Showbiz Periscope

MMK ON FORMER ISLAND OFW AND HER SON GETS HIGHEST VIEWERSHIP IN CATANDUANES; ISLANDERS FIND ‘BANCA’ SCENE DEROGATORY

By Pablo A. Tariman
Manila
June 30, 2015



Khan is the only son of former London-based OFW Esperanza Tresvalles from Bato, Catanduanes who passed away last February due to brain tumor.

The son of Tresvalles was played by John Lloyd Cruz while his wife Reashiela Lucena Khan was played by Kaye Abad and with Agot Isidro taking he role of Tresvalles.

That the drama anthology made many islanders cry was undeniable.

Danny Tariman of Arts News Service found the story so moving. “”I can empathize with Tarik’s decision not to reveal the status of his mother. He was so afraid he would lose his wife if he did so. I find Agot’s (Isidro) performance remarkable as I have personally seen his mother personally.”

But while thousands found the story engaging,  many netizens who have read the Catanduanes Tribune stories of this writer thought that the special edition of MMK should have equally focused on the story of the mother.

“The title of the MMK teleplay is ‘Hat’ and it showed Esperanza Tresvalles with her London get-up always hovering under the shadow of the couple. Her true to life story can eclipse everything in that MMK adaptation,”said Mark Lester Valeza Urbano.

Former island resident Freddie Alcala said the winners in the MMK episode is Catanduanes and the family of Tresvalles with the big exposure on national television. “In my estimate of advertising revenues at P800,000 per minute on prime time, MMK that night grossed more than P16 million. Minus production expenses and talents fees for the actor, the teleplay could still have gross profit of P6 million. In other words, Tresvalles contributed P6 million for the stockholders of the network. Can they at least give Espie (Tresvalles) one year supply of Tang orange and Fita biscuit?”

Ms. Tresvalles with son and wife were  last publicly seen in the concert of violinist Christian Tan and pianists Mary Anne Espina and Najib Ismail at Kemji Resort summer of  2013.

Mother and son were reunited in middle of 2012 after 29 years of separation.(see photo below)

This writer met Tresvalles when she attended the concert of soprano Luz Morete and pianist Najib Ismail at the Tingog Center in Bato, Catanduanes. She arrived in the hall while the soprano was singing “Awit ng Gabi ni Sisa” from Felipe de Leon’s Noli Me Tangere. She was well-behaved during the concert and even congratulated the artists at the Bato Parish convent after the performance. I was surprised to hear her speaking perfect English with British accent.

Tresvalles went on to attend other concerts in Virac, Catanduanes like the concert of tenor Gary del Rosario with pianist Mark Carpio at the Risen Christ Hall in Virac, Catanduanes.

After 29 years of separation from his mother, Tarik    sought the help of some friends in the island -- Sonia and Efren Sorra-- to facilitate the reunion.

On April 18, 2012, Tarik  took the first flight to Virac, Catanduanes and went straight to the PPA office. On the way to the reunion place, he did not know what to expect. “I did not know how I would react. I didn’t know how to be a son; I have never been one for nearly 30 years,” he recalled when he was still alive.

Said Tarik of those who earlier read his mother’s story: “Mom's story is a story of hope. I am thankful to the many people who've been part of our lives, for without them our story would not have been possible. I am thankful too to the good people of Virac who took care of Mom while I was away. You are heroes too in our story. Kudos to Pablo Tariman who has beautifully chronicled our lives from way back when I was just a teenager. Lord bless you all. Keep the faith. It is no a coincidence that my mother’s name means hope.”.

Before leaving for London, Tarik*s mother worked as a cook, household help, and later as hospital attendant. Among the big families in Manila she had worked for were the Velascos and Rochases of Forbes Park, and the Roceses who owned a publishing house.

It was in London that Tariks mother met his father, Tarik Hamayon Khan, a British national of Iranian descent. All those years she was in London, she sent money to her brothers and sisters in Catanduanes, with instructions to build a house for her and her son.

