Now that my movie, "Mamasapano: Now It Can Be Told," has started streaming on Netflix since 1 December — and has accomplished the no-mean feat of rocketing to the number three most streamed movie in the Philippines in just one day — I am flattered that netizens have expressed their appreciation of the film's theme song. Entitled "Aking Mahal," it is a song from a dying soldier's point of view, addressed to his wife and children. The lyrics go thus:

Aking mahal, kung ako'y di na makabalik

At kailanma'y di na madama'ng iyong halik

Isipin mong ako ay naririyan lamang

Natutulog ng mapayapa, sa yakap ni Inang Bayan

Tungkulin ko ay mahusay kong ginampanan

Kahit ito'y umabot hanggang kamatayan

Ang buhay ko'y hinandog ng may karangalan

Ang akin lamang tangin hiling, huwag n'yo akong lilimutin

Ang yakap mo, pati ng ating mga anak

Ang aking lagging naiisip, habang dugo'y dumaranak

Paalam na, huwag malulungkot, huwag tatangis

Hanggang huli, ako'y lumaban ng buong bangis

Pagkat ako'y isa sa mga Tagaligtas

Lalaban kahit na mautas

Ito'y aking sinumpaan

Hanggang huling hantungan

A lot of people who saw the movie during its premiere and theatrical run were teary-eyed when they heard that song, as well as over some other highly emotional scenes. What they did not know was that I was also an emotional wreck while I was writing and producing that song.

It all started when I was so touched by the screenplay of the movie that my creative muse was inspired — so inspired in fact — that I wrote a poem more or less in those words, in perhaps ten minutes flat. I intended it as my input to the script, something that one of the characters would be reciting in a voice-over while he was dying.

Well into pre-production, the question of the movie's theme and who would write and sing it came into focus. Many composers' and singers' names were thrown around, but upon discreet inquiries, their services turned out to be too expensive. Being a devout cheapskate, I came up with a brilliant idea: I would use the poem I had written as the lyrics of the song and set it to music.

For those of you who may not know, I am very musically inclined. I have been writing songs since high school, was a lounge singer for a few years at the Concourse Lounge of the Manila Garden Hotel (now Dusit Hotel), and I still have a jazz band called The Jazz Wholes that performs regularly.

For the musical score, I dusted off an old torch ballad I had written in 1980 as an entry to a songwriting contest on "Student Canteen" called "Seasons Change" which reached the finals, but didn't win the grand prize. After a few adjustments in wording and phrasing (with much help from Nanay Lolit Solis, an accomplished Tagalista), we suddenly had — tadah! — a theme song. And at no cost to the producer, mind you.

And who best to sing it — again at no cost — but moi. And so, with the help of my skilled musical director Rikki Gonzales, we hied off to Viva Films' Amerasia Studios (with Boss Vic's blessings, of course) and recorded the theme. It took seven takes to get the final take, not because I made mistakes, but because I became so caught up in the emotion of the song that I would break into tears while recording it.

All those efforts were not for naught, as the song garnered the Best Original Theme Award in the Metro Manila Film Festival Awards 2022 (one of the movie's five major awards) and was nominated in at least two other award-giving bodies.

And there it is, at the end of the movie, my heartfelt tribute to the forty-four SAF troopers who gave their lives for God and country. You, too, can honor them by watching their story.