Just days after he was checked in for hospitalization at the Makati Medical Center (MMC), and after a flurry of news updates, finally last night, the evening news carried the breaking story of his demise.
Shall we say that Dolphy’s career has come to this culminating end? That I think is highly debatable. As an unparalleled icon in local cinema, his legend will live on and on, the countless movies he made will continue to pervade our television and even our theaters. Such is the sort of popularity that Dolphy had achieved in his lifetime, one that is very difficult to emulate.
His work speaks for itself. As one commentary made by actor Richard Gomez, he made films with so much passion and dedication that with every film he makes, he made sure that the fans and movie-goers would be delighted to no end. And I am certainly in agreement with that observation for I have seen several of his works and truth to be told, none had been a disappointment. I would not have realized this if Mr. Gomez had not stated this. For me, this is enough achievement that should install him as an unparalleled icon in Philippine cinema, and of course, in Philippine culture as a whole.
That he was not awarded the National Artist award in his lifetime is surely one of great debate. Perhaps the main reason is that the award or its nature does not altogether embraces the cinema as an acceptd art form, this modern form of exhibition so unlike painting and the crafting of words in literature. Otherwise, it would be lesser of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) that a distinguishable artist like Dolphy is not one that is among its roster of awardees.
If I am ask to make a comment or statement in memorial of Dolphy’s death, I would simply say that Philippine cinema is about one-fourth Dolphy and that I wpould just be speaking of him in the same breathe as one knowledgeable American cinema patron of Charlie Chaplin.
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