Eddie Garcia is definitely an icon in Philippine cinema, particularly in Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival with the most number of wins as Best Actor.
Garcia is the only person that won Best Actor thrice, the first one in “ICU Bed#7” during the first Cinemalaya in 2005 followed by “Bwakaw” in 2012 and ML in 2018.
In “ICU Bed #7” (2005), Garcia played the lead role of an elderly man who is coming to terms with his mortality. He is a stubborn, loud-mouthed patriarch who has a terrible illness while his daughters are torn whether to end or prolong his life.
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In “Bwakaw” (2012) Garcia stars as a lonely gay man in his 70s who cares for a stray dog he named Bwakaw. Upon the dog’s death, he has found a new appreciation for life and what is most important. He decides to unpack the things that he has already willed to other people and make his house more habitable.
In “ML” (2018), when a retired Colonel dela Cruz (Eddie Garcia)—possibly one of the worst abusers of martial law—tells college students led by Carlo (Tony Labrusca) about the horrific days of martial law, they wind up getting more than they bargained for. The movie depicts the actual tortures based on first hand experience of the martial law survivors.
Colloquially known as Manoy, I had the privilege to have met him in person during the gala screenings and awards night.
Sadly, his award as Best Actor for “ML” in 2018 turned out to be his last in Cinemalaya when he died at the age of 90 in June 2019 after tripping on a cable while taping for a soap opera, Rosang Agimat, and there was no standby medical team or ambulance on the set.
I saw his last fiim, “Rainbow’s Sunset” which was an entry during the 2018 Metro Manila Film Festival. It is a convoluted story of a rich troubled clan, whose main conflict revolves around the family members’ having to deal with grandfather Ramon (Eddie Garcia), who comes out as gay and wants to live with his best friend and lover Fredo (Tony Mabesa) who is dying from cancer.
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In an interview, Garcia reminded people that there was nothing wrong with being gay.
“Everybody was created by God,” he said. “If you are a homosexual, God created you that way. There’s nothing wrong with it.”
His first gay role was in the 1971 film “Tubog sa Ginto” directed by Lino Brocka. Garcia as the husband, Lolita Rodriguez as the wife, and Mario O’Hara as the driver turned lover.
Garcia appeared in nearly 700 film and television roles. Garcia had the highest number of appearances in Philippine films.
“Whatever role is given to you — if you’re doing comedy, make them laugh. If you’re doing drama, make them feel it. If you’re doing horror, scare them. Do the job well; it doesn’t matter if I have to play a minor character. Don’t give directors and producers a headache,” Garcia said in an interview.
Republic Act 11996 , known as the “Eddie Garcia Law” has been signed last May 24, 2024 by President Marcos to protect and ensure the welfare of workers in the movie and television industry.
The law mandates the implementation of work hours, wages and other wage-related benefits, social security and welfare services, basic necessities, health and safety, working conditions and standards and insurance.
The opening film of this year’s Cinemalaya “The Gospel of the Beast” will feature Jansen Magpusao, the second youngest Cinemalaya Best Actor winner for “John Denver Trending” in 2019.
He was then an unknown and neophyte 15-year-old child actor from a far-flung town in Antique.
In “John Denver Trending”, Jansen portrays a young boy whose life changed after a video of him went viral and he became a victim of cyber-bullying.
“Gospel of the Beast” is a coming-of-age film about a teenage boy, Mateo, who is ceaselessly searching for his missing father. After accidentally killing his best friend, his life gets turned upside down and he runs away with his father’s friend —not knowing that his escape would set him on his ultimate journey towards beasthood.
Aside from the Best Actor award by Jansen, “John Denver Trending” was the biggest winner in 2019 with Best Film, Best Original Music Score, Best Editing, Best Cinematography, and the NETPAC Award for the Full-Length Category.
Lino Brocka’s “Bona,” starring Nora Aunor and Phillip Salvador, is the closing film, which tells the story of a fan becoming infatuated with the bit actor from a movie but the endless infatuation comes with unfortunate results.
Competing in the full-length category are: “Alipato at Muog”; “An Errand”; “Tumandok”; “Balota Gulay Lang Manong”; “Kantil (trench)”; “Kono Basho”; “Love Child”; “The Hearing”; and “The Wedding Dance.”
I consider myself as a Cinemalaya loyalist as I have been watching the competing films since it started in 2004, or 20 years ago.
My passion perhaps is an offshoot of my exposure to experimental films during my college years in the late ‘80s and ‘90s at the UP Diliman where I saw several highly sensitive and political films.
(Peyups is the moniker of the University of the Philippines. Atty. Dennis R. Gorecho heads the Seafarers’ Division of the Sapalo Velez Bundang Bulilan Law Offices. For comments, e-mail info@sapalovelez.com, or call 09175025808 or 09088665786.)