Alma Concepcion in the Year of the Horse

Many are familiar with Alma Concepcion and yet do not know her. For one who had been Binibining Pilipinas International, has been active in show business and has made a name as an entrepreneur, she is still her very own person.

Alma has made a good number of films, but a favorite is the Fil-Am Hollywood B movie titled Goodbye, America. It tells of the closing of the US naval base in Subic, and the Americans and Filipinos caught in crises of love and loyalty. The Filipinos in the film are Nanette Medved, Daria Ramirez and Alma who plays a former prostitute with plans to marry one of the Americans, whose girlfriend will be coming to Subic to claim him. Shades of Miss Saigon, actually.

As Emma Salazar in the movie, Alma tells us, “It was memorable for me because, as an actor in my teens, to work with Hollywood people that time was more than a dream come true.”

She made a name and garnered some nominations in the early 2000. But the press and public would rather have zeroed in on the false accusation that she was a drug dealer because it was more controversial. The drug accusation came about because she was under medication for epilepsy, an ailment she would have rather kept under wraps.

Today, she has learned to talk about epilepsy, realizing that her experience can help a lot of other victims. “I was under medication for 30 years of my life,” she tells us now. After a check-up with her neurologist  two years ago, she was told to stop taking her medicine (Dilantin). “Of course, I am praying and hoping that this miracle is a permanent one.”

The past few years were devoted to her businesses, the care of her son Cobie and her studies. Alma’s first diploma was for International Business from the Southville International School. A second would be her Bachelor’s degree in Interior Design from UP Diliman.

Of her early films, Alma recalls Sa Ngalan ng Pag-ibig in 1995 under Maryo J. de los Reyes with singular fondness since she was taught to play a mistress at age 18. To be in the same scene with Lorna Tolentino and Christopher de Leon was “surreal,” Alma declares.   

From ABS-CBN, in 2004, came Krystala, a fantasy series led by Judy Ann Santos. Alma played a bat woman and a human. “A memorable scene was when my human character was debating with my bat character,” she shares.

Also from ABS-CBN, in 2013, was Pintada directed by Cathy Garcia-Molina. The film was based on a story in Precious Hearts Romances. Alma was part of the supporting cast, and she confesses to have learned so much about the acting profession from direk Cathy.

This past Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) competition, Alma became part of the indie film Kaleidoscope World which came as a late entry, pinch-hitting for another entry that was pulled out. The much-heralded “first-ever hip-hop dance musical,” inspired by the music of Francis Magalona, could have done better, given more time and imagination.  

Sef Cadayona meets Yassi Pressman at rehearsals for a dance competition. The conglomeration of dancers (the entire Magalona Clan), musicians and rappers should have been the film’s focus. But for some reason, an evil aunt (Alma) with connections to some senators had to be introduced. Poor Alma, and poor dancers.

Most of the time, we tried to make head or tales from the film, and just couldn’t. The sound and technicals were the worst we’ve ever had.

When asked, Alma refuses to comment on the sad fate of Kaleidoscope World and instead would rather plug her latest project Bagong Dugo sa Lumang Ugat headed by Robin Padilla, with Dick Israel and Efren Reyes Jr. which sounds like another action picture. Or she would rather speak of son Cobie, now 14, and a varsity player at the Ateneo. She is also completing her thesis The Preference of Filipino Male Adolescents and Social Spaces, attending to her businesses, including her Siomai King Food Cart franchise.

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