Visitors, a wedding, a revolution and two films. Equalizer 2000, SILK.

A big party was about to begin. Butch Romualdez' youngest brother Danny was going to get married with his Jacky. I knew both of them very well and visited them quite often in their place in Biak na Bato, Danny loved to come over to Cavite and enjoyed eating oysters . He also had some plans with a piece of land he owned near Naic and didn't mind smoking a joint at the beach with me.

I was invited to attend the consummation of their wedding at thursday june 27, 1985 early in the morning at 9.00 AM. Aunty Imelda would be a sponsor and eye catcher at that event and I didn't mind being part of it..

The weatherman had promised us a nasty day with lots of rain and wind. I didn't want to show up late and spent the night before in Manila at Dante par Pasia's place in Sampaloc, near the university of Sto. Thomas. He was a good friend of the family and invited as well to witness the wedding in the beautiful cathedral of San Augustin in Intramuros. Manila was flooded but we managed to get to the church in time in Dantes' VW-beetle.

 The reception afterwards would be in the Plaza Hotel, of course in the Leyte-ballroom...!

At this reception at Roxas Blvrd, Imelda asked Danny about the white guest on one of the tables, he told her I was a 'famous' Dutch actor and stuntman and had become a friend of the family thru Butch in the Netherlands.

A civilized nod in my direction confirmed my existence to her. Once in awhile there was a glimpse of a smile when our eyes crossed, well, I was a lot younger than George Hamilton, :D.

I nodded friendly as well with a snigger....

Danny and I ..

It was a beautiful service, good music and a lot of food. The bride was gorgeous and shining, Danny in heaven. I had a nice day.

Imelda and her husband Ferdinand were close to the end of their imperium, another 8 months and the curtain would fall after this chapter. The Ninoy Aquino assassination at MIA airport triggered a revolution resulting in a Corazon Aquino (RIP) victory in '86.

It came with political instability, protesting people all over the country and the end was near. The people's power revolution, that's how they called it. In Manila the combat-units were posted on every strategical street corner and once in awhile a few rounds were fired in the air to keep everybody awake...Man that was action. I followed the news on TV and didn't go to Manila unnecessarily.

I had indwells for some time already. A friend of mine from the Netherlands whom I kept in touch  with since I came to the PI, had reacted to my invitation to come over and stay for the holidays. She had written me the date of her arrival at MIA and I was there to pick her up, just after we finished shooting the American Ninja. I was surprised to see that she had brought her 10 year old daughter with her. When I spotted her at the gate I smiled at her, but she didn't react very happy. Instead of an enthusiastic hug she put her head on my shoulder and started to cry. Flabbergasted I asked if they had had such a bad flight and if she got sick ? None of that. Her latest relation in Holland had stranded and capsized. Her ex-friend had bought both of them a one-way ticket to Manila and handed her US$100,- at Schiphol, Amsterdamned .....!!

All of a sudden I had to regulate all kinds of family matters. I didn't mind having them as my guests for a while, but I understood there wasn't such a planning of going back to NL whatsoever. My invitation wasn't meant thát way, to be frank...

I had plans to return to Holland for a month or so to visit my father, and was about to move to  another barrio on the other side of the river. I had a lot of friends over there already and wanted to build my own nippa hut.***

Ellen and Thea  came down to my place and spent some 3 or 4 months in the barrio. Ellen wanted to see more of the country and decided to find a place in Manila with her daughter. Dante  was a mutual friend of ours and after finding a job in a reflexology-centre in Sampaloc she moved to his place.

I didn't mind having more privacy. I could move my ass in any direction I wanted now, ahhh freedom....

All seemed to go smoothly when the threatening revolution fucked up. Apparently the coverage of this story reached Holland and alarmed Ellen's mom. She contacted me to have her daughter and granddaughter evacuated. I thought it a great idea, but Ellen absolutely ignored this opportunity to go home. Granny partially succeeded when her daughter agreed to send Thea back home. She asked me to join and guard the little girl on her trip to Holland, she'ld pay for the tickets. I decided to adjust my plans and to accept the offer.

