Sweet 60 birthday tribute to Jingjing with the smiling face

It was through the assignments given by Chato Garcellano, then travel editor of Philippine Daily Inquirer, that I got a chance to reconnect with Jingjing Romero. During the time Chato was travel ed, she'd send me off to media familiarization tours of Boracay, Palawan, Laguna, Batangas, with Jingjing as organizer and contact person.

Jingjing always impressed me with her warm, as against cold, professionalism. These tours were so efficiently organized. Not a minute was wasted. Not only did one get the main story with enough spillover materials for sidebars and private diary entries, one also got enough space and time to catch one's breath. Brava, Jingjing and her Stratos staff!

Jingjing Romero and a posse of media in Laguna: she is somewhere on the second row wearing a red blouse and a wide-brimmed hat.

What's more and what's better, Jingjing has a big heart, bigger than her fair, moon-shaped face that hasn't been visited by a frown or the lines and spots of age since the time I met her.

She showed this facet of herself many times in my life when some writers and I in Baguio City were reviving the Baguio Writers Group. One of our projects was a fund-raising jazz concert for a cause (e.g., the treatment and recovery of Napoleon Javier, a founding member of the Group who suffered and survived a major stroke, the holding of writing workshops for the city's young writers and also for retirees who'd like to leave a legacy, etc.).

Through her private donation along with those of other donors, the Baguio Writers Group, now under Luchie Maranan, has continued its mission of sharing writing expertise and opportunities with others.

When she's in the city up north, she calls and asks me to join her group for lunch or supper, even if I feel awkward because I'm not really a part of Baguio media in the sense of being a permanent resident there. When we part, she never fails to hand over a small gift, a bar of chocolate, an umbrella at one time (very useful during the monsoon months). This thoughtfulness I appreciate--it sets her leagues above other public relations practitioners (it's a profession, I agree, and a good one), but those others can appear user-friendly, sometimes.

For as long as you're connected to a major, even a minor, media outlet, they flit by you as though you're close and intimate and even loosely sign their notes, "With love." Jingjing is above insincerities like that. After all, mahigpit na ipinagbabawal ang plastic ngayon!

When music aficionado Pablo Tariman and I, as his assistant, embarked on the classical music education series billed as Intimate Concerts at Kiss the Cook Gourmet Restaurant, Jingjing was there with her gang called "Six and the City." Their presence at the initial concert of pianist Oliver Salonga helped to raise funds for the halfway house maintained for Aeta schoolchildren in Barangay Bayan-bayanan, Dinalupihan, Bataan, a project of former Audit Commissioner Evelyn San Buenaventura.

We saw Jingjing again, her son and another group at another intimate concert fund-raiser at the same venue, this time for the legal fees and other needs of Pablo's son-in-law, political prisoner Ericson Acosta, who was thrown in a Samar jail with trumped-up charges.

Another occasion, a recent one, when Jingjing responded to an SOS was when I referred film director Martin Masadao, also of Baguio City, to her. He and I asked her if she could request Seair to provide two seats for an under-aged member of the cast of Anac Ti Pating and a guardian, his lola, for a flight to and from Davao City.

This was in November of 2012 when the Sineng Pambansa awarding ceremonies were held in the southern city. Jingjing moved quickly to grant the request, and the boy, Raynon Ladia, went on to win the Best Actor trophy  and the film, the Grand Jury Prize.

When a gift is freely given, the returns are plentiful.

I predict that Jingjing's 60th year in this world and the additional grace years that will follow will be a time of great harvest not only in terms of material wealth (Who wants that alone? Not the Jingjing I know, I'm certain of that). Only someone like her whose faith in God is unwavering and who infects others with this faith deserves a period of grace such as this one tonight.

Thank you, Jingjing, for being a blessing to others.

--Babeth Lolarga

This piece serves as the blogger's testimonial to Ms. Elena "Jingjing" Romero of Stratos Inc. who is celebrating her 60th birthday tonight somewhere in Filinvest 2, Quezon City.

Victory party for Martin plus more on 1st Sunday of Advent

He and his Baguio friends had every reason to celebrate. Martin Masadao, scriptwriter and director of Anac Ti Pating, adjudged best film at the recent Sineng Pambansa Festival in Davao City. gave us the blow-by-blow account of the awards night wherein one of his actors, Deuel Raynon Ladia, also won the best actor trophy. 

When Martin's name was called, he was so flustered and nervous that when he went onstage, he was shaking all over. He had to hold on to his Grand Festival Award trophy lest it fall. This would have been his thank-you speech:

"The entire cast, staff and crew behind "Anac Ti Pating" -- Ferdie Balanag, Hendrix Sanchez, Shant Verdun, Randy Cruz, Spyke, Paul, John, Willy, Laydeh, Bishi, Raynon Ladia, Luchie Maranan, Nick Prill Calinao, Steve Chong, Dr. Charles Macalalag, Joaquin Fianza, Nonnette Bennett, Laurence Yee, Endong Nevada, Sam Borcena, the students of Mabini Elementary School, Paul Ignacio, Kokoy Palma, Athena Masilungan, Gabriel Palma, Karlo and RL Altomonte, Art Tibaldo, Dave Leprozo, Ani Bongaoen, Stella Lagasca and the other bit players... (kung may nakalimutan ako, pasensya na lang, alzheimer's lang, walang personalan)

"Thank you to Norman Adefuin for the poster lay-out and design. And to Richard Balonglong for the photo we used in the poster.