After many years in England, Tarik and his mother returned to Bicol, hoping to find a new house where they could retire. It didn’t happen. Instead of building the Khans’ dream house, their relatives diverted the money, which had been sent them regularly, also dividing the household items sent by ship among themselves.

Tarik’s mother had a hard time coping with this betrayal in the family. Mother and son had to move from one lodging house to another, and ended up in the town plaza and church patio when they ran out of money.

One time his mother gathered religious images and hurled them at the waves, while sobbing bitterly at her fate, Tarik recalled. Then 4, he embraced his mother and pleaded with her, ‘Don’t take it so badly, Mommy. You still have me!’ At about this time, the young boy realized that his mother had descended into madness.

Tarik was later adopted by a couturier, who took care of his early schooling. He was in good hands until he was run over by a Manila-bound bus while on his way home from school. The boy ended up in the Orthopedic Hospital where he stayed for several months until his guardian could no longer foot the hospital bills. He couldn’t even take the boy back as he had no legal adoption papers.

Tarik ended up in foster homes and found a German foster dad who sent him to a good school. But the past haunted the boy, turned him rebellious and restless, until the foster families tired of him and he wound up in a shelter for migrant children managed by Fr. Ben Villote.

But one family who never gave up on him was the family of Mrs. Carmencita Protacio Herman and Dr. Tony Protacio of the Protacio Hospital in Paranaque, who became his parent-figures.

Explained Tarik when he was still alive.”The Protacios, particularly Tita Baby, have been the most patient of all people in dealing with me. They just never gave up on me. I’ve been the worst a person could be, and yet they continued to shower me with love, always understanding, and always hoping that someday I would change for good. They somehow knew that the rage in me was caused by a wound that simply needed to heal. It was their love that saved me.”

One year before finishing his college studies, Tarik quit his part-time job, left Manila and went back to Albay. He found his first foster father, couturier William Urbano, known in the city as Willi de Legazpi, who gave him his birth documents. Tarik decided he would start all over again.

He intimated: “In the past, I was always in search of my life’s meaning. I had so many questions and found very few answers. Suddenly, it dawned on me that one way to fix my life is to be at peace with my past. So with only P500 in my pocket and nothing else, I took a bus bound for Bicol, which I consider my home. I discovered that my hatred for my past was not justified, and that my past was not to blame for everything that happened to me. In Bicol, I fell in love with the place, with the people, and with a girl. I soon got married.”

At the time, Tarik had his hands full with several jobs that keep him busy. He spent three days in Manila and four days in Bicol, where he chairs an organization that provides research services to call centers, as well as human resource, training and consultancy services related to online and other e-business services.

What did he learn from his past that radically changed his life for the better?

The last word of Tarik in my last  interview with him: “I learned that life is not perfect, nor is it fair. I realized that I could not go on forever hating my past and blaming it for the monster I’ve become. Instead, I could start embracing my wounds and learn to play the cards that I was dealt with. Life now has more meaning for me. I am now able to understand fully why ‘bad’ things in the past had to happen.”

The first story on Tarik and his mother written by this author originally came out in  the Philippine Star  in 1994 and it elicited calls from readers who wanted to adopt the son of poor islander after her descent to madness.

Updates on the mother and son later appeared in the Munting Nayon Magazine (see related story … A Mother’s Epiphany …..), the Philippine Daily Inquirer and the island-based Catanduanes Tribune.

While the drama anthology was widely praised, many  islanders  took exception to the scene where the former OFW and her son arrived in the island from Bicol mainland in a banca.

 “We have been using ferryboats, not bancas, going to the mainland,”said Abu Victoria Torres. “That scene gives the wrong impression the islanders are still using bancas commuting to the mainland.”

The author’s first teleplay on Tresvalles and his son was submitted to ABS-CBN in the mid90s but  this writer refused to revise the teleplay.

 Among those who liked the script was actress Elizabeth Oropeza who wanted to play Esperanza Tresvalles.

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See related story:

·  A MOTHER'S EPIPHANY: REUNION WITH LONG-LOST SON AFTER 29 YEARS