Diplomats as Art Lovers

Ambassadors and their ladies hied to Galerie Y for the opening of "Momentum", the one-man exhibit of the country’s only Global Village painter, the eminent Manuel D. Baldemor. The European envoys had a special reason to view the works comprising a decade of European drawings and paintings.

For instance, Swiss Ambassador Lise Favre particularly admired the watercolor paintings of Tanguely’s fountain, Tanguely being a famous Swiss artist. Italian Ambassador Umberto and Clara Colesanti tarried as they discussed the paintings depicting scenes in Florence and Sienna.

The viewers were likewise fascinated by the ancient stones of Stonehenge in England, and an awesome scene in Meteora, Greece. In fact, Baldemor has also put on canvas scenes in Basel, Vienna and outside Europe: Chile in South America, Vilnius and Moscow in Russia, Beijing, Seoul, Cairo, Tehran, Tel Aviv, etc., thus making him the Global Village painter, and a most peripatetic one, indeed. To what extent does Baldemor capture the ethos– or at least the ambiance– of each country he visits? Egypt, for example? A former ambassador of Egypt gave this reply: "Much more than a treatise on seven thousand years of Egyptian culture, Pharaohic as well as contemporary, Baldemor’s paintings represent a real, genuine introduction to it."

Demonstrating their love for the performing arts as well, diplomats were conspicuously present at the staging of "Miss Saigon" (a condensed one) for the Catholic Women’s Club benefit dinner at the Mandarin ballroom.

The original cast of Cocoy Laurel, Junix Inocian, Leo Valdez (as The Engineer), or of Lea Salonga (as Kim) need not have felt threatened by the CWC production, but it was a very fine one with Brazilian Counsellor Carlos de Carvalho as The Engineer; Angeli Ong, daughter of Helen, as Kim; Juan Miguel Ongsiako, son of Nori as Chris. Lustily applauded were the songs "Sun and Moon" and "Last Night of the World". Susan Punzalan, Yvonne; Arie Samson, Mimi; Carla Santos, Yvette; Marietta Holmgren, Gigi; Carrie Bautista, Miss Chinatown completed the cast which danced to the choreography of Jeremy Vallejo. Boysie Villavicencio was artistic consultant; RJ Ledesma, son of Fortune, served as emcee.

Behind the success of "Miss Saigon" was the Special Events Committee headed by Helen Ong, with the gracious support of CWC president Alice Briones; Carrie Bautista and Naty Pappas were hard-working co-chairpersons.

Dr. Ellen Binay graciously handed out the awards; philanthropist Meldy Cojuangco said the invocation. Among those in the audience were Sec. and Mrs. Obet Pagdanganan, Sec. and Mrs. Vince Perez, Ambassadors Enrique Hubbard, Mario Schuff, Claudio Lyra, Ignacio Sagaz, Christian Tanghe, Enrique Syquia and Nguyen Lan, Consuls Vince Carlos, Tony Rufino, Mike Geurrero and their ladies.

For some reason, the CWC organizers described the event as a "fantasy dinner" but the applause "Miss Saigon" garnered was certainly real.