During a more prosperous Philippines, the average Filipino household had at least two helpers to assist “Ate.” “Ma’am” wasn’t used until much later. Of course, in more palatial homes, it was “señora” for them.

In pre-war local movies, therefore, there was always a character playing a house help in the story. In the beginning, the help was only seen serving quietly in the background or sometimes given a line or two.

But the time came when they were used in comedies. Female comic Aruray was very effective in these roles.

The part of the help became so interesting that, in 1962, actor/director Tony Santos, Sr. came up with a movie called Pitong Atsay. It starred Patsy, Chichay, Dely Atay-atayan, Menggay, Elizabeth Ramsey (mother of singer Jaya), Metring David and, yes, Aruray.

In the 1978 Metro Manila Film Festival, there was Atsay that won for Nora Aunor the best performer award. That movie spawned Anak ng Atsay (1980), which also featured Nora, but with Julie Vega this time playing her daughter.

Later, Flora Gasser, Tiya Pusit, Beverly Salviejo and Evelyn Vargas became the in-demand onscreen maids in the movies. They weren’t servants in real life, of course. Flora was married to newscaster Harry Gasser. Tiya Pusit was a radio talent and half-sister of Nova Villa. Beverly is a trained classical singer and mathematician, while Evelyn is an accomplished actress on stage, TV and the movies.

Television also recognized the important role of the house help in the lives of the Filipinos. In the mid-1960s, the old ABS-CBN aired every Sunday late afternoon a show called Sta. Zita and Mary Rose.

Sta. Zita is an Italian saint, patroness of domestic workers and waitresses. Mary Rose, meanwhile, was the show’s host, Mary Rose Jacinto. This program was revived in the late 1980s, but didn’t last very long on the air.

From the time television was introduced in the Philippines, most programs had house help characters as mainstays. In Pancho Loves Tita in the 1960s, vaudeville veteran Chuchi was the helper of Pancho Magalona and Tita Duran (the parents of Francis M).

On GMA, there was Family 3 + 1 that had Caridad Sanchez playing housemaid to Helen Vela and Princess Punzalan. There was also the perennial TV houseboy, Tange, who served Pugo, Patsy and Mildred Ortega in Wanted: Boarders. In another sitcom, My Son, My Son, Tange was also the help of Pugo, Patsy and their son Jay Ilagan.

A rather miscast (but still effective) house help character was Nena Perez-Rubio in ‘Yan ang Misis Ko, which headlined Rosa Rosal and Ronald Remy. A graduate of medicine (she chose acting over medical practice), Nena spoke Spanish in real life and often let out a smattering of Castilian words in the series. (Chuchi, incidentally, also spoke flawless Spanish off-screen — and so did Patsy.)

That Nena spoke in the Castilian tongue while playing a domestic help in the sitcom was acceptable. Until the 1970s, there were still housemaids who were fluent in Spanish, having served in homes where “la lengua Castellano” was primarily spoken.

Gaga for radio

The most iconic domestic worker on Philippine television, however, was Matutina of John en Marsha. Born Evelyn Bontogon in Caloocan when this now progressive city was still a town of Rizal, Matutina was the eldest of seven children.

She grew up poor and devoid of material trappings. Her father worked in a furniture shop, but was no “maestro carpintero” (master carpenter). He was therefore relegated to making chairs and stools with the littlest of embellishments.

Her mother, on the other hand, was a daily wage earner at the Chelsea factory where she helped pack cigarettes. Between her work and raising seven children, she must have been a wreck at the end of each day.

Fortunately, Matutina was patient and persevering. In high school, she displayed her talent for writing. She was a columnist in the school paper, The Voice.

Formal college was out of the question. The family didn’t have enough resources for that. And so, Matutina took up a short secretarial course that taught her typing and stenography. On the side, she also studied cosmetology that could have employed her as a beautician in neighborhood parlors.

For a time, she also enrolled in dressmaking. That could have made her a costurera (dressmaker).

Radio, however, had always fascinated her. When she learned that there was an audition for radio talents in one network, she tried her luck and found herself among hundreds of other aspirants. It was late in the morning when she was told that she was among the Top 10 contenders.

Matutina was disheartened though when she was informed that the audition would resume at 1 p.m. that same day. By noontime, she was famished. Sure, there was a canteen in the building where she could eat. But all the money she had was only enough to transport her back home. Matutina was all set to give up at that point.

To her surprise, another girl, a co-aspirant, offered to treat her to lunch. She had “giniling” (ground pork) and two orders of rice. That was how hungry she was.

At the end of the day, she made the final cut and the competitor who so generously paid for her meal didn’t. Matutina never found out what became of her. Here’s wishing she had a good life and was rewarded by the universe for her kindness.

Trained under broadcast great Johnny de Leon, Matutina became a professional radio talent by the late 1960s. She was cast in drama shows where she was required to do multiple voices — young, old, sensual and even that of a fishwife.

By 1973, Matutina was working for Radio Philippines Network or RPN. Aside from doing voice, she also directed radio programs. She was already happy with her career when she found her way to a new medium: Television.

TV sidekick

Dolphy by then was in need of a new TV show. For close to a decade, he did Buhay Artista in the old ABS-CBN. But martial law shut down all the networks in September 1972, except for RPN-9, which was owned by Marcos crony, Roberto Benedicto.

By December of the same year, however, Channel 7 was allowed to reopen. Dolphy moved Buhay Artista there. But within months, he was caught in the middle of production problems and decided to end the program.

Dolphy kept himself busy doing movies. He finished Fefita Fofonggay, which was released in the summer of 1973. It was a hit in the tills. But Dolphy still longed for TV.

