By the time I am done with this piece, I have no idea what else is left of the tattered Filipino soul. The early part of the week saw some senators stomp on it, spit on it and tear it to pieces.

The week before, the big news in politics was the battle royale between two political families in Batangas —the Rectos and the Levistes. There’s a tinge of showbiz in that political fight, too. The matriarchs of both sides, after all, are Vilma Santos and Loren Legarda. Loren may have long dropped the Leviste in her name after splitting up with Antonio Leviste, but her son, Leandro, of course, is still very much a Leviste. 

Recto-Leviste political feud

The principal characters in this political family feud were originally Ralph Recto and Batangas 1st district Rep. Leandro Leviste, who started accusing the Palace’s Executive Secretary of playing dirty politics. The older Recto already addressed the issue. But Batangas 6th district Rep. Ryan Recto, as the son, was expected to also speak on his father’s defense.

Of course, opinions regarding Ryan’s privilege speech were divided. The pro-Rectos praised him, while the pro-Levistes didn’t like a word he said. Ryan could have levitated while delivering his privilege speech, but expect the pro-Levistes to still bash him for everything he said and the way he delivered it.

If you ask me, I admired him for his calm demeanor. Surely, he came out like a babe in the wood. But that’s what he is — young, relatively naïve and still vulnerable. He definitely can’t be — shouldn’t be — compared to Leandro Leviste, whose guts are not of this world.

I’ve already written about Leandro in this column when he was still perceived to be a young hero. I heaped praises on him for exposing irregularities in the government. But from hero, he became a heel. What happened?

After putting him side-by-side with Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto, who remains a hero, Leandro’s character had a complete turnaround. After praising his courage for exposing the corrupt in government, came his solar power scandal. “Na-usog? (Hexed?)”  

In my article about Leandro, I discussed his life from conception in his mother’s womb — till the last time I saw him as a promising teener with fire in his heart regarding technology. This time around, allow me to talk about how Ryan Christian Recto was brought into this world.

Ryan’s mom, Vilma Santos, was already 39 when she married his dad, Ralph Recto, who was then 28. It was a grand wedding — at the Metropolitan Cathedral of San Sebastian in Lipa City on 11 December 1992. The wedding reception was at the Manila Hotel’s Fiesta Pavilion. 

Prior to the wedding, Vilma and I spoke on the phone — landline — twice. She was asking her friends for suggestions regarding preparations. She initially considered riding a tilbury to church. My response: In the afternoon sun? The wedding was at 2 p.m.

But it’s cool in Lipa, especially in December — Vilma countered. I had never been to Lipa before that and I had no idea what a beautiful place it was — still is. In the end, she opted to ride a limousine to church.

Waiting for Ryan

Three years after she wed Ralph, she was starting to worry that she had yet to get pregnant. She was already past 40 around this time. But at that age, she was still doing those complicated terpsichorean steps in her weekly variety show, Vilma!, on GMA.

Then, in 1995, she finally got pregnant. She promptly quit her program. GMA management understood her predicament and let her go.

To make sure the baby stayed safe in her womb, she was advised by her doctors to leave her Green Meadows home temporarily. She moved there in 1991 and it was still quite new in 1995 when she got pregnant. But the master bedroom — with all its comforts — was in the second floor. She had to use the stairs to get up there and there was no telling what could happen on her way up to the room she shared with Ralph.

There was also the matter of privacy. No, she didn’t keep her pregnancy a secret from the public. But before the advent of social media, there were already paparazzi who may hound her and report about the various stages of her pregnancy. 

Vilma had previously opened her Green Meadows house to the press. Its housewarming, in fact, had full media coverage. The press knew where to seek her out. That could stress out Vilma and endanger the baby she was carrying. 

The solution was to rent a condo unit. By 1995, condominium units were still clustered in Makati, Ortigas Center and in Annapolis Street in Greenhills. She and Ralph chose one way off Ayala Avenue, which had always been the busiest thoroughfare in the whole of Makati.

During her entire pregnancy, Vilma was confined only inside her condo unit. She didn’t even dare step out into the corridors of the building because she needed complete bed rest.

Newspapers and magazines were kept out of sight just in case some heartless showbiz reporter wrote something nasty about her. Anything that could upset Vilma was kept away from her. 

For entertainment, she had stacks and stacks of videos she could watch from her bed. But she soon tired of watching movies. She eventually found another way to entertain herself. She sat by the window and monitored the vehicular traffic below.    

Out of sheer boredom, she would watch vehicles from her room. Whenever there was a gridlock, she’d look at a particular vehicle and say: Why don’t you just give way? Duh, like the driver of that car could hear her from several floors up above.

A mother’s insecurities

Vilma said that she was so big and ugly while pregnant with Ryan. She got even more insecure because Ralph would go to the gym in the building, workout and ended up with the perfect physique, while there she was — huge as a whale waiting to give birth.

Somehow, I knew of her circumstances back then. No, we didn’t talk because I didn’t want to bother her. Her doctor also forbade her from having communications outside her condo unit. She was totally shielded from the outside world.

From 1995 when I learned that she was pregnant, until she gave birth in 1996, I was constantly praying for Vilma and the baby. The only other time I did that for a celebrity was for Dawn Zulueta. It also took Dawn a long time to get pregnant. In 2005, we did a magazine pictorial and she was big as anything. But I was happy for her. Very happy. Dawn and I were not exactly close friends, but she had always been a good person — sincerely kindhearted. And so, I also prayed for her safe delivery. In November of that year, she gave birth to Jacobo. Four years later, she had another child — a daughter she and her husband, Anton Lagdameo, named Ayisha.

On 29 March 1996, Vilma gave birth to Ryan at the Makati Medical Center. I was not able to attend the Christening rites, but I managed to follow at the reception, which — if I still remember correctly — was in a Chinese restaurant in Greenhills. His complete name is Ryan Christian Santos Recto.

On his first birthday, Ralph and Vilma threw him a grand celebration — at the rooftop of Club Filipino in Greenhills. That rooftop was still newly-built that time.

I recall sharing a table with Vilma’s good friend, Tina Revilla, who gushed over how Ryan looked like a prince — with his light brown hair and very fair skin. Everyone called him Christian that time and not Ryan. 

It didn’t take long before Ryan had his product endorsements. He wasn’t even two that time. One was for a telecommunications company, while the other, if memory serves me right, was for a spaghetti brand. 

When Ryan was four, I had lunch with Vilma and other friends at a restaurant in Tomas Morato. Ryan was so “pilyo” (naughty). He’d kiss the legs of the female servers, who’d get startled at first, but would eventually laugh it off when they’d realize it was a cute little boy who was doing all that kissing. I didn’t see him for more than a decade after that.

Young boy to Congressman

The next time I saw Ryan, he was already bigotilyo (having a thin moustache). He was 21 and he accompanied his mother to the 40th Gawad Urian, where Vilma was honored with a lifetime achievement award.  

And now, he is 30 and already a congressman — caught in the crossfire of politics. I have no idea if being a politician is what he really wants — or he is doing it because it is expected of him since being in politics is part of the Recto tradition. 

According to his teachers in Ateneo where he took up business management, he was a beadle and a good, well-behaved student. He never flaunted his status in life. This is the reason why his former Ateneo mentors also feel sad now that he is being dragged into this political mess. BI have no business over his life, but I do pray — the way I did for his safe delivery into this world — that perhaps he can still shift careers while he hasn’t been eaten yet by the wicked political system in this country. Politics is evil — as we now see in the Philippine Senate. Had this article been a movie, I’d give it the title Saving Ryan Christian.