Pilar Pilapil all out for battered women

MANILA, Philippines—The last time comedienne Giselle Sanchez saw Pilar Pilapil was on the afternoon of Thursday, the day she was attacked. They attended the press conference for the play “The Vagina Monologues” in a restaurant in Quezon City. The play goes onstage this month.

“She was in high spirits,” recalled Almed Garcia, the play’s publicist. “She was so happy to catch up with old friends at the presscon. She was laughing and said she got lost and couldn’t find her way to the restaurant.”

Pilapil agreed to appear in the play because she is a firm supporter of the campaign against violence toward women, Garcia said.

Explained Sanchez: “Tita Pilar accepted the play for the same reason that I did: to help battered women.”

Pilapil, who made an unsuccessful run for the Senate in 2004, formed the Pilar Pilapil Foundation precisely to help abused women, Sanchez said.

The proceeds of her 2006 autobiography, “The Woman Without a Face,” went to the foundation’s projects for battered women, too.

Superwoman

Angeli Bayani, another “Vagina Monologues” co-star, said she met Pilapil for the first time at the press conference.

“She seems warm, earthy, fiery and highly opinionated. She is passionate about her beliefs and principles. She strikes me as a strong, fearless woman,” Bayani said.

The play’s director, Mia D’Bayan, agreed, saying: “She’s a superwoman, a warrior. She believes in the play’s advocacy of women empowerment.”

Sanchez said Pilapil was like a second mom to her—“very nurturing and loving.”

“Tita Pilar is fighting for her life. But she’s a fighter and I know that she will get through this. Let’s all pray for her,” Sanchez said.

She expressed hope that Pilapil would recover in time for the play’s staging at the Teatrino on April 29 and 30.

Bayani aired the same hope, saying: “To be able to share the stage with her is an honor and an inspiration.”

While the show must go on, D’Bayan is hesitant to think of the play for now. “I want to focus on Tita Pilar first. We are all asking for prayers,” she said.

Sanchez and D’Bayan said the play’s proceeds would go to the V-Day Organization, which was focusing on the abused women of Haiti.

They said part of the proceeds would also go to the Women’s Crisis Center in the Philippines.

2nd marriage

A born-again Christian since 1995, Pilapil married Christian pastor Leo “Bernie” Peñas in 2002.

It is her second marriage. Her first was with Spanish journalist Michel Ponti in the 1980s.

In her youth she hogged the gossip columns for her love affairs with comedy king Dolphy, action king Fernando Poe Jr. and Vice President Salvador Laurel.

In Pilapil’s autobiography, “The Woman Without a Face,” she candidly chronicled her troubled relationships with men, which began with her father Carlos whom she described as “cold and cruel.”

She explained why, for someone famous for her beauty, she chose that ironic title: “I soared to the highest levels of success … only to find when I got there that I was empty, did not know who I was, and even despaired of life itself. I really did not have a face of my own.”

Pilapil’s only child, Pia, married blind model Gerry Gonzalo. In the book, Pilapil recounted a conversation with her daughter: “I asked her why she wanted to marry a blind man who couldn’t even see her. She replied: ‘Mama, you had lots of men in your life, but they couldn’t see you.’”

Sweet 16

Born in Liloan, Cebu, on Oct. 12, 1950, Pilapil was only 16 when she was crowned Binibining Pilipinas-Universe in 1967.

Her title paved the way for her career in show business. She bagged her first movie role in “El Niño” with Poe and has starred in over 100 movies and drama anthologies.

Pilapil won the Best Actress Award at the Manila Film Festival for “Ang Uliran” in 1971 and at the Gawad Urian for “Napakasakit, Kuya Eddie” in 1987.

She earned Best Actress nominations from the Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences (Famas) for “Isinilang Ko ang Anak ng Ibang Babae” (1972), “May Langit ang Bawat Nilikha” (1976) and Darna (1991), as well as an Urian nomination for “Kailan Mahuhugasan ang Kasalanan” (1989), among others.

Her latest show biz appearances were in the ABS-CBN soap operas “Lobo,” “I [Love] Betty La Fea” and “Agua Bendita.”

>strong>‘Feel every feeling’

“Pilar has a great love for God,” said her fellow beauty-queen-turned-actress Maria Isabel Lopez. “She’s very emotional, vulnerable. She was one of the models in the ‘Women of Substance’ calendar I produced [in 2009]. She’s a pro. She’s very transparent, though. You can see and feel what’s she’s going through inside.”

In an interview published in the 1981 book “All Star Cast” by Inquirer Entertainment editor Emmie G. Velarde, Pilapil said: “Feel. Fill everything to the brim. Feel every nice feeling. Even loneliness because it has a purpose. If you must cry, let the tears flow. That’s what they’re there for—when emotions overpower. Cherish things, people, relationships. Nothing lasts forever.”—With a report from Inquirer Research