“I don’t play favorites.”
With that, former Pres./Manila Mayor Joseph “Erap” Estrada signaled the start of a no-holds-barred “shooting the summer breeze” with select members of the movie press the other day at Annabel’s restaurant (Tomas Morato, Quezon City), most of whom his long-time friends (that’s why he felt at home and not “on guard”).
The first question was about how he was dealing with the gap between his sons, former Sen. Jinggoy Estrada (running in May’s mid-term elections) and reelectionist Sen. JV Ejercito, who raised each other’s hands in a seeming reconciliation during the kick-off campaign of Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte’s Hugpong ng Pagbabago in San Fernando, Pampanga, a few weeks ago. But the sibling rivalry is still apparent.
“Nagka-tampuhan lang,” Erap put it, playing safe by not taking sides. “Jinggoy is Jose and JV is Joseph. They are both my sons,” the former with ex-Sen. Loi Ejercito and the latter with San Juan City Mayor Guia Gomez, “and I have already tried to reconcile them.”
Aside from Jinggoy and JV, Erap said that, as far as he knew, he has “13 to 16 other children” whom Jinggoy gathered from around the world (USA, Australia and other parts of the Philippines) to celebrate his 70th birthday 10 years ago. When then Makati Mayor Jojo Binay asked, “Sino ang mga Nanay nila?,” Erap told him to hush up, “Huwag mo nang itanong, stop asking questions,” since he himself couldn’t tell.
“I recognize all of them,” Erap shared with pride. “I gave them the best education. They are all well provided for.”
Hmmmm, what about the women in his life (the known three), also no playing favorites?
“No. It’s hard to have favorites because if you name one, the others might not be happy; baka magselos hindi lang sila but also mga anak namin. I love them all.”
In this file photo, Erap beams as sons former Sen. Jinggoy Estrada (running in the May mid-term elections) and reelectionist Sen. JV Ejercito bridge the sibling gap with a handshake
Erap’s life is an open book read and reread by the public. During the lunch, as always when he faces the press, nothing was “off the record,” so Erap regaled his friends with self-deprecating jokes, some of them collected in best-selling books called Eraptions that poke fun at his “bad” English that made him the male counterpart of Melanie Marquez (noted for malapropisms).
“I am born-again,” he admitted.
Born-again Christian?
“No,” he explained deadpan. “I am 80 years old. They say that life begins at 40, so when I turned 40 I was born again.”
Oh, is that so?
“At 80, I am 50 years old above the waist and 30 years old below the waist,” he laughed as if the joke was on him.
Told that Eddie Garcia, who is turning 90 in May, claimed that he has no need yet of Viagra, Erap asked, “What’s that?”
A pill calculated to make “it” rise again…you know.
“That’s foreign to me, hahaha!!! I don’t think I need it.”
He was enjoying two platito-fuls of lechon, so we asked how his diet was. No bawal?
“I eat anything. Walang bawal sa akin,” adding with another throaty laugh, “hindi bawal lalo na chicks.”
Chicks of the two-legged specie, that is.
And that brought the conversation to the start of his showbiz career.
“You were introduced in Sampung Libong Pisong Pagibig,” Mario Bautista reminded Erap. “It was an LVN movie starring Charito Solis.”
His face lighting up, Erap smiled, “I was only 16 at that time.”
From then on, Erap began to build an indelible name playing defender of the poor and the oppressed, with his landmark portrayal as Asiong Salonga, known as the Robin Hood of Tondo, as the centerpiece of his multi-layered acting career marked by more than 250 starrers (including Geron Busabos, Ito ang Pilipino, Markang Rehas, Patapon, Diligin Mo ng Hamog ang Uhaw na Lupa in which he did what he described as “my most torrid kissing scene” with then newly-crowned Miss Universe Gloria Diaz). He’s now a Hall of Famer in FAMAS’ Best Actor Honor Roll.
JV with wife Cindy Lotuaco (a former Cathay Pacific flight attendant) and children Jose Emilio (from JV’s past relationship) and Julio Jose
“I’m done with movies,” he swore.
At the peak of his career when he starred in a series of comedies capped by Tatay Na si Erap with then pregnant Boots Anson-Roa (with her and late husband Pete Roa’s youngest child), Erap refused to do a sequel (he was mistaken for the father of Boots’ child, much to Boots’ amusement).
“Ayoko na,” he quipped. “The next one might be called Lolo Na si Erap, hahaha!!!” (His last movie was Ang Tanging Pamilya, with Ai-Ai delas Alas and Mommy Dionisia, the mother of Sen. Manny Pacquiao.)
He credited showbiz for cementing his public persona as champion of the poor.
“No other actor fitted the Asiong Salonga role because all of them were half-bred, mga mestizo,” said Erap. “I was the only actor na Pilipinong-Pilipino at mukhang mahirap, so I got the role. Besides, I am really a Tondo Boy like Asiong Salonga. I was born at the Manuguit General Hospital. My dad worked as Manila’s first sanitary engineer for 35 years and my mom was Miss Carnival of Singalong, Manila.”
In the next breath, Erap enumerated his achievements in the city of his birth, saying the residents can avail of free services (hospitalization, burial, etc.) that range “from erection to resurrection,” he said in jest, a variation of the oft-quoted line “from womb to tomb.”
On April 19 (Good Friday), Erap will turn 81.
Asked what his birthday wish is, he smiled.
“Bring back the old glory of Manila,” he said. He’s running for reelection. “It will be my last hurrah.”
Postscript: Incidentally, Sen. JV has hailed the signing into law of the Universal Health Care Act by Pres. DU30.
He said, “The law will transform the health seeking behavior of Filipinos. UHC makes medical consultation and several; basic laboratory tests affordable and accessible. This will allow the people to value their health more by regularly consulting with doctors.”
(E-mail reactions at rickylophilstar@gmail.com. For more updates, photos and videos, visit www.philstar.com/funfare or follow me on Instagram @therealrickylo.)