A hero’s welcome today is scheduled not only for Manny Pacquiao who’s coming home victorious from Las Vegas after beating Mexico’s Oscar dela Hoya in a non-title bout last Saturday, Dec. 7 (Saturday, Dec. 6 US Time), but also for Marky Cielo who’s making his final trip to Sitio Bauco, Benguet, Mountain Province, three days after he was found dead at his home in Mission Hills, Antipolo City, only a few minutes before Dela Hoya threw in the towel at Round 9.
Never have the two faces of showbiz — one triumphant and the other tragic — been so graphically depicted.
Pacquiao will come home with hands raised, waving at his fans while Marky, who is pure Igorot, will go home inside a coffin with a glass top that allows a full view of his body clad in a violet turtle-necked sweatshirt and the black suit that he wore when he won as the Sole Survivor of the 2005 (third edition) of the GMA reality-TV talent search StarStruck where he was known as The New Bad Boy of the Dancefloor after his predecessor, Mark Herras.
Pacquiao drew a collective roar of approval from his kababayan here and in Filipino communities around the world while Marky left a big question mark with his untimely demise. At 20 (last May 12, Taurus), Marky had the world ahead of him. It was within grabbing distance. When he died, he was in the cast of the GMA soaps La Lola, after having just finished Asero (topbilled by Richard Gutierrez). His other shows were Zaido, the Struck Attack portion of Startalk, Enkantadia, Fantastic Kids Love2Love and Bakekang.
There was no premonition at all — or was there?
Those close to Marky recalled that on Saturday night, he was with friends at an Internet café along Tomas Morato Avenue, Quezon City, crying while talking to an unidentified caller on his cell phone. Who was he talking to? Nobody knew; Marky didn’t tell anybody who. There was a report that Marky made several unanswered (desperate?) calls to his manager-mentor who, unfortunately, was sleeping too soundly to call back. What did Marky want to tell him, something “urgent?” And also, Marky was said to have had a heart-to-heart talk with his mother who said in a TV newscast that it was about “something personal” and who was quoted to have advised Marky to “face it” like a man, “Lutasin mo ang problema mo; ikaw lang ang makakalutas n’yan.”
And what were the “death threats” Marky was reported to be receiving, and from whom?
According to another report, mother and son were scheduled to attend a charity project that Sunday morning and the mother wondered why he was taking time to fix himself. And when she opened the door, she was shocked to find Marky unconscious (“nakahandusay,” said the official GMA statement). He was declared DOA (Dead On Arrival) at a nearby hospital.
Marky will be laid to rest on Tuesday, Dec. 16, at the back of their house in Sitio Batcu, according to Igorot tradition, bringing to his grave a “secret” that perhaps the world will never know. Not now, not yet, anyway.