"During the course of writing the script last year up to the pre-production days from January to August -- the following  people housed me, fed me, occasionally got me drunk -- Susan Tagle, Reji Regalado, Dra. Yvonne Soriano, Atty. Lyssa Pagano-Calde, Bien Benitez, Jay Adlao-Block -- Thank You!!! But most especially for the support you've given me through the years!

"(Special mention to Endong Nevada and Ellen Lao who in December last year lent me financial support so I could submit the manuscript in time. Maraming salamat, kahit na late ako nakapag-bayad nung utang. Hehehe.)

"To the Baguio Writers Group -- Merci Dulawan (who helped me out with some of the Ilocano dialogue), Baboo Mondonedo, Grace Subido, Desiree Caluza, Jenny Carino and Padma Perez -- Maraming Salamat sa encouragement!

"To the Film Development Council of the Philippines -- Chairman Briccio Santos, Exec. Director Ted Granados, Nonoy, Ma'am Wilma, Ma'am Cely, Monchito, Ina, etc. -- thank you for your understanding and having faith in the material/script from the very beginning.

"To Babeth Lolarga who helped me secure round trip tickets for Raynon Ladia and his Grandmother, Alejandra de Jesus -- through Babeth, we were able to get sponsorship from Seair -- thanks to Ms. JingJing Romero of Stratos! And to Michelle Uson-Laurel for the generous pabaon she sent for Raynon and Grandma for their trip to Davao. To our beautiful and gracious host in Davao, Mymy Andong, daghang salamat!

"To my Sagittarian mothers -- Mitos Yniguez, Laida Lim and (my real Sagittarian Mom) Gertrudes 'Didi' Masadao -- for the love, support, great food all these years and hopefully more to come!

"To Wilfredo Pascual, Nonnette Bennett and Frank Cimatu -- I may not be a member of your secret coven, but thank you for all the positive energies and vibes you've sent my way through the years! Baka pwede akong maging honorary warlock/witch?! Cheers!!!

"To my family -- Budi, Joy, Geej, nephews, nieces, aunts, uncles and cousins -- thank you for all the fond memories of growing up in Baguio.

"To my dearest sister, Felina -- the keeper of the flame...

"I send my love to all of you!"

Meanwhile, Kuya Fern and I hosted a victory party-cum-potluck Christmas party at our Green Valley digs. 

Early birds Robert Abano and his children Mira and Igi brought Everything Nice cassava cake. The beer flowed, courtesy of Baboo and Kuya Fern. She also brought mechado with yum dee yum yum mushroom gravy. 

There was spaghetti from the Maranan siblings Ed and Luchie, vegetarian pica pica from Desiree Caluza, lengua from Merci Javier Dulawan that made us all chatty till dinner time and beyond. Jenny Carino brought a bottle of red wine, and she had every reason to celebrate--she was grand-slam winner in the bunutan and at the raffle of artworks from the Lolarga-Fernandez collection. She brought home a watercolor by Baboo and a Roland Bay-an oil on canvas work with three Igorot women as subjects. Latecomer-from-work Nonnette Bennett, also in the cast of Anac Ti Pating, brought kimchi. 

I opened my big bottle of Jack Daniels, the only pasalubong I requested from my kuya who went on a media fam tour of Dubai, for sharing with fellow scotch drinker Baboo. The Pacis couple, Oscar and Toottee, led a thanksgiving prayer for Martin's award and for Luchie's Palanca  prize for her children's short story and wished us well in our writerl-y, even painter-ly, endeavors, reminding us never to forget to plug in to The Source, The One when we begin anything creative. Shy mango EV Espiritu, who's also a mask-maker, theater director and choreographer when he isn't a photo correspondent of a national broadsheet, shared some photos of that enchanting evening.

There was also a dance-time-at-GV contest to the music of Sergio Mendes when he still had his original Brasil '66. Toottee and Oscar, who have a son who is a ballet dancer with a Hong Kong company, served as judges and ruled that Baboo and Ed deserved to be crowned dancing queen and king because they showed grace and intuitive timing. 

The compromising video of the contestants dancing for the prizes (a Tawi-tawi banig and a 1/1 print of Brent School's Ogilvy Hall by Pandy Aviado) has been stored away for private viewing. The videographer promised within an inch of his life that he wouldn't upload it on YouTube. Here we are at a party to remember.

Merry-makers all (from left): Baboo, Oscar and Toottee who brought home a Roberto Acosta terracotta sculpture, Babeth holding up the scarf Martin gave her (he emphasized that it didn't come from ukay-ukay but from Germany), Martin, Jenny, Luchie, Merci and Desiree. Kneeling on one knee is Rolly with his signature prop.

Next time someone please bring a tripod so everyone can be in the picture. This time another manong, EdMar, joins Rolly on the floor.

It was the kind of wild-tame party that'll long live in our memories as another year comes in and adds another year to our respective ages. This time, shy mango EV joins Rolly on the floor.

Photos courtesy of EV Espiritu