Dante, interested in politics and journalism handed me a manifest, signed by several of his friends and colleagues to tell about the circumstances in the Philippines and find political support for the peoples power revolution against Marcos, not knowing the whole thing would end in 4 days only.........

Through the Dutch embassy we were able to get our tickets and could leave instantly. It seemed to take forever to reach the airport by taxi, everywhere shouting and yelling people, gunfire again , crowded streets. I didn't feel comfortable, Thea was crying....

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Manila International Airport was a madhouse. A lot more military than visitors. Most of the desks were closed. Only one counter was opened, everybody was checked carefully and we could enter the gate to board our plane. At that time all counters had closed. Nobody could leave anymore. Nervous soldiers didn't know exactly what to do and were awaiting their last orders. We were the last to board the plane. MIA was closed. Our captain kept us informed about the latest developments in Manila. A majority of the military top had joined the revolution. Marcos and his relatives were entrenched in the Malacañang Palace.

'Malacañang' 

 

It would last for 4 days. Up to the very last moment the dictator was addressing 'his' people thru his private TV-channel, until someone unplugged it and Ferdinand had to admit he had lost the 'case'.

Exited I followed the whole situation when I arrived in the Netherlands. So I learned Marcos fled to Honolulu Hawaii, by helicopter, believed to carry a load of gold. Leaving no place for Imelda's shoes.... Marcos died in exile in 1989. Imelda went back into politics and still has a lot of influence in the Visayas. She was chosen the prettiest girl of Leyte in '53 and was called 'The Rose of Tacloban'. That name changed into 'The Iron Butterfly' when she became first lady of the PI.

When the Marcos family fled Malacañang the lady left behind nearly 900 handbags, 500 gowns and over 1050 pairs of shoes !!!!

For me this revolution came inconvenient for 2 reasons.

First: My father enjoyed his stay in the Phils. so much he wanted to settle down in this warmer climate as a retiree. When I entered this subject one evening when having a smoke with Danny and a beer with Dante, Danny answered with his low bass: See what we can do about that !
Maybe it was a coincidence, but not much later the first lady started a program to facilitate the immigration of foreign retirees ..
The program was in progress but not started yet. Then someone suggested my father to be the first person to join this program so he got high-lighted. An awesome idea, I liked it. Even more when I was asked to promote the retiree-program in Holland.

Those years the name Romualdez opened doors to the Philippine Embassy and commercial attachés in Rotterdam and The Hague and I got all the support I wanted.
Then the revolution thwarted the whole plan.

Second : Marcos was a sick man and the family was said to be interested in my ways of healing, fuck that !!!! I mean, how many time would one get the opportunity to have a president as a patient, be fair. I liked the idea of having a 'healthy' bank account. Dreams only, all of it. The revolution made that impossible. In the meantime my old man got pretty ill and needed a major surgery due to colon cancer so his schedul had changed a bit as well I tell you.

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Anyway, back in Holland I decided to enjoy the Dutch spring and stay for a couple of months but I had problems to accustom to western culture again and I went homesick. I sustained for about a month then I returned to the action

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I needed a few days to recover from the jet-lag, but then I headed for Manila, curious to see the changes that came with the Aquino office. Nothing much seemed to have changed. OK, I had to get used to the names in the new government heading the newspapers.

The Metcalfs were happy to see me but couldn't offer me a job for the moment, well Cirio had something going on and Henry was his AD again. They had me going in Equalizer 2000, I needed to play a crooks type, hé easy what ?

