The ‘cinematic’ Thelmo House in Pandacan

MANILA, Philippines - For its natural beauty as surrounded by small rivers known as esteros, Pandacan became known as Little Venice in Colonial times. By some kind of favor or fluke, this rich man’s house by the estero on 1149 Teodora San Luis St. now known as Thelmo House, named after its present owner, is a favorite site for film and drama series shoots.

Located in Barangay 847, the ground floor currently serves as the bakery of Daniel Padilla as Angelo in the Book Two of Pangako Sa ‘Yo and previously the residence of Liza Soberano in Forevermore. Superstars have resided there — from Vilma Santos in Chito Roño’s Ikaw Lang (1993) opposite Cesar Montano, to Nora Aunor in Adolf Alix Jr.’s Padre de Familia, with Coco Martin. There is a long list of other productions that used that house on Teodora San Luis St. as location like Wenn Deramas’ Kokey.

The Thelmo House is Pandacan’s favored house of shoot. And this is easy to understand. Built before World War II on a 800 sq. m. lot, it is the street’s sole property with high concrete fence and a garden in front a brick and concrete two-storey Venetian-style villa. An arched front door in floral motif opens to a massive balayong staircase. The backside is made of bricks to check soil erosion from the estero beside the property.

Although it has undergone minor maintenance jobs such as repainting of the exterior that somehow removed traces of its age, the Thelmo House has seen better times. The garage at the far end had been converted into a carinderia that operates irregularly.

The beginning of Book Two takes place there two years after the accident of Lia (Andrea Brillantes). With the meltdown of the family’s fortune, Angelo now works in the bakery business of Lolo Greg (Tirso Cruz III) as a delivery boy, a baker and some sort of marketing person thinking of ways to expand the business.

The bakery is located at the ground floor of the Thelmo House. This is the reason the entirety of the house is not shown in the series. As the narrative is fast-paced, Angelo might not work there anymore when you read this article.

Before these celebrities, heroes walked that street. The Thelmo House is the former residence of Ret. Justice Natividad Almeda-Lopez, the first female lawyer in the Philippines. It is adjacent to that of the house of Father of Philippine Opera Ladislao Bonus from whom Jose Rizal sought help.

Father Jacinto Zamora was born on the same street, a few houses away from Thelmo House. It also leads to the Romualdez Mansion, the ancestral house of Daniel Romualdez  that lazes in front of the Sto. Niño de Pandacan Church where former First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos lived as a child.

An ideal representation of the quintessential city district, the area is neither a slum area nor a rich man’s enclave. It has everything that a small district must have. Moreover, its middle-class residents do not riot at the smallest neighborhood skirmish.

Such a small place has two churches, a private school, a public market, sari-sari and convenience stores (your choice), a bakery, a pharmacy, a basketball court, houses of all classes (no barong-barongs, though), and if the script needs it, even a public library.

A television or film crew’s partiality for the Thelmo House is plausible. They get the favored status from its barangay: Teodora San Luis St. is closed for traffic and can be used for parking lot for the gen sets and cast and crew vehicles, provide security services, and even an unobtrusive neighborhood ready to act as extras if required.

But nobody knows until when shoots can be held at the Thelmo House or, for that matter, if it will continue to exist, as it has been up for sale for P25M for the longest time. The security assurance here is to declare it as a heritage house that it duly deserves.

With the lolas of Pandacan