’t believe, ask my relatives and friends.

4. Bachelor’s Club. He was one of those, if not the one who thought of having a financial care- giving every Christmas at Luneta Park to almost a thousand children. I recall this so clearly because the goodies were done in our house. We prepared 2 kilos of rice, can of sardines, candies, toys, clothes in a bag and would give it away every Christmas Eve as they lighted the Christmas tree.

Later, the ceremony was changed and held in Christmas morning for it was too cold and late for the kids to receive it. How do I know? I was part of the team.

I remember clearly when my father handed me two packages saying “you must learn to give and help the poor, go on and hand them the gifts”. He even asked me to help put goodies in the gift sack. At an early age, I knew what it is to be poor and what we, better of people, can do to the poor. At 10 years old, I knew what care giving actually meant.

5. He also offered to cure for free in Hospital ng Maynila, St. Paul’s Manila Clinic, Doctor’s Hospital and Notre Dame Baguio Hospital. In Hospital ng Maynila, he would have Christmas shows, fiestas asking the rich people to come and donate money for the poor.

I remember when I met Ariel Ureta for the first time when he sang for the fund- raising. He liked Ariel Ureta because he could mimic the voice of Johnny Mathis, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and many other singers that my father liked.

I also saw Beauty Queens having a mini Fashion Show or Santacruzan in the grounds of Hospital ng Maynila to raise funds for the eye department where my father was the director. Later on, I noticed that we were always in Baguio every Holy Week and Christmas for he offered to cure there for poor Igorot brothers and sisters, even for the nuns of St. Paul’s Notre Dame Hospital.

I know for a fact, because when the clinic would be filled with patients, I would be asked to help interview them and put eye drops so their eyes would be dilated and ready for my dad’s ocular inspection to see their eye problem with his hand held gadget and sometimes, the machine where you had to follow the light left and right, I would hear him saying “Look at the light and follow it.”

I saw his Igorot patients with Authentic G- strings, feathers in their head, and the original bra- less old Igorot ladies bringing with them stuffs like, eggs, vegetables, and chicken as payment for my father’s services. Seeing this at an early age, I idolized, admired and loved my father more and more each day.

Such beautiful heart, I would say silently to myself as I watched him.

I remember a Datu of the Igorot Tribe coming in to the clinic with cataract and my father operated on him, and he was able to see again clearly. He was so overwhelmed that he did not offer fruits, rice, vegetables, or chickens but offered his youngest daughter to serve us for life. I was shocked to hear that he would offer his youngest girl to serve us for life?! That is how grateful he was and I saw how the Datu treasured honor, because he insisted. My father said, “No need for that.” But the Datu said that he would feel insulted if we did not take the offer. And so my father accepted the offer but only for two years and not for life. So, I had the young Igorot yaya and playmate for two long years. Such gratitude…

6. Walang Sugat, Minda Mora; two zarzuela’s of his grandfather Maestro Fulgencio Tolentino and a musical play written by “Lola Basyang” also known as Severino Reyes. It was star- studded by good singers and actors performed both in the country and abroad.

In Minda Mora, I remember being with Tito Butz Aquino who was one of the ‘estudiante’, trying to convince me to portray the flirt student which I had difficulties portraying for it was so not me. I remember him pulling me to the side saying “Gigi, it is just a role, we know that you are not a flirt. Just try to do the role well, and we promise not to think of you that way. We know that you are a nice girl but we are tired of doing the scene over and over again because you refuse to do the flirt role. Go ahead, Gigi! We will not think of you that way.” And so I did for the first time went out from my real self and portrayed the flirt student in the play flirting with the male students in the dorm, in the Zarzuela Minda Mora.

It was indeed a learning process for me, learning to be someone else in a play and trying to internalize a different persona and forgetting of who i really am.