I am praying for the repose of the soul of Lily Yu Monteverde (better known as Mother Lily in the entertainment industry) who passed away six days after her husband Father Remy Monteverde died.
The death of the movie icon marked the end of an era in Philippine cinema.
While there was a vigil for Mother Lily in her own events place, a stream of consciousness started to flow incessantly in my head.
I have a confession to make.
I wasn’t close to Mrs. Lily Monteverde, better known as Mother Lily, but it didn’t mean that I disliked or to some extent, hated her.
No, there was no such a thing.
It was just because I wasn’t a fixture at Regal Entertainment or the PR machinery of the company didn’t bother to invite me to their events particularly in the late 2000s when I had my own TV show at UNTV and I wasn’t an entertainment editor anymore of dailies or my brand of showbiz reporting wasn’t the conventional style at all.
I wasn’t a critic either or publicist of any film outfit, though.
I just wanted to write the way I want to express myself.
No, I hadn’t severed my ties with the Monteverdes.
I was just moving in both centrifugally or centripetally around the local showbiz industry.
I might have burned some bridges, alright, because of miscalculation or unforeseen circumstances but generally, I can safely say, I have remained friendly after all these years.
In my early days of movie reporting specifically for tabloids and fanzines, I was always in support of Regal Films (the original name of Mother Lily’s production house) when its office was still at the Monteverde’s residence in Greenhills and its booking office beside Podmon Theater in Recto Avenue.
In my early days of movie reporting specifically for tabloids and fanzines, I was always in support of Regal Films (the original name of Mother Lily’s production house) when its office was still at the Monteverde’s residence in Greenhills and its booking office beside Podmon Theater in Recto Avenue.
Most of the initial waves of film projects of Regal Films’ presscons were held at their own Mother China Restaurant located in Makati City where Regal Babies and confreres congregated. I remember the movies “Waikiki,” “Beerhouse,” “Sugar Daddy,” among others were launched to the press in the resto.
At the time, the late Dean of Philippine Movie Journalism Ethel Ramos was the main publicist of the company and she would always invite us to its press gatherings.
Mother Lily had a ready smile to the media people. She would endearingly speak to us in her Chinese accented Filipino.
From her Greenhills digs, I would remember Mother Lily in her most unique, classic trademark of talking simultaneously in, would you believe, two landline phones (PLDT black box) while her left and right ears were glued to them? She would demonstrate diverse emotions one after the other which depended on the nature of conversations—she would yell, laugh, berate, reprimand, cajole etc. to the other line.
If she’s angry for whatever reason, she would throw the phone right there (but of course, it wouldn’t reach anyone and just stretched its coils).
Oh! Those scenes would quiet the floor.
She’s respected, adored, understood and loved despite them.
When she bought the mansion of Superstar Nora Aunor in Valencia Street in Cubao, she transformed it into the official house of Regal Entertainment.
I was always in that so-called white house where I would look for stories for the “Star News” segment of ABS-CBN primetime newscast “TV Patrol.”
In it, I would always see Mother Lily who candidly would say, “Ang gagaling naman n’yo (How excellent of you),” referring to our daily coverage of showbiz news.
She was the queen of the house (although she went home to her Greenhills abode) which had employees in the creative and administrative divisions.
I would ask her if I could get her on cam but she would plead and graciously begged off.
I would turn my camera instead to the celebs who were around at the time like Eddie Garcia, Ishmael Bernal, Snooky Serna, Aiza Seguerra etc. When I moved in to Radio Philippines Network (RPN) Channel 9’s “Action 9,” Mother Lily was impressed with the public affairs show with Angelique Lazo, Ramon Tulfo, Rey Langit and the late Dong Puno that she would want to partner with the production—on providing his Regal Babies the broadcast publicity which didn’t push through for some unknown reasons.
Still, she was the candid Lily who would speak anything that entered her mind.
In the millennium, I supposed she was intrigued by me because I didn’t play footsie with her.
When I would see her anytime, anywhere I just greeted her and that’s it.
Deep inside me, I love Mother Lily so much.
Although I didn’t cry when she passed on, I felt proud of her as a brave woman who weathered all the challenges and travails in filmmaking and emerged the winner in all her endeavors.
Bon Voyage, Mother Lily to eternity.
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