“The showbiz world has to be manipulated to make it more interesting because most people’s lives are boring.”
There was a big gathering at the Manila Hotel last June 28, during which an organization called AKTOR announced its formal nomination of Vilma Santos Recto for the award of National Artist for Film and Broadcast Media this year.
The announcement was made by actor Dingdong Dantes, one of the leaders of AKTOR, who extolled the merits of Vilma Santos in her original movie career that spans six decades and counting (her career has not ended yet). The nomination of Vilma Santos for this prestigious award for artists is a fitting tribute for her lifetime achievement in the movies and television.
If you claim to have had a career in local movies and you did not have a film credit alongside Vilma Santos, you must have been a lousy movie worker yourself.
It’s good that as a movie scriptwriter of some 60 films produced from 1975 to 1990, I remember one particular movie that I wrote starring Vilma Santos and Eddie Rodriguez. It was entitled “Simula Ng Walang Katapusan,” (1977) and Eddie, who wrote the story and directed it under his own Luis Enriquez Films, even asked me if it should be “Simula Ng Walang Wakas” but I went for the former. It was a love story along the lines of “Nakakahiya” and “Hindi Nakakahiya Part 2” which are both blockbuster hits starring the teamup of Eddie Rodriguez and Vilma Santos.
Vilma has a very long, successful and fruitful career in movies, starting from Trudis Liit (1963) to When I Met You In Hong Kong (2023). It is a span of 60 years. Through the years, Vilma delivered several performances in movies that are indeed worthy of praise, among them “Burlesk Queen”, (1977)“Sister Stella L,” (1984), “Dekada ’70” (2002), “Pahiram ng Isang Umaga,” (1988) and “T-Bird at Ako” (1982). There are many more, including television appearances.
Definitely, Vilma is more than qualified to be one of the country’s National Artists.
My take, however, is that this ultimate award for a Filipino artist should have been given to her much, much earlier… or much later, perhaps. Not this year when her husband is the Secretary of the Department of Finance, and one of the key members of the Marcos Jr. Cabinet. This untimely twist of fate might be used by Vilma critics to cast doubt on the legitimacy of her winning the National Artist recognition. Even if Finance Secretary Ralph Recto has nothing to do about it. Alam n’yo naman sa showbiz…
Remember a few years back when the choice of Carlo J. Caparas for National Artist for Film and Broadcast Media was opposed by many in the visual art and film communities because it had political color (President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo used her “presidential prerogative” of choosing four candidates including Caparas). The Supreme Court had to issue a ruling here, stripping Carlo, Mrs. Cecile Guidote Alvarez, and two others of the award.
I wouldn’t want that to happen to Vilma Santos, who fully deserves to be a National Artist.
-o0o-
A few months into his job as head of the Department of Agriculture (DA), Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. has launched a no-nonsense campaign against smugglers of agricultural products.
He said his office is set to blacklist four traders as it ramps up its crackdown on unscrupulous importers and smugglers of agricultural products.
"You will see in the next few months, I will blacklist a lot of companies, those smugglers, because that's economic sabotage," Laurel told reporters as he specifically identified the importers without naming names, to be engaged in the importation of rice, fish, and sugar.
Laurel said the DA is also imposing stricter compliance of the declaration of sanitary and phytosanitary import clearance (SPSIC) before unloading in the country's ports.
"I came up with a new rule that ships should declare their cargoes within 24 hours after leaving their ports of origin) by email to BOC (Bureau of Customs), to us, to DA-IE (Department of Agriculture-Inspectorate and Enforcement) what are their valid SPSIC which they can use for the ship. They can’t get away now," he said.
Laurel earlier ordered the cancellation of the SPSIC issued to a rice importer in Batangas after declaring only 20 percent of the total shipment.
The secretary is also working with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which monitors the importation of processed goods, for more stringent border measures to help resolve agricultural smuggling. He talked with Director General Zacate, and they agreed to have an MOU within the year, in which the FDA will deputize the DA-IE to help in enforcement.
He said the move is necessary considering a "disconnect" within the system which some importers are taking advantage of.
"It’s about that loophole where they declare it as processed goods but, in reality, are agricultural products like frozen Peking duck or whatever because the processed goods are not under DA, it's under FDA," he said.
The farmers, consumers, and the economy in general will benefit from this arrangement.