Fans, pals more than just starstruck at FPJ grave

REEL ICON, REAL TRIBUTE. Actress Susan Roces, widow of movie legend Fernando Poe Jr., sprinkles Holy Water on his tomb during the Mass marking his 76th birth anniversary at Manila North Cemetery on Thursday. Also at the gathering was Poe’s bosom buddy, Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada (second from right). GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

About a thousand birthday well-wishers flocked to the grave of the legendary movie star who many believe should have been elected president a decade ago, bearing fond memories of how “FPJ” touched their lives by what he did on- and off-screen.

“I have watched about 200 FPJ films since I was young,” said Marietta Sangalang, 76, of Quezon City who came with her two grandchildren to Manila North Cemetery on Thursday to mark the 76th birth anniversary of Fernando Poe Jr.

Carlos Pelagio, 55, a cook who had taken up filmmaking as a hobby, said it was Poe who inspired him to pick up the video camera. As a child, he recalled, his father often brought him along to movie houses playing FPJ movies in their native Quezon province.

In his view, those movies were both blockbusters and reflections of social ills that persist to this day: corruption in the police and bureaucracy, illegal drugs, widespread poverty. “Pitong Gatang,” for example, depicted Manila as a dirty, chaotic city. “And it hasn’t changed since.”

“Just seeing his mausoleum already makes me happy,” Pelagio said, who took selfies next to a tarpaulin image of his idol.

But Pelagio said what he admired most about the actor was his generosity and simplicity. “When my child got sick and I really needed money, almost everyone I met at Philippine General Hospital advised me to go see him for help.’’

“He was the type of person who was easy to approach. He had a very generous heart but he never talked about it,” he added.

Like Pelagio, Hernan Robles, 76, said watching FPJ made him change his career choice, discontinuing his architecture studies in Far Eastern University to become a filmmaker as well.

Robles said he came to know FPJ more when he got employed in the movie projects of another action star at the time, Efren Reyes Jr. “FPJ gave me a job at FPJ Productions. Almost everyone in the industry can testify to his kindness; that’s one reason why we call him “The King.”

FPJ in character. FILE PHOTO

Joey Romero, 21, remembered how Poe bought “truckloads of toys” as Christmas presents for the children of informal settlers inside Manila North. He was six years old when he first became a recipient of these gifts.

On FPJ’s last birthday, four months before he died on Dec. 14, 2004, he again showed up at the cemetery to give away cash and sacks of rice, and even had a drink with the menfolk. “He always wanted to make people a little more comfortable,” Romero added.

Sixto Navarro, who worked as a stuntman in FPJ flicks and is now a government-employed security aide, went to the cemetery for Poe’s birth anniversary in a cowboy attire, as though ready for one more fight scene with the fast-shooting, rapid-punching leading man.

He bragged about being FPJ’s body double in the film “‘Tatlong Barako.” “We wore the same outfit; it really made me feel proud,” he said.

Navarro, a third cousin of the late actor, recalled drawing from his own pocket just to campaign for Poe in Pangasinan province when he ran for President in 2004. “That’s how loyal and supportive I was,” he said, tearing up.

Poe lost the race to the incumbent Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who would be hounded a year later by the “Hello Garci” poll fraud scandal.