The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
Aside from being an elder sister, my late Ate (a term of endearment to an older woman by blood or by affinity) Lily V. Arriero was a confidante in many of my entertainment beat reporting ways.
She might not be a fan or as you may say, fond (pun intended), of showbiz news, i.e., hot items (read: gossip) but she would react consistently on widely talked about or even trivial topics in the social field.
Or she would give her two-cent worth of ideas or simply thoughts on celebs and on certain occasions, their triumphs and peccadillos.
Her elementary school teacher mien of huddling with fellow teachers after homeroom classes would suffice about the latest community whispers vicariously related with current issues in the biz like who’s dating who.
In her sickbed at the ICU of the Lung Center of the Philippines—some medical staff referred or called her Mother Lily, an allusion to the late film producer-matriarch Lily Monteverde—while she was intubated I would tell her animatedly that award-winning actor Phillip Salvador showed up at the Villasanta Clan Reunion on Rizal Day last year held at the Mom’s Backyard in our hometown in Lopez, Quezon and forked out twenty thousand peso-cash for raffle prizes and other incentives to which she reacted with gusto as she widely smiled with her ventilator on.
Ate Lily’s heavy connection, though, with the local media and in the diaspora was her association with movie writers through the years particularly my configuration that started with the jeered Shoulder Bag Beauties composed of myself, Lhar Santiago, yes, your GMA Network’s primetime news show “24 Oras”‘ “Chika Minute”‘s reporter, my confreres at ABS-CBN’s “Star Patrol”‘s Obette Serrano and Roland Lerum who came after my unceremonious leave of absence from “TV Patrol.”
You see, prior to our broadcast years, the late controversial talent manager Dr. Rey de la Cruz (discoverer of talents Laila Hermosa, Rio Locsin, Sarsi Emmanuelle and other Softdrink Beauties, among others) gave us identical shoulder bags which we wore all at the same time in many showbiz functions which my Ate Lily would amazingly wonder.
Lhar and Obette would always be around in Lopez, where Roland also hails from, on special occasions.
Ate Lily would accommodate them at home and showed them around whenever possible.
In the beginning of our entertainment writing profession, Santiago, Lerum and I were housemates in a relatively small room in North Road in Cubao, a stone’s throw from Julie Vega and Jay Ilagan’s respective residences.
After I vacated our room, we were still neighbors when I and Ate Lily’s children (who studied in the city) rented a space one apartment door away from
Ate Lily—from the province—would regularly pay us visits, bump and say hello to the Shoulder Bag Beauties.
“Nakakalungkot naman ang nangyari kay Ate (It’s saddening what happened to elder) Lily,” lamented Lhar in his online messages.
During my stint as reporter, writer, segment producer and VO of “TV Patrol,” Ate Lily and her kids (she had two daughters, two sons but lost the second-born to leukemia) were close acquaintances, if not friends, with newscaster Angelique Lazo and the late Mario Dumaual.
When Angelique moved to Radio Philippines Network (RPN) Channel 9’s “Action 9” with Ramon Tulfo, Rey Langit and the late Dong Puno and “Arangkada Extra Balita” newscast, Jik was the ninang (female sponsor) at the wedding of Ate Lily’s son Mac and daughter-in-law Margarette.
In Murphy, Cubao, the late prolific movie journalist Gil E. Villasana being a neighbor, had a special bonding with Ate Lily and her family.
Movie, TV and theater actors who came in and out of Kuya (a term of endearment for an older man or brother by blood or by affinity) Gil’s abode had memories of Ate Lily, however, lasting or fleeting.
One of the longest running friendships Ate Lily had kept was with entertainment columnist and editor Art Tapalla who was always with her in Cubao, Lopez, San Pedro, Tagaytay and other places where she had stayed.
Art was sort of privy to Ate Lily’s daily routines in the Philippines.
Fil-Briton filmmaker Jowee Morel (“Ec2luv,” “When a Gay Man Loves,” “Latak,” “Mona Singapore Escort,” “Strictly Confidential,” “HiStory,” “Leona Calderon,” “The Making of Quezon City,” among others) had recently paid Ate Lily a quality visit in Lopez before he went back to UK in the middle of last year.
When I launched in 2023 my sixth book, “SekSinema (Gender Images in Philippine Sex Cinema Enfolding Pandemia)” at the Philippine Expressions Bookshop in San Pedro, California, Ate Lily, along with her daughter Malou and son-in-law Ped Quiming, was on top of the organizing, preparing cocktails and accommodating for the guests that included The Filipino Channel (TFC) North American Bureau Head TJ Manotoc, actresses Princess Punzalan and Rita Magdalena, actor Edgar Mande, broadcaster Faye Romero, news hen Luchie Aclan Arguelles, 1981 and 1998 Mutya ng Pilipinas titleholders Marilou Bendigo and Rochelle Romero Ong, respectively.
When I locally launched my four media studies books, namely “Tio Ticong Pelikula at Pulitika Vicente Salumbides” (UST Publishing House, 2001), “Expose Peryodismong Pampelikula sa Pilipinas (Movie Reporting in the Philippines)” (UST Publishing House, 2007), “SekSinema” (The Word Publishing, 2009) and “SekSinema (Gender Images in Philippine Sex Cinema Enfolding Pandemia)” (BBV8 Media Productions, 2021), in various venues and platforms, my Ate Lily actively participated personally or in spirit and interacted with Brillante Ma. Mendoza, Maria Isabel Lopez, Ricardo Cepeda, Jean Saburit, Frank Rivera, Fanny Garcia, the late Mario O’Hara, Jean Saburit, Aimee Torres, Joy Sumilang, Amanda Amores, Danny Vibas, Joelad Santos, Jess Evardone, Liz Alindogan, Stella L., Liza Dino-Seguerra, Tessie Tomas and a lot more from the print and broadcast media who present, in-person or digitally, in those launches.
These and more are memories, on the showbiz side, I would cherish about Ate Lily the rest of my life.
Ate Lily died of an aortic aneurysm.
She was 82.
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The other show business affiliated death was the passing of Deogracias Victor Savellano, former vice-governor of Ilocos Sur and 1st District Representative of the province.
Savellano was the husband of actress Dina Bonnevie.
According to Pilipinas Today online platform, Deogracias, also known as DV, died on January 7, 2025 due to abdominal aneurysm: “…namaalam na si Mr. Deogracias Victor ‘DV’ Savellano. Siya ay ang itinalaga bilang Agriculture Undersecretary for Livestock. Ikinasal noong 2012 sina Dina at DV at masaya silang nagsama matapos ang ilang taon (…He already bid adieu. He was appointed as a government official. He and Dina have a happy married life since 2012).”