Osang: More poundage, less emotional load

Curtain-raisers:

• Readers have been asking where to send their donations to Jolina Magdangal’s new project to collect hair (at least 10 inches long) which will be made into wigs for cancer patients. Here are the drop-off points: Jolina’s Fashion Gallery at 86-C, Road 31 cor. Road 32, Project 6, Quezon City (near Visayas Ave.); and Unang Hirit, GMA Network Center, EDSA cor. Timog Ave., Quezon City.

• Belated birthday greetings to Bert Pelayo, publisher and editor-in-chief of the New York-based The Filipino Reporter, who marked his 70th birthday last Nov. 17 with a salu-salo at the Astoria World Manor in Queens, New York. Among Bert’s 400-plus well-wishers were Philippine Ambassador to the US Willy Gaa, Consul General in New York Cecilia Rebong, Philippine Ambassador to the UN Lauro Baja and retired TV host Leila Benitez. The oldest and largest-circulated Fil-Am newspaper in the East Coast, The Filipino Reporter is marking its 35th anniversary next year.

* * *

Other stars with an overwhelming "presence" (180 pounds at her heaviest) would have shunned the TV spotlight – vanity, you know – but not Rosanna "Osang" Roces, who happily flaunted her avoirdupois by starring in an episode of Charo Santos-Concio’s top-rated ABS-CBN drama show Maalaala Mo Kaya as the emotionally-battered wife of Albert Martinez.

Away from the limelight for a while, Osang surprised televiewers not so much with her mellowed acting prowess (tempered no doubt by the recent shocks in her already-turbulent life) as her seeming lack of...vanity? Didn’t Osang remind us of Kirstie Alley who starred in a US TV show called Fat Woman before she decided to shed, uh, excess baggage?

In an exclusive interview with Funfare, Osang admitted that, yes, she had just underwent another liposuction (her sixth so far and, she threatened, not the last) around her tummy but not in her arms and legs. Her breasts have remained as healthy as they have always been, prompting Osang to joke, "Gusto ko na ngang ibigay sa alalay kong bakla, eh!"

Even now that she is down to 160 lbs. (her ideal weight is 120), Osang can’t stand too long or she gets dizzy. "I’m still carrying too much weight," she complained.

More poundage but less emotional burden.

Her forced "vacation" from showbiz has given Osang ample time to take stock of her life.

"I’ve found myself," said Osang.

True enough, she now mentions God ("Mabait ang Diyos"), something she never did during her heyday when, she recalled, she was so buried in work that she overlooked (missed out on) her family.

"I made up for lack of time by spoiling my family with money," she confessed. "Now I’ve realized that money can destroy a person. Dahil sa pera, nag-iiba ang tao; nagiging salbahe sila. Before, everytime my kids asked for money, I would shell out any amount right away. Now, I tell them to wait and to ask only if they really need it."

The only one she now spoils is her grandchild Gabriel (Gabby), love child of her daughter Grace and Jolo Revilla.

"Grabe ang batang ‘yan. I used to give him P20 but now he won’t settle for less than P500. At the pet shop, when he says, ‘Yoya, gusto ko fish!,’ I buy fish for him right away; I even bought an aquarium for him. When he wants birds, I buy birds for him. I may not have as much money as I used to have, but I’m happier now."

She now sleeps soundly without, like before, taking Stylnox.

"Would you believe that I used to take as many as 200 Stylnox capsules a day! Mina-mane ko lang."

Her children and her grandchild have a calming effect on her, according to Osang.

"It was during quiet moments I spent soul-searching at home that I found myself. Everyone of us needs those quiet moments to look inside ourselves – where we went wrong, whom we have hurt and offended and how we can mend our ways. I thought, ‘My grandchild is fast growing up; he’s now two years old. How can I teach him to behave if I myself am misbehaving?’ I have to teach him by showing myself as an example."

The first thing Osang did when she emerged from her prolonged soul-searching was to forgive her enemies, from her ex-partner Tito Molina and her manager-Nanay-Nanayan Lolit Solis.

"In my heart," said Osang, "I have forgiven them. Mas marami akong nagawang kasalanan kay Tito kaysa ginawa niya sa akin. I’m thankful that he didn’t touch my daughter whom he even treated like his own child. I also thought that all the checks that he made me sign have gone to waste. I found out that, without him telling me, that Tito deposited some of my earnings in several banks, and those are what sustain me and my family these days – the interests from those deposits."

She looks forward to returning full-time to acting.

"Before, I would call acting my source of rice money, pambili ng bigas. Now, I treasure and love my craft and I can feel that it’s loving me back."

Does she sound more like a saint than the "sinner" the public has come to tag her?

"Actually," Osang laughed, "I’m a good person. I fought back only when provoked and only when they hit my children. They can hit me for all I care but please, spare my children. If I’m not a good person, how come my driver is still with me and so is my alalay, even now that I’m not earning as much as I used to?"

What about her love life?

"None. Huwag na muna. Magulo."

Moving on with much less emotional load, Osang said she’s now negotiating for a project with a TV network (she didn’t say which one).

"I’m keeping my fingers crossed," she said. "Mabait ang Diyos."

Dante back in theater

Because of a little incident, Dante Balboa has taken a leave of absence from his teaching job at a Manila university. He’s concentrating on his studies (M.A. in Philosophy and B.S. Anthropology) at UP.

"But I can’t stay away from acting for long," said Dante who is now busy with his second play under Dulaang UP, Hamlet: Redux, directed by Prof. Tony Mabesa, where he plays King Claudius.

"I thought Prof. Tony was a very serious person," said Dante who was last seen on stage naked in The Bomb, mounted at the Rajah Sulayman, where he played the boytoy of a movie director. "As we rehearsed, I found out that Prof. Tony can be a jolly person. He even makes us laugh with his jokes."

Hamlet: Redux will be staged starting tomorrow up to Dec. 10 at the Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero Theater (second floor, Palma Hall, UP Diliman, Quezon City). It also stars Arnold Reyes as Hamlet, Angeli Bayani as Gertrude, Allan Palileo as Polonius, Michael Ian Lomongo as Horacio, Patrick Valera as Laertes, Buche Canton as Ophelia, Faust Peneyra as Rosencrantz and Arkel Mendoza as Guildenstern.

(Note: For ticket inquiries, call 920-5301 local 6441 or 981-8500 local 2449, look for Peejay Eufemio.)

* * *

E-mail reactions at [email protected]