MAN  OF  THE  YEAR:  FERNANDO  POE, JR.

MANILA, January 2, 2005 (STAR) By Ricky Lo  -  He was the best President we would have had. He was The Man with a Golden Heart who truly and sincerely felt for the poor, showing his concern not with words (or "photo-ops") but with deeds. A man of action, a man of few words. The hundreds of people he had helped without the glare of publicity came forward to sing praises to him, their benefactor, gone so soon.

The superlatives started pouring in when FPJ died at 65. Even those who "maligned" Da King during the election campaign, tearing him to pieces, conceded that he was a good man. Questions will forever remain unanswered: Did Da King silently carry deep in his heart the pain unjustly inflicted on him by his foray into the political arena? Did he die, like the king in The King and I, of a "broken heart"? And what broke his heart?

Asked during a rare no-holds-barred interview with The STAR how he wanted to be remembered, FPJ said, "Simply as a man who held no grudge against anybody and, hopefully, against whom nobody held any grudge."

Da King is dead! Long live Da King!

"FPJ didn’t die," said a diehard fan. "He will live forever in our hearts."

Thousands upon thousands, consisting of the poorest and the richest of the land, queued up to get a glimpse of him at the ICU of the St. Luke’s Medical Center where he lay in coma from late night of Dec. 11 when he suffered a massive stroke until early morning of Dec. 14 when he died, and at the Sto. Domingo Church where his wake was held, and an estimated million-plus joined the funeral procession and lined up along the streets on Dec. 22 when he was buried at the North Cemetery beside the tombs of his parents and his younger brother Andy Poe (the real Fernando Poe, Jr., FPJ having been Ronald Allan Poe in real life).

He was The Idol, The Icon, The Role Model, The True Friend, The Good Neighbor, The Good Brother, The Good Father, The Good Husband. He was all that – and more! He was The Man!

FPJ was The Man of the Year.

Behind him and beside him was his wife Susan Roces, forever The Face That Refreshes, cool and composed, poised and gracious, the epitome of dignity and respectability during those trying days, restraining the FPJ multitude from turning the tragedy into a political event, greeting sympathizers with a (pained) smile, still a lady even when she was letting off steam