It was writer/director Ading Fernando who found him a new vehicle on television. The title was going to be Kung May Tiyaga, May Nilaga. Dolphy was to play John Puruntong. His wife was going to be named Marsha.

Ading had always wanted to work with Helen Gamboa and so he offered her the Marsha role. She had to turn down the part because she was then in one of her pregnancies. Nida Blanca was brought in and became Marsha.

To play John and Marsha’s teenage boy, they threw in one of Dolphy’s good-looking sons, Rolly Quizon. Maricel Soriano, then only eight, was cast as Shirley, the couple’s daughter.

Ading thought it would be interesting to put a comic villain to torment John Puruntong. It was a period when mother-in-law jokes were in fashion — thanks to Pepe Pimentel who started the trend on television.

And so, John’s mother-in-law, Dona Delilah Jones, was born. Ading wanted Chichay to play the part of the rich widow, but she was tied up with another show, Ginang Milyonarya.

Now, Ading was not one to play nepotism, but he was left with no other choice but to cast his own sister, Dely Atay-atayan, as Dona Delilah. The tricky part was where to find her sidekick — actually her loquacious housemaid.

Ading found the ever-chattering help in RPN-9’s radio booth. Her name: Evelyn Bontogon. But they needed a name for her character.

It was Evelyn who volunteered the name Matutina, a character she played in a Tide commercial for radio (“Matutina gaya-gaya.”). Ading liked the name Matutina and so Matutina she was in the new sitcom launched in November 1973.

What’s in a name

Matutina is actually a beautiful Spanish name that means “morning” in English. Think matutinal — or something that takes place in the morning. In 1970, a young actress named Marifi was even introduced in a film called Sweet Matutina. Rudy Fernandez was one of her co-stars.

In Philippine television, one of the most prolific writers is named Cecile Matutina. Her forte is talk and one of her most successful TV projects was Martin After Dark.

Matutina’s name did not appear in the opening credits of Kapag May Tiyaga, May Nilaga. She did not see that as a problem since the show was still finding its foothold by then. In fact, after two episodes, the program’s title was changed to the catchier and more modern-sounding John and Marsha, which eventually became John en Marsha.

When Matutina became a favorite among viewers, she was billed as “Matutina,” which became her screen name. Until she started giving press interviews, the public didn’t even know that she was Evelyn Bontogon in real life.

As Matutina, she became famous for her shrill voice. She called out to Dona Delilah with her signature “Miii-siiiiiisss!” What could be shriller than that?

Dona Delilah, the widow of a multi-millionaire American, had so much money that Matutina simply had to sweep the floor to get the cash they needed for household expenses. Or to give away to anyone in need. Marsha was a regular recipient.

When Dona Delilah ordered Matutina to issue a check, the moneyed help would ask: “Tseke mo o tseke ko?” (“Your check or mine?”)

One time, the house ran out of floor wax (this was before the introduction of laminated finish) and so Matutina had to find a cleaning substitute. She ended up polishing the floor with queso de bola.

On another occasion, Dona Delilah sent Matutina to buy her noodles in Hong Kong. Just to be clear, Matutina asked if the missus wanted her noodles with soup. Dona Delilah annoyingly replied: “Eh, di wala! Paano kung lumigwak ‘yung sabaw?” (“Dry noodles, of course. What if the soup spills over?”)

Matutina was such a hit with the public that she even had her own movie where she played the title role: Ang Inyong Lingkod, Matutina. By her own admission, the film bombed at the tills.

Nevertheless, she continued making films. Fortunately for her, there would be John en Marsha movies every so often: John en Marsha sa Pelikula, John en Marsha sa Amerika, John en Marsha sa Probinsiya, etc.

In 1989, however, Dolphy eloped with Zsa Zsa Padilla. That scandal was huge and it hurt the reputation of Dolphy, even John Puruntong by extension. The series had to end. A movie, John en Marsha Ngayong ‘91, proved to be forgettable.

The last years

By then, Matutina had already married her husband, Henry Guerrero. That union produced a daughter, Sheila, who now has two young kids of her own.

Matutina had to keep working though. Thankfully, she never stopped doing side jobs even when she was still in John en Marsha. In the 1970s, she supervised dubbing — coaching actors on how to use their voice in the movies.

Radio became her main bread and butter again. From time to time, she’d be part of soap operas on TV. For one term, she even served as barangay councilor.

The last decade had not been kind to Matutina. She developed kidney problems and had to undergo dialysis thrice a week. Osteoporosis also bound her to a wheelchair.

Last week, on Valentine’s Day, Matutina’s body finally gave up. She was dead at 78.

Looking back, Matutina, in her own little way, changed the dynamics in the Filipino household. The relationship between master and help relaxed a bit, partly because of her. So, it’s not so bad to be bantering with the help, after all.

And as the housemaid in John en Marsha, she held on to her dignity. She and Mang John may have had their verbal jostling, but she tried hard not to be treated with condescension.

Unlike in the past when the helper was deathly scared of the mistress of the house, today there had been a reversal of roles: the employer is now easily threatened by the help. It’s because good help is hard to find these days.

Despite her occasional insolence, Matutina was one good help. With all the money scattered all over the house, she obviously was trustworthy. Trusting her with your secret, of course, was a different story. But overall, Matutina’s handling of her maid role helped put more equality in this unjust world.

When her Matutina character was still being developed in 1973, she was already aware of political correctness. She refused to do Visayan accent, which is how it is done in so many other sitcoms, because she didn’t want to offend the Warays, the Cebuanos and the Ilonggos.

And so, she went with the shrill. It only offended our auricular senses.

Goodbye, Matutina. We will never forget you. How can we? Your shrill voice will forever reverberate in our ears — but in a good, humorous way. The Matutina way.