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The awesome Rosa Rosal

Author: Bibsy Carballo
Column: Meanderings

WE recently dropped in on Rosa Rosal, Governor of the Red Cross and star of the 50s, and as in the past, cannot but end our visit in awe and admiration of this woman who has retained the principles she stood for all these decades.

She became an actress at the age of 17, almost simultaneously when she became a volunteer for the National Red Cross Blood Program. She celebrates her 78th birthday this coming October and 60th anniversary with the Red Cross next year. As she tours myself and new nursing graduate Aubrey Morla through the various rooms and equipment worth P200 million, Rosa shares with us how she got her way most of the time through stick-to-itiveness.

She would write, visit, wait for hours for a government official or company president from whom she was asking a donation. If she could travel in the dead of the night to bring blood to a patient, she could do no less in going for her precious donations, she felt.

There is that story that she discovered the Red Cross needed a special license to operate a blood chemistry machine which the Dept. of Health wouldn't give. She would go to the DoH daily, sitting it out until they had no choice but to give it to her. Nadaan sa kulit, says medical technologist Lalaine Ilagan who has been with the Red Cross 22 years.

Rosa in the movies was a sexy vixen, not averse to kissing scenes, wearing bathing suits, and playing villainous roles for her studio LVN Pictures. To her, these were simply roles. In private, she was quiet and studious, attended night classes and obtained a degree in Business Administration at Cosmopolitan College while doing Red Cross chores in between her movie responsibilities.

She rode a motorcycle to work, warned perennial movie partner Tony Santos that he was not to steal her scene (agaw eksena) or he would get it from her. None of her co-stars in the movies pursued her, she told us. Perhaps she intimidated them, perhaps she was just one of the boys to them. She got married once, had a daughter Toni Rose Gayda. She never remarried, never was a mistress, didn't smoke, didn't drink, didn't go nightclubbing, in fact was the exact antithesis of her movie roles. She was one for clean living, her secret to longevity. She relates laughingly, most of her contemporaries are now dead. In fact, in reviewing the classic Anak Dalita, Rosa notices that everyone in the movie are dead from Tony Santos to cinematographer Mike Accion, composer Francisco Buencamino Jr. Restie Umali. "Ako na lang ang buhay. "

Rosa has a self-confidence which others may mistake for arrogance that has helped her on many occasions. If she wanted something, she would go for it, like she did the project Biyaya ng Lupa. Having already won international acclaim in the Asian Film Festival for "Anak Dalita" and "Badjao," she wanted Biyaya and LVN boss Manny de Leon told her the role didn't fit her. "I told him I would go through auditions to prove that I deserved that role," Rosa recalls. Of course, she got the role.

Although her last movie role has been a while ago, she is so happy to have been given a tribute in the form of a special Rosa Rosal Festival of some of her best films that are still extant - "Anak Dalita," "Badjao," "Biyaya ng Lupa," and "Sakada. " She keeps herself abreast of showbiz happenings through television and has singled out May Bukas Pa and Tayong Dalawa as her current favorites. She feels proud of the new generation who not only have evolved to be very good actors but have learned to save their earnings and put them to good use, she states.

Rosa still dreams of doing another film. " Bakit tayo mahirap hanggang ngayon? Bakit tayo nasa squatters pa rin? Nung bata ako, nasa squatters na. Hanggang ngayon, nasa squatters pa rin. Why? Yun ang istoryang gusto kong gawin. "

She has kept her connection with the industry and points to a lot of active entertainment figures who have donated to her Red Cross fundraising. As we tour the premises, we find various million-peso machines accredited to Kris Aquino, Ruffa Gutierrez, Dr. Vicki Belo, Richard Gomez and Lucy Torres, as well as celebrities and companies. On her 57th year with the Red Cross, Rosa inaugurated the Apheresis Center which is a special kind of blood collection utilizing high-technology machines. Rosa looks forward to her 60th next year where she swears she will collect P60 million for the Blood Bank. And no one doubts that.

Email the author at bibsycarballo@yahoo. com

Source: People's Journal