Who says movie reporters are only masters of “gossip” and “intrigues”?
Entertainment writer and editor Artemio Tapalla, better known in the culture and lifestyle circles as Art Tapalla who started his movie reporting career in the mid-80s, would defy the traditional notion that showbiz scribes are only “rumormongers.”
Especially when political activist and beauty queen (1971 Queen of the Pacific and first runner-up to Gloria Diaz in the 1969 Miss Philippines) Nelia Sancho recently died, Art remembered his underground activities with her during the Marcos dictatorship.
At the time, Tapalla was a community organizer who went from one village to the next to orient the peasants and the marginalized sectors of society the root causes of poverty, one of them the exploitation of the working classes by the greedy capitalists and the bourgeois bureaucrat merchants.
According to Art who edited Artista Magazine, Saksi tabloid and other fanzines and newspapers which published stories on entertainers and other cultural workers, she became familiar with Sancho when she got married to Antonio Liao, another progressive member of the underground movement.
“Una kong nakita si Nelia sa Bicutan nang dinadalaw niya si Tony. Pero kilala ko na siya dahil beauty queen at aktibista siya (I first saw Nelia in Bicutan when she visited Tony on Sundays. But I already was familiar with her because she’s a beauty queen and an activist),” said Art.
Tony and Art were incarcerated at the Bicutan Rehabilitation Center (BRC). “Sa isang building kami, mga political violators kung tawagin na hiwalay sa common criminals. Pinili niya ako sa makasama sa loob (We were political violators so called who were separated from common criminals. He chose me to be with him),” recalled Tapalla.
The entertainment writer added that Liao was detained apart from Satur Ocampo, Pepe Luneta, Fidel Agcaoili etc. who were confined in their respective buildings.
Art said he was jailed for trumped-up cases of rebellion and sedition as an activist.
“Dahil sa pagsigaw ko ng Marcos! Hitler! Diktador! Tuta! hinuli kami at kinasuhan. Sedition na ba ‘yon? Ang mga lawyers ko, taga-MABINI. ‘Yon, may mga hearing kami sa Quezon City Hall. Pagkatapos, pinalaya na rin kami (Because of shouting Marcos! Hitler! Diktador! Tuta! I was apprehended and arrested. Was that already sedition? My lawyers were from MABINI—a group of human rights lawyers. I was being heard at the Quezon City Hall. Then, I was released),” he recalled. “I was in the underground movement and my nome de guerre was Henry Mendoza,” he added.
When Art was accosted he was part of the Rubberworld cultural group which was staging progressive plays about the workers’ plight. He wasn’t writing for the movies yet at the time but was already running around with entertainment writers.
Tapalla said he got to see Sancho for the second time when she was with fellow progressive women like Fe Mangahas, Caridad Hipolito etc. at the Hipolito residence in Caloocan City before the Ninoy Aquino assassination in 1983.
Caridad Hipolito was a classmate of Nelia at UP who became a journalist whose nome de plume was Eddee RH Castro, Art said.
Tapalla was in the Hipolito house because of his friend, Rudy Hipolito, Caridad’s brother. Art said Eddee didn’t go underground but had remained a progressive.
The third time he saw Sancho was when Eddee sent him to an errand to the beauty queen at her house in UP Bliss.
“Hindi ko na maalala kung ano ang dinala ko kay Nelia. Doon, naramdaman ko at naramdaman ko rin sa kanya na close na kami. Nag-usap kami kahit maikling sandali lang (I can’t recall anymore what I brought to Nelia. Right there and then I could mutually feel we’re already close with each other).
“Pag kapwa aktibista kayo kasi, kahit hindi kayo madalas magkita, pareho ang damdamin ninyo, pareho ang bisyon ninyo (If one is an activist even if you don’t see each other often, you share the same sentiments, the same vision),” gushed Tapalla.
Meanwhile, after the EDSA Revolution, Art saw Tony at the Hipolito house.
After days, weeks, months, years and decades of fighting for freedom for life, the last time Art and Nelia crossed paths was at the World Trade Center in the early millennium.
“May trade fair no’n na ikinober ko. Ibang-iba na ang hitsura ni Nelia. Lumaki na siya. Binati ko siya at natandaan niya ako na Henry Mendoza ang alias ko. Nagkumustahan kami. Tinanong ko sa kanya si Tony, sabi niya, hiwalay na sila (There was a trade fair which I covered. Nelia’s countenance was already different. She added pounds. I greeted her and she recalled that my alias was Henry Mendoza. We exchanged pleasantries. I asked her about Tony and she said they were already separated),” he recounted.
Nelia was found dead by her son Antonio Karlo Liao last September 1, 2022 at her house in UP Bliss. Her remains were cremated and viewing would start at 1 pm today, Sunday, September 4, 2022 at the St. Peter's Chapel in Commonwealth in Quezon City, according to her daughter Anna Louise Liao.
“Isang mainit na pagsaludo kay Nelia Sancho (One heartfelt salute to Nelia Sancho),” exclaimed Art who is jobless as a movie reporter at the moment.
Nelia was the founding mother of Gabriela women’s group.
She was 71.