Death upon death

Death upon death | Daily Tribune

They say that death comes in threes. But since Pilita Corrales left us last 12 April, it had been a chain of deaths. Every week, without fail, death would claim a member of show business.

Of course, death happens — all the time... every minute and every second of the day on this earth. But this is the first time that there had been a death cycle this long in Philippine entertainment. It had been going on nonstop in the last few months.

Last 17 December 2024, Jimmy Morato died at 78. People should still remember him because until about a decade or so ago, he was still doing radio. He had a program called Chachahin Mo, Baby.

He began as a matinee idol — launched in the first Tisoy movie (Christopher de Leon was in the second). His leading lady was Pilar Pilapil as Maribubut. Later, he became the leading man in Cleopakwak, which was based on a komiks material about a duck that lays golden eggs.

Morato was lucky to have been handled by a then still very young Lino Brocka in Stardoom. Playing a gay character (daring at that time), he was cast in the film as one of Walter Navarro’s playthings.

When 2025 set in, there was a private death watch over Gloria Romero, who breathed her last on 25 January. After Gloria’s passing, another movie queen followed — Delia Razon. Then, it was time for Matutina to go. After that, producer Danny Gloria also went.

But from the time Pilita died, the deaths continued in close succession — without a breather. Here is a list of the industry members who left the world — only a week apart from each other: superstar and National Artist for Film and Broadcast Arts Nora Aunor, Hajji Alejandro, Ricky Davao, stuntman/villain Romy Romulo, Amay Bisaya, film supplier Joel Casaul, scriptwriter Tony Perez and production designers Roy Lachica and Arthur Nicdao.

Wrong information

This June, the officers and members the Film Development Council of the Philippines, Mowelfund and the Film Academy of the Philippines are holding a memorial tribute for the recently departed members of the entertainment industry. Included in this event is a Mass to be officiated by Fr. Tito Caluag.

With all the showbiz deaths happening, I couldn’t help but notice a disturbing scenario in media today: the death of proper reportage. Everyone wants to be the first to put the news out there that reporters merely turn to the internet for information regarding the deceased.

When Delia Razon left the world, this was how the headline read in three media outlets: “Delia Razon, star of Mutya ng Pasig, dies.” She was in Mutya ng Pasig, all right, but she only came out in the latter part — appearing in less than a fourth of this 1950 movie.

The Mutya ng Pasig movie conjures images of its actual lead star — Rebecca Gonzales. Endowed with a beautiful face (she was a Cover Girl title-holder), Rebecca was a singer-actress, who — when she gained weight — ended up playing comedic house help roles in the movies.

But Rebecca Gonzales will always be The Mutya ng Pasig among film aficionados — and not Delia Razon, who became a box-office queen in the 1950s.

The headline used by media outlets to announce the death of Ms. Razon was a disservice to both Delia and Rebecca. Mutya ng Pasig was and will always be Rebecca Gonzales’ most iconic movie (with Waling-Waling as her next).

In the case of Delia Razon (now better known as the grandmother of Carla Abellana), the LVN star was a movie queen — a big one during her time. Her stature was so high up there that she needed no less than Rosa Rosal to play female villain to her leading lady roles on the big screen.

Why did most reporters say that she was the star of Mutya ng Pasig? Well, I guess they were such in a rush that they typed away the first title they saw in her filmography. They should have realized that in the case of Delia Razon, there can’t just be one movie attributed to her — because she had so many important films as a movie queen. And they had to associate her with the wrong one!

Had the reporters of today been more familiar with her and her achievements, they could have simply said in her obituary: “Movie queen Delia Razon dies.” A title like that could have been more fitting — for she truly was a Queen.

When Pilita Corrales died, this was what most entertainment reporters did: As usual, they turned to the Internet and got chunks and chunks of paragraphs from Wikipedia. I’m sorry, but Wikipedia carries a lot of inaccurate information.

Wikipedia has a story about Pilita’s participation in the Tokyo Music Festival. A lot of writers picked that up and included it in their respective reports. What those reporters didn’t realize was that the items posted in Wikipedia about Pilita’s Tokyo Music Festival stint were not 100 percent correct.

These reporters — what were they thinking when they were doing the story of Pilita Corrales? They lifted information from Wikipedia and passed it on as their own. But everyone has access to social media — and so they’d easily be found out.

When Ricky Davao died, some showbiz reporters put his middle name as Caballes when it should have been Abiera. Again, this piece of information came from Wikipedia. Thankfully, that had already been corrected recently on the internet.

Another ill practice of showbiz writers these days is picking up social media posts of family and friends of deceased celebrities and including these in their reports. That’s lazy work.

Before Wikipedia became the go-to for information, the entertainment editor of a leading newspaper made it a habit to call me to ask about the background of personalities currently in the news. In time, I told her (yes, she was a lazy, er, lady editor) that we can’t go on that way... that she should be able to fend for herself.

She asked me how she was going to do that. I told her that before she even accepted the position of entertainment editor, she should have made sure that she knew by heart the names of the winners of the FAMAS from its inception to the present.

She didn’t last long in the job and demoted herself to being the assistant of the late Ricky Lo. Oops, did I just give her identity away?

New breed

These days, there’s a new breed of showbiz writers who are called “abangers” (from The Avengers). Why “abangers”? Because they are so lazy to go out on field and interview celebrities. They simply stalk the social media accounts of actors, get info from there about the current activities of these personalities and are able to come up with their respective columns. That easy. That lazy.

The public always had a very low regard for showbiz writers. But there were also journalists who tried to turn entertainment pieces into works of art. Yes, showbiz writing can be elevated to a higher form.

Think Nick Joaquin, who can write about anything — from crimes of passion to beauty queens in tune with fashion and from triumphant boxers to fallen movie idols. Or maybe even Pete Lacaba who also dabbled in showbiz writing when he was an editor for Yes magazine. The list is short, sadly.

Unfortunately, with showbiz practitioners dying one after another, we also get to witness the quick death of elegant entertainment writing. I don’t look forward to seeing yet another showbiz death — or any death for that matter — but wait till you read the next showbiz obituary and you’ll see what I mean.