Going down soon: the ABS-CBN complex along Sgt. Esguerra.
Already going down: the Sampaguita Pictures compound in the Gilmore-Ortigas area.
Both properties are Quezon City landmarks and beloved by showbiz aficionados. The Butcher already wrote about the sale of the ABS-CBN grounds to Ayala Land Inc. in this paper’s 14 March issue. It is the same development company that purchased Sampaguita studios.
Today’s generation may no longer be familiar with Sampaguita Pictures. But, for sure, they still know Susan Roces, Amalia Fuentes and, especially, Gloria Romero. It was Sampaguita that built up these three movie queens.
As a matter of fact, it was the same film outfit that turned Nora Aunor into a superstar. Even Vilma Santos became a famous child star — thanks to Sampaguita, which produced the actress’ very first movie, Trudis Liit, in 1963.
Sampaguita Pictures was the biggest dream factory from the late 1930s till the mid-1960s. It was the ABS-CBN of its time — big and powerful, churning out blockbuster films and had a stable of glamorous stars.
Sampaguita closed down in the mid-1970s when television became the cheaper form of entertainment. But the studio grounds were not left idle. Its buildings were rented out to ad agencies and, for about a decade, even served as the headquarters of the Film Academy of the Philippines and its various guilds.
The street where Sampaguita grew
The Sampaguita Pictures compound should be familiar to those who buy Christmas lanterns during the Yuletide season. It is along what is now known as “the parol row.” And contrary to popular belief, the lanterns sold there are not from Pampanga, but from Bicol.
The Bicolano lantern-makers actually rent the space where they sell their products from the owners of the Sampaguita compound — the Vera-Perez family. The Veras are originally from Bicol — in Catanduanes and Albay. (The Vera got hyphenated after only daughter, Azucena, married Dr. Jose Perez of Bulacan.)
It was Jose O. Vera who purchased that huge estate that eventually became the Sampaguita Pictures compound. Vera started out as a judge from Bicol, but later became a senator. When he was still with the judiciary and was assigned in Manila, he and his wife, the former Dolores Honrado, moved from house to house in the city — in search of a peaceful neighborhood, preferably one near a river.
In San Juan, Rizal (yes, you read that right — Rizal), the couple found a 4.5-hectare lot with a rivulet that runs through the property. This was in 1937.
Two years later, Quezon City was created and had to be carved out of districts from towns belonging to Rizal province. Marikina had to give up that portion up to where UP Diliman is now presently located. Caloocan, which used to be a Rizal town, sacrificed Novaliches, Balintawak, La Loma — all the way to Tatalon.
And San Juan? Its boundary line used to reach all the way to San Francisco del Monte. Today’s posh New Manila was originally part of San Juan town. The Vera property, just a block or so off New Manila, therefore had to change its address. All of a sudden, it became Quezon City.
To this day, there is still confusion over the name of that street fronting the Sampaguita compound. It started out as Granada Street. But most everyone refers to it as either Gilmore or Ortigas.
About a decade ago, a Quezon City ordinance changed the name of Granada to Sen. Jose O. Vera Street. And yet — to this day — everyone still refers to it as either Gilmore or Ortigas.
The truth is, Jose O. Vera deserves the honor of having that street named after him. That stretch of land belonged to him, after all.
Studio days
When he bought the property, it reached all the way to what was then Delgado Hills — the site of the original JT’s Manukan of Joel Torre. To the eastern side, the Vera lot ended on what is now Santolan Road, which used to be Madrigal territory. Beyond that was Barrio Mapuntod, which was part of the Hacienda de Mandaloyon of the Ortigas family. Barrio Mapuntod is now Greenhills.
Jose O. Vera built an all-concrete home along the Valencia Street side — right across a house still owned by the heirs of the late Lily Monteverde, who had earlier bought it from Nora Aunor. When he co-invested with cousin Pedro Vera in establishing Sampaguita Pictures, he converted about three hectares of his estate into a studio lot.
They had all they needed to complete a film in that compound. For shoots that required actors to ride horses or rough it up in the wilderness, they went to Delgado Hills (now already flattened). For wedding scenes, there is a chapel that is still there, but is soon up for demolition.
Nipa huts were also built within the studio lot for scenes depicting provincial life. And remember, the property came with a rivulet that could pass for an actual river with tight shots.
In the late 1950s, the Greater Manila Area, which was how Metro Manila was called then, found the need to build more roads and government officials set their sights on the vast Vera property. Could they please buy one hectare of the land? At bargain basement price?
The Vera family decided to sell as part of their civic duty. That affected the landscape of Sampaguita compound. Suddenly, there was a busy road that cut across the property.
Demolition begins
The traffic there today is HORRIBLE. Maybe Ayala Land can perform a huge miracle to make life easier for motorists and for the future residents of the condominiums it plans to build on the Sampaguita Pictures compound.
The demolition work has started. Small structures are being taken down. Among the buildings, there is a chance they will start with the ladies’ dorm that was used by the female stars of Sampaguita when they were at work. If there was a ladies’ dorm, of course, there was also a dormitory for the actors.
The boys’ dorm was built away from the street to make it more difficult for its male stars to escape in the middle of the night. It turned out they didn’t have problems with the boys.
What the Vera-Perezes obviously miscalculated was the stretch of Gina Pareno’s rebellious streak. The actress was born not to obey rules, but to defy them. From the second-floor quarters, she’d somehow manage to clamber down the building to be able to go out on dates.
Probably the last to go among the structures is the events place, which is only more than a decade old. The Vera-Perez siblings took out a loan to construct the two-story building that was rented out for weddings, birthdays and other special occasions. Ayala Land cannot demolish this yet since the events place is booked till the end of the year.
Thankfully, the old house will remain. The plan is to open the ancestral home for private events — by appointment. Here’s hoping it becomes a successful venture — otherwise, even that may have to go, too.
In the 1950s, there were three major film studios: LVN, Premiere and Sampaguita. The Premiere lot had long disappeared from the map of Caloocan where it used to be located. The LVN compound in P. Tuazon is now a cluster of low-rise condo buildings.
The ABS-CBN complex is up for demolition. And now, the Sampaguita Pictures compound is being torn down.
A few years from now, there will not be a single landmark left in the metropolis to remind us of the establishments that once upon a time provided entertainment-hungry Filipinos with a rich pop culture and heritage.