The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
My association with actress and 1975 Mutya ng Pilipinas 2nd runner-up and Miss Photogenic Azenith Briones started a long time ago.
Since Azenith was launched in the movie “Omeng Satanasia” as a love interest of Dolphy after she won the beauty contest, I was already running around with her.
At the time, she was paired off with action stars but she had a special off-screen romance partnership with Lito Lapid, now a senator of the Republic of the Philippines.
I was a frequent visitor in the Azenith and Lito’s love nest in Horseshoe Village in Quezon City.
After Briones boldly and judiciously decided to leave showbiz and married her childhood sweetheart El Rey Reyes, a kababayan from San Pablo City in Laguna, I was still in touch with her through my interviews for “Star News” of “TV Patrol,” ABS-CBN’s primetime news show.
I never cut off my communication line with Zenith who was still visible in showbiz at the time sans films or TV projects but she was and still is running around with active movie and television stars and high society people even when she bore kids, raised them to become adults to her sad fate of losing a husband to the tragic Resorts World Manila fire in 2017 to her comeback onscreen.
Whenever I was in their house in the idyllic Rizal town, I was witness to her disciplinarian ways over her four children.
This brand of discipline might be the root cause of her isolation from the rest of the world when she was forcibly entered to a rehabilitation center for drug addiction which she vehemently denied.
According to some of her observers and friends, particularly fellow actress Isabel Rivas, Azenith was ganged up by her own children to be brought to the facility over inheritance.
Isabel, at the time, was the noisiest bosom friend of Briones who was very vocal about what she termed as an unlawful act the Reyes children had conspiratorially did to their mother.
Rivas also denied her friend was a drug addict and a mental health case.
“Hindi addict ang kaibigan ko. Hindi rin siya baliw. Matino siyang tao. Ang mga anak niya ang dapat sisihin (My friend isn’t an addict. She isn’t crazy. She’s a sane person. Her children are to be blamed),” defended Isabel.
During the early part of her confinement at the facility, Azenith was defiant of being a patient but later softened her stance and accepted the situation for the sake of her family.
“Ayoko talagang pumirma at wala namang problema sa akin (At first, I didn’t want to sign because I had no problem),” she told us in an exclusive interview.
Finally, after Azenith signed an agreement committing herself to the Bridges of Hope (BoH) in Paranaque City and became braver to face up with the situation.
The beauty queen-actress was committed to the facility for six months incommunicado, no phone calls, no Facebook, nothing.
Inside the rehab, each resident is governed by rules that didn’t exempt Azenith including cleaning her own space in the room, cooking and serving meals to fellow residents etc.
“Ako ang nagtitiklop ng mga kumot at (I was the one who folded my blanket) bedsheet ko,” she recalled.
“Nakita ko ang mga kasamahan ko, naglilinis sila ng kubeta, kinukudkod talaga nila ‘yong mga dumi, sa sahig, sa inidoro. Hindi naman ipinagawa sa akin ‘yon (I saw my fellow residents cleaning the toilets, scratching dirt on the floor, in the bowl. Luckily, I was not made to do that),” informed the actress.
She was in the company of drug dependents, mental health patients, among other cases.
One of the salient activities that Azenith went through was group dynamics with her kids facilitated by psychologists and social scientists.
During these exercises, Azenith was able to answer accusations of her children against her.
“Nagkaliwanagan kaming lahat. Kasi nga, nawawalan na ng respeto sa akin ang mga anak ko. Sinasagot na ako noon pa (We were able to enlighten and understand each other. It was because they were already disrespectful of me. They were harshly answering me back before I went into isolation).
“Sa sessions, ipinaliwanag ko na kailangan ko silang disiplinahin sa paghawak ng negosyo namin. Bakit gusto nilang makuha na ang mga mana nila nang maaga, e, kung maubos ang mga ‘yon, e, di sa akin din sila tatakbo (I explained that I should impose discipline on them on running our businesses. Why would they like to get their inheritances as early? What if they lose them, I’m sure they would go back and depend on me?),” she narrated her assertion of her rights as a mother.
The intimate exchanges of each one’s sentiments and expressions made the maternal relationships with the kids stronger and richer.
“Malaki ang ipinagbago ng mga anak ko. Kahit sa interbyu sa kanila ni Julius Babao, ibang-iba na sila. Ang babait nila (My children have changed a lot. In their interviews, they’re different now. They’re good),” assessed Briones.
During her recent birthday, the Reyes brood treated their mom to a holiday in Hong Kong.
Azenith intimated to this writer that she didn’t file legal complaints anymore about placing her in the facility because many people will be implicated including her own children.
Hopefully, the filial love and care remains in the hearts and minds of the Reyeses.