Then, there were those beautiful Lux commercials, one of which was shot in an old church in Nagcarlan, Laguna. After that came the Fita ad where she hosts a children’s party for a niece who tells her, "Tita Vi, I am so happy. Thank you!" The one product she endorsed the longest, of course, was Eskinol.
Her career at this point was charted very well. It was around this period when she did the Darna series, Takbo, Vilma, Dali! and other blockbuster hits.
In 1975, she made a rather daring move that called for her to come out in a two-piece swimsuit. This was in Nakakahiya where she was involved in a May-December affair with Eddie Rodriguez.
Then there was the controversial Tag-ulan sa Tag-araw, her first team-up with Christopher de Leon.
The year 1977 saw yet another milestone in her career. She did Burlesque Queen where she played the very daring and challenging role of a stripper. Burlesque Queen may have figured prominently in the 1977 Metro Filmfest, nevertheless heralded Vilma as an excellent actress. At this point, she was already on her way to greatness as far as acting was concerned.
In the latter part of the ’70s, Vilma made several box-office hits, but it wasn’t until many years later that I discovered that this was the lowest point of her life financially. She lost everything–save for a few properties. With the help of Marichu Maceda and Atty. Espridion Laxa, she was able to clean up her financial mess. (By God’s grace, she was never in the red again – thanks to her faithful accountant and friend Aida Fandialan, whom she met through Amalia Fuentes.)
Eventually, Vilma got married (to Edu Manzano) and bore her first child (Lucky). She was still going through financial difficulties at this stage and wasn’t sure if the public was still willing to accept her now that she was married. Pakawalan Mo Ako (produced by Marichu Maceda) affirmed that the public still loved her. She was now well on her way to financial recovery.
It was around this period when I first met Vilma in person. I was a student doing my practicum and my assignment was to interview Vilma regarding fortune-tellers. It was going to be a short interview, but I sought her out all the way in Broadcast City where she was the special guest of Inday Badiday in See-True. I thought it was brazen of me to have walked past her entourage (she still maintained a lot then) and gone straight to her.
But she didn’t mind my intrusion. On the contrary, she was very nice to me and even held me on my shoulder as we talked. Vilma Santos touched my shoulder! That was the image I kept repeating in my mind before I slept that night.
The next time I saw her again in person, I was already a true-blue journalist in the entertainment beat. This was at the Rizal Theater when she won her second Urian for Broken Marriage. I was with Mario Dumaual who was one of my closest buddies then. Vilma was throwing a blowout at the Manila Pen and since Mario and I knew some of the Manunuri members, we decided to tag along (we were gatecrashers in other words). At that party, I also met Bibeth Orteza (she hosted the Urian) and found her to be very friendly and we talked like we were long-lost friends.
At around 2 a.m., everyone decided to call it a night and Vilma positioned herself at the exit to say goodbye to everyone for coming to her party. She probably didn’t know half of the guests there and in her mind, she must have been saying, "Who the hell are you people?" But knowing how good-natured she is, our presence there must have been just okay with her. In fact, she was still very warm and cheerful when it was my turn to shake her hand and congratulate her. Of course, she didn’t remember me anymore from the year before because that first meeting was a brief three minutes. But that evening of her blowout, I was aching to remind her that only a year before that, she actually touched my shoulder.
Toward the last half of the ’80s, I began writing a column for this paper.
It was also around this period when Vilma’s variety show on Channel 7 started to get noticed. Since I genuinely liked her program (it will go down TV history as one of the best variety shows ever), I gave it a lot of positive reviews. Obviously, she read them because on the night she won for Tagos ng Dugo in the FAMAS, I approached her at her Manila Hotel table for another brief interview and she had this "Oh, so you’re the one!" look on her face.
Vilma was accommodating as always and after her name was announced as Best Actress, I wanted to congratulate her, except that she was mobbed by the press photographers.
At the corridor outside the Fiesta Pavilion, however, she saw me while she was surrounded by her battalion of fans and called out my name. I went to her to finally congratulate her and she hugged me. No, she didn’t just touch my shoulder. She hugged me. Vilma Santos hugged me. At that moment, I knew that we were going to be friends – and we did. Very good friends, indeed.
And I swear she can be such a thoughtful friend. For somebody who has the world at her feet, she’s never self-centered. Her most endearing trait, in fact, is that she knows how to listen. And how to say thank you.
When the first installment of this two-part series came out last Tuesday, hers was the first text message I got. She said thank you. Why, even her loyal Vilmanians are so thoughtful. The past few days, I’ve been getting text messages even from the US (one from Ben of LA and another one from Franco of San Francisco) thanking me for the write-up on Vilma. To all of you, you are most welcome.
And to Mayor Vi, belated happy birthday! A lot of women I know are afraid to reach the half-century mark. But if you can be half (or even one-fourth or one-eight) as accomplished as Vilma Santos and still look as lovely as she is today, it probably would be great to be 50.