Feature: ‘I was the First Japayuki in France’
Negros Daily Bulletin writer Ambassador Edouard Garcia demythologized the Negrense Old Rich icon, saying, “It is the Lopez family who is the true oligarch and is not from Negros. I ran a hacienda for 15 years and received no gain at all.” He estimated 100 hectares of sugar cane farm to achieve economies of scale.
PUREZA, which will premiere this February 7 at SM City Cinema, will put everything in perspective, thus the need for all Negrenses to watch but for Edouard to accept a role and not sure how long his lines would last, the need for this piece to contain what it can.
Edouard showed no hope in Government’s efforts in legislation and establishment of agencies in the guise of “supporting the sugar industry”, in fact he laughed at those “mga kun ano-ano dira”, he was emphatic, “it is useless to pretend I am an advocate. What for?” He nodded in agreement how government bungle tremendous amount of money intended for the Sugar Industry.
With an impish look in his eyes and a dramatic elegant but naughty move, he said, those sugar groups around received subsidies, “Why are they not hollering that something is wrong, somewhere and everywhere...Is there something wrong with the way they owned their haciendas? With the way they pay their workers the minimum wage?” What guts!
Why will he be afraid, “I was the first Japayuki in Paris, working from sunrise to sunset in a Sun-See-Sex Club Mediteranee controlled by a shrewd Jew Gilbert Trigano and family. I was assigned in its boutique, our private rooms had no locks and we are all required to entertain our clients, bigay-hilig lahat.”
Edouard is fearless, his feet are solidly grounded in soil, he has no “elitist” pretensions, and he is at ease being identified as a typical Filipino striving to etch a name in Paris like all the rest of the Japayukis in Japan.
He lamented instead, “When I came back, we had a class gathering and no one knew how to dance.”
“Is this how much we had suffered? Must I fight then for the industry that made us all suffer?”
Vanity, vanity, Edouard seems to be following the Good Old Book.
He warned, “I had the chance to take a cruise along the Nile River of Egypt. From boarding to docking, I saw miles and miles of sugar plantation in a country of sands called Egypt!”
How will the Philippine Sugar Industry position itself given all these competitions?
The conversation with Ambassador Edouard Garcia could go on and on but borrowing from Robert Frost, we have miles to go before we sleep and a PUREZA to watch on the following SCREENING:
- Premiere: SM Cinema, Bacolod City, February 7 (by invitation only)
- Special screening at Robinson’s Bacolod on February 11 at 6 P.M.
- Regular screenings on February 17 (from 12 noon onwards)
- Bacollywood: Robinson’s, Bacolod City, February 11*
