Championing Filipino artistry

Mother and daughter Flora and Sheree Chua might have set a fine precedent last Monday, Dec. 11, when they celebrated their birthdays not just with the usual bash but as an opportunity to raise funds for a worthy cause. Highlighting the glittering evening at EDSA Shangri-La’s Isla Ballroom was the “Flora and Fauna at the Met” awards pageant that honored “Distinguished individuals who continue to champion Filipino artistry.”

These nine recipients were all acknowledged to be the personal favorites of the celebrants: hotshot fashion designers Jun Jun Ablaza and Paul Cabral, art expert Richie Lerma, man-about-town and legendary raconteur Johnny Litton, Davao-based artist and sculptor Kublai Millan, Honorary Consul for Angola Helen Ong, furniture designer Vito Selma, culinary artist Heny Sison, and yours truly as literature representative.

Each of us received a trophy designed and crafted by Millan, for which we had to march up a ramp that had already featured more professional catwalk models, some of whom escorted us until we made it to center stage. 

In lieu of gifts, Flora and Sheree request for donations to Davao Children’s Cancer Fund Inc. or House of Hope Foundation for Kids with Cancer, Inc. A video was shown of their efforts, as acknowledged by no less than Davao Mayor Sarah Duterte, who also made a pitch for donations.

The program featured several performers: the mother-and-daughter tandem of harpists Holly Paraiso and Avonlea Paraiso, (who’s also a model), Fil-Am singer DJ Callum, and Asia’s Queen of Song, Pilita Corrales, a bosom friend of Madame Flora Chua.

Towering ramp models showcased the creations of designer-awardees Ablaza and Cabral, as well as of Ricky Abad, with Sheree herself modeling a Cabral gown. A perennial choice among Manila’s Best Dressed, Sheree was a creative writing student of mine in Ateneo before she completed graduate studies at a Hong Kong university. I didn’t get to ask her why she was billed as the “Fauna” that night.  

Guests to the affair went through a hallway that presented “vignettes” for each of the awardees, allowing everyone a glimpse of their respective contributions to Filipino artistry. Standouts among the displays were those of the fashion designers.

Jun Jun Ablaza has of course been hailed for his avant-garde collections with his “decorative style” and “unconventional aesthetic.”

For his part, Paul Cabral has long been acknowledged as the leading designer of the barong and the terno, with his repute going through the roof when he was tasked to design the barong Tagalogs worn by government leaders who attended the APEC summit here in 2015, including the highly appreciative (of his artistry) US President Barrack Obama and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau. He’s also known to dress up former President Noynoy Aquino and his sisters.

Cebu-based furniture and industrial designer Vito Selma pursued studies from San Francisco’s Academy of Art College to Milan’s Scuola Politecnica di Design for his Masters in Industrial Design. He placed as 1st runner-up in the Outstanding Industrial Design Category of the 2016 National Invention Contests and Exhibit.

Honorary Consul for Angola Helen Ong devotes her time and resources to artists and the less privileged. As events chair of the Philippine Cancer Society (PCS), she organizes the annual Best Dressed Women of the Philippines (BDWP) Awards Ball, its main fundraiser.

The young Kublai Millan has long gained acclaim for his distinctive sculptures in Mindanao, including the giant durian monument at Davao International Airport, the eagle and Bagobo children in Davao City’s People’s Park, as well as the equally monumental “Kampilan” in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao, and the “Risen Christ” in the Tagum City church. He is also prolific as an art photographer, painter, digital artist and performance artist.

Our friend Richie Lerma served as director and curator of the Ateneo Art Gallery before he pioneered eight years ago in the fine art and collectibles auction industry, as art adviser of Salcedo Auctions.

Heny Sison is popularly known as Chef Heny, as a pastry chef, cake decorator and television host. She has run the Heny Sison Culinary School since 1985, and writes for culinary magazines and other publications. When she received her award, everyone got a special treat when servers also marched down the ramp with trays of her ensaymadas — plump and crowned with so much cheese that it felt like a secondary prize that evening.

I felt fortunate as well to have been seated on the same table as fellow-awardee Johnny Litton, whose conversation immediately shifted down memory lane as he recalled our association when local filmmaking started becoming experimental almost three decades ago. Mock-ruefully, he told the rest of the table how he had funded Ishmael Bernal’s first film, Pagdating Sa Dulo, which gained favor among cineastes but flopped commercially. This was before I was asked to join the Experimental Cinema of the Philippines’ Film Ratings Board, which Johnny had helped conceptualize.

Also at our table were poet-writers Luis Francia, still on a sabbatical here from his home base in Manhattan, and fellow Atenean John Labella, together with Davao-based John Bengan. I was accompanied by my daughter Mirava, my fellow STAR contributor, and her beau Jonathan Esteban. Seated to my left, between Johnny and me, were Helen and Elizabeth Lee, another mother-and-daughter tandem (which seemed to be thematic that night). 

My conversation with Elizabeth drew out the backstory that she and her mother were the pioneers behind the electric motorbikes feature at BGC. Run on batteries, the stylishly designed vehicles accommodate six passengers, and are leased to private companies that subsidize their employees’ shuttle rides from buildings to public transport terminals.

Not before long — even as we still had to be served the main entree of grilled beef tenderloin and seared sea bass in lemon caper at al. — it was this awardee’s time to be called up the stage, where amigo Johnny already was, before a podium.

A tall model met me up the ramp and escorted me down its length, preempting any fantasy on my part to be ferried on an e-trike. Still, the experience, my first on a catwalk ever, felt akin to being led to the slaughter as a sacrificial virgin. Thank heavens I didn’t exactly fit that bill, so that at the end of our hand-holding traipse was Dr. Jaime Laya who presented me the trophy.

So thankful was I for that honor, too, as Richie must have been with the equally eminent Ramon Orlina as his presentor. But we were all most grateful to have been acknowledged as favorite champs of Pinoy artistry by Flora and (Fauna) Sheree Chua. For which, incalculable thanks!