Borlaza: It’s payback time!

“You’re nothing but a second rate trying hard copy cat.”

It’s difficult to believe these words still ringing in our ears today were spoken by Cherie Gil 23 years ago in what soon ensconced her as the vixen icon and gave Sharon Cuneta her biggest hit during that decade of Viva Films’ reign.

The words penned and directed by Emmanuel Borlaza, Maning to friends, also established him as a hitmaker.

To us, however, it isn’t the hits he has directed for which Maning will be remembered. It will be for the lessons he has learned during his many years in the movies which he unselfishly shares with newcomers. It is propitious that in 2004, he received the Gawad Direk award along with Fernando Poe Jr., Eddie Romero, Celso Ad Castillo and posthumously Luciano Carlos from the Director’s Guild for service to the industry.

Although he has been retired from the director’s chair for some eight years now, Maning is still very much visible. He is chairman of the NMPP (Nagkakaisang Manggagawa ng Pelikulang Pilipino), often representing the country abroad for the cause of the movie worker. He is a lively and articulate speaker as guest of civic organizations. He was member of the industry watchdog, the MTRCB (Movie and Television Review and Classification Board) from 1998-2004. He is currently busy in the committee of the upcoming Directors Festival of Films co-produced by the Director’s Guild and Tony Tuviera.

Looking back, he says it has been a good life. “If I were to live my life again, I would still choose the same line of work. It is now payback time to the industry that gave me the best years of my life.”

If there is anyone in the movies who had a spanking clean reputation and a good name in the business, it would have to be Maning. He started as a scriptwriter for 13 years during the heydays of Sampaguita Pictures, went on to become a director for Agrix, Viva, Tagalog Ilang Ilang, Regal, all the major players in the ’70s and ’80s before his final picture Mapagbigay for Seiko in 2000.

He has never been involved in any controversy or scandal, has always proven to be a decent and upright individual, and if there was anything negative about him, it is that he has always been perceived to be a producer’s director. Many a producer has been known to say that with Maning as director, he can sleep peacefully knowing that every peso of his budget is put to forthright usage.

Maning acknowledges that he is aware of the risks a producer takes in coming up with a picture. “Without the producer, there will be no movie,” he says taking pains to protect his producer’s interests without compromising the quality of the film. He is one who will try to use the least number of feet of film, then the most expensive element in filming. Maning remembers that for Seiko if he were to bring in a picture at 35,000 feet or less, there would be a bonus awaiting him.

Viva gave Maning yet another incentive; if he could get a B rating from the Film Ratings Board (which meant then a 50 percent rebate from entertainment taxes), Viva’s Boss Vic del Rosario automatically gave him P35,000. And since there were quite a number of B’s primarily for his Sharon movies, Maning recalls, he was able to acquire properties quickly. It also erased the misconception that Borlaza was not a director of quality films.

Maning, however, will be the first to accept the fact that he did not make it to the ranks of Lino Brocka and Ishmael Bernal. But few will deny that he, like Eddie Garcia, successfully championed the marriage of sleek well-made pictures with commercial success. Who will forget his Sharon Cuneta directorial projects for Viva in the ’80s that broke even Sharon’s own records consistently?

Starting off with Dapat Ka bang Mahalin in 1984, Maning’s first project at Viva (upon the recommendation of Eddie Garcia who was initially offered the directorial assignment) grossed P12-M when admission was P5. The project beat the combined gross of Sharon’s first projects Dear Heart and the succeeding P.S. I Love You.

Bukas Luluhod ang mga Tala that followed, also in 1984, was a particular favorite of Maning since he brokered its acquisition from the komiks by Viva. By some quirk of circumstance it was initially offered to Celso Ad Castillo, then Laurice Guillen who decided to trade projects with Maning. The admittedly weak casting of PJ Avellana with Sharon caused some discomfiture but it similarly did well at the tills.

Then came Maning’s all-time hit Bituing Walang Ningning in 1985 with Sharon, Christopher de Leon and Cherie Gil which grossed some P15-M when admission was only P6 or a total of 2.5 million viewers which made cinema history.

Even before Viva, however, Maning was already making waves at Agrix, Sofronio Blando’s sadly maligned film company where Maryo de los Reyes directed the trail-blazing High School Circa, launched Lloyd Samartino in Gabun and gave Maning the almost seamless Kadete starring the late Jay Ilagan and Ronald Corveau.

When queried what he considers the peak of his career in the movies, Maning is quick to pinpoint the era of Agrix to Viva. He considers as a personal milestone his Agrix movie Isang Ama Dalawang Ina with Eddie Garcia as the man with two women in his life Gloria Romero and Perla Bautista. At Eddie’s wake, the second family Perla and his children arrive to pay their respects. In such an act of supreme selflessness, wife Gloria welcomes her and accompanies her to the casket. Maning recalls how the movie caught the attention of church and academe, was being endorsed from the pulpit and made the subject of discussions in school.

But it was Kadete that would bring him honor during the 1979 Manila Film Festival. Kadete won the Second Best Picture, with Celso’s Alamat ni Julian Makabayan as Third Best Picture and Brocka’s Ina ka ng Anak Mo as Best Picture. Many even then were of the opinion that Kadete should have been the top winner. Entertainment writer Mario Bautista reports that it was Kadete that so inspired Lt. Sgt. Sen. Antonio Trillanes as a child to enter the military service.

At the 1989 Film Academy Awards, Maning won the elusive Best Director and Best Picture awards for Viva’s Paano Tatakasan ang Bukas.

It was also Maning in the early ’70s who managed to narrow the gap between the then reigning Superstar Nora Aunor and Vilma Santos. After his Dyesebel, Lipad Darna Lipad and Darna and the Giants all starring Vilma, the two actresses were on equal footing, Maning proudly shares.

Today, Maning spends many of his days in activities involving the Oasis of Love Catholic Charismatic community. He was with the movement’s Batch One participants and together with Christopher de Leon formed the Oasis community.

Maning is also the best model of one who prepared for his retirement days. He relates how he apprenticed as a fledgling director at Sampaguita with the great Carlos Vander Tolosa and later when the director was afflicted with cancer helped in raising funds for his hospitalization and daily needs. “This stuck in my mind, and I swore that would not happen to me which is why I’m happy that early on I prepared for my eventual fading out, ” he says.

 At 72, the director is fit and looks easily a decade younger. The clean living through his youth has served him well. Which sadly cannot be said of many of his colleagues much younger than he.

(E-mail me at [email protected].)