The Charo I know

In the mid-’70s, Charo Santos was the yardstick of the ideal woman: Beautiful, intelligent and with a good family background.

Born in Legaspi City quite a number of years ago – today – Rosario Navarro Santos was raised in Mindoro along with five other siblings who are all blessed with good looks and fine, translucent skin.

Charo’s late father was an honorable man – a doctor who, instead of making money out of his medical profession, chose to accept payments from indigent patients in the form of livestock and produce.

When she reached her teens, Charo started collecting a string of beauty titles – from Miss Calapan to Miss Southern Tagalog Athletics Association.

Eventually, she was discovered – right in their front yard – by fashion designer Rikki Jimenez who was then vacationing in Mindoro.

Jimenez convinced her to move to Manila and join the world of ramp modeling. She did – and, soon after, won her first national beauty title: Miss Green Revolution.

While pursuing a career as a model, she went on with her college studies – at St. Paul College in Manila. Life wasn’t necessarily comfortable for her in the big city. To get home to the family apartment in Lealtad in Sampaloc, she had to spend at least an hour every afternoon waiting for a ride along busy (and even then polluted) Taft Avenue. Sometimes, she just walked all the way home to Lealtad – in clogs. Once, during a flashflood, she practically swam her way back to their house in her St. Paul uniform.

Charo’s efforts, however, paid off. She eventually earned her mass communications degree from St. Paul College – magna cum laude.

On television, she first started working as part of production. But she was far too beautiful to be confined behind the camera. Soon, she was starring in her own sitcom called Ang Lola Kong Baduy with Chichay.

In 1976, she joined the prestigious Baron Travel Girl contest and won the title. It was in this contest where she was spotted by Lino Brocka who referred her to Mike de Leon who, in turn, was looking for a newcomer to star in the now classic film, Itim.

Her luck wouldn’t end there. At the Asian Film Festival held in Australia, she was voted Asia’s best actress – the only other Filipina to have achieved such distinction. (The other one was the late Charito Solis.)

Aside from mastering her craft as an actress, Charo also learned the ropes of production. Before she even reached 30, she was already a top film executive at Bancom and produced masterpieces like Oro, Plata, Mata, Himala and Misteryo sa Tuwa. (At one point, she also tried singing and waxed a single for Vicor’s sister company, Blackgold.)

To this day, she hasn’t stopped working – as one of the big bosses of ABS-CBN and Star Cinema and as host of the top-rated and much-awarded drama series, Maalaala Mo Kaya.

I feel fortunate to have met Charo early in life. In fact, I was still in college when I first met her (although she doesn’t remember this anymore). Charo, back then, was hosting – along with Tito, Vic & Joey – the youth-oriented Sunday noontime show Friends for Channel 4. I remember I was in school on my way to the library one day when somebody approached me and asked if I wanted to come out on television. Sure – why not? That was the one thing I needed to break the monotony of my college life.

It didn’t take long before I was introduced to Charo, who was then waiting under the shade of a tree. At that instant, she completely won me over with her simplicity.

Goodness, here was Asia’s best actress sitting under a tree – unmindful of onlookers who were probably wondering what she was doing there in the first place. (She only had a skeletal crew with her then and no one would have known she was there to do a segment for a TV show.)

Many years later, when I was already doing the television beat for this paper, I heard that she had joined ABS-CBN. Since it was a big story, I tried to get in touch with her to ask for an interview, but was unsuccessful. For one week, I hounded her – from morning till late afternoon. But she was always out on a meeting.

Eventually, I gave up on her. But I made sure she knew how disappointed I was with her – through Salvii Casino of Channel 2’s merchandising department.

Two years later – at Kristine Garcia’s birthday party at the Manila Polo Club – she saw me with Ronald Constantino. Like a little girl caught playing hooky in school, she approached me and apologized for that incident of long ago. At that moment, I was back to being a Charo Santos fan and admirer.

In early 1992, I was commissioned by the CCP to do a chapter on the Lino Brocka book. Immediately, I called up Charo and asked her to serve as one of the resource persons for the book since she did a lot of film and TV projects with Brocka. She agreed at once and we met at Annabel’s restaurant.

At Annabel’s, we discovered that we lived in the same subdivision and started to talk about the low water pressure in the neighborhood. In fact, every time I’d see her after that meeting, the first thing we’d ask each other after the initial hi and hello is – How is the water pressure in your place?

In mid-1992, I got a call from her office. She was inviting me to Annabel’s to talk about the state of the television industry. About a month after that meeting, I got another call from her which almost floored me: Channel 2 was giving me my own talk show.

We met again at Annabel’s and talked about the program that was to be Showbiz Lingo. But believe me, that was not how we conceptualized the show at that meeting. But then, how can you argue with success? For Showbiz Lingo – modesty aside – proved to be one of the biggest and most popular shows during its time.

And now, even if I’m very, very happy in Startalk – in ABS-CBN’s rival station, GMA-7, I still can’t help but look back and be grateful to all the wonderful things Charo Santos-Concio has done for me. Although it was Gene Palomo and Inday Badiday who first gave me a slot on TV (as a pinch-hitter for Mario Hernando in the review portion of Movie Magazine), it was really Charo Santos-Concio who gave me my first real break on television. She’s my ninang in the world of TV.

To you Charo, thank you – and Happy Birthday!