It was another movie with a lot of unexplained action and special fxs. There was one little scene however I won't forget. There's a small tree blocked in the frame and it's suppose to be blasted to parts right on action. Cameras are rolling and Cirio shouts 'Action', We do our thing but the tree still stands. It was prepared and fixed with a small piece of wood. The firecracker they used to have the job done wasn't strong enough. A smaller shelf was prepared and everybody went back to nr. one. But this tree had a sense of humor. ...There was the routine: cameras rolling, sound...and before the word action was there, the little tree surrendered and fell down without any help from the outside. I wasn't the only one pissing my pants, even Cirio who just revealed a beautiful 'Putanginamo', couldn't cover a grin. I think the third take made it a 'copy'. I had a lot of background action, got shot and blown away numerous times. It's not my kinda movie but I know there are a lot of lovers.

Another Cirio-film and Premier production had it's cameras rolling. I invited Ellen to the set and introduced her to Cirio. I knew he loved a western cast in his films and I was right. He had a deployment for her. It were the same ol' guys again. Nick Nicholson, Joonee Gamboa, Don Gordon Bell, David Light and Henry of course

We were about to shoot: "Silk”.

I am the driver in the blue stuntcar. A camera is mounted at the bonnet.

I'm following someone, there's a sandy path, they shoot at me and a window is shot to pieces, finally I 'park' my car against a huge object and it explodes...

To have the window shattered a catapult was used to break the glass. It sounded a real bullet when it hit the glass, it all had to be done in one take, otherwise they needed another car.

Ellen was an extra, running in a crowd and they were shot at. Nervous to her first time, she managed to stumble within ten yards or so and went down, face first. She lost her glasses, couldn't find it ( minus 10 !!) and finally stepped on it breaking the frame in two. Almost blind she finds a way out, holding her broken glasses in one hand and wiping the sweat from her face with the other, showing a desperate glance . Exactly what the cameras wanted to see. She never ever showed up on any movie set again.

This action film from prolific Filipino director Cirio Santiago stars Cec Verrell as tough cop Jennie ("Silk"), who works for the Honolulu police. A series of murders has the police baffled, so Silk is called in to help uncover the culprits. Her sleuthing leads to several shoot-outs and evidence that incriminates one of the cops. Connected to the deaths are gangland figures and the ugly business of selling fake identities. 

Complete Cast of Silk

• Cec Verrell - Jenny "Silk" Sleighton
• Joe Mari Avellana - "Yashi" Kobayashi
• Nick Nicholson - Tyler
• Rex Cutter - Walker
• Peter Shilton - Austin
• Leo Martinez - Yamamoto Tanaka
• Vicky Suba - Lily
• Vic Diaz - Tokuda
• Chantal Manz - Wendy
• Steve Rogers - Officer
• Bill Baldridge - Officer
• Zenon Gil - Councilman
• Jack Starr - Officer
• Dick Reyes - Security Chief
• Sam Lombardo - Hospital Attendant
• Majid Jadali - Knox
• Randy Hrobar - Reilly
• Bobby Greenwood - Prosecutor
• Mark Cohen - Reporter
• Tony "Satch" Williams - Roswell
• Paul Holmes - P.R. Man

• Bill McLaughlin - Tom Stevens
• Fred Bailey - Brown
• David Light - Carnahan
• Ronnie Patterson - Vernon
• Henry Strzalkowski - Stromberg
• Joonee Gamboa - Chen
• Zenaida Amador - Mrs. Tokuda
• Jerry Bailey - Sgt. Keno
• Warren McLean - Officer
• Joseph Zucchero - Travis
• Steve Cook - Jazz
• Willie Williams - Officer
• Bert E. Spoor - Musgrave
• Roger Noble - Murchinson
• Bill Kipp - Officer
• Junix Inocian - Polo Makena
• Richard Harlow - Judge
• Ramon D'Salva - Governor
• Don Gordon - Haskell
• Michael Monty - Frampton
• James Crumrine - Douglas

Director(s):

Cirio Santiago

Writer(s):

Fred Bailey

Producer(s):

Cirio Santiago

Read more

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Films and stories: http://bert-firebert.blogspot.com/2010/04/when-i-was-in-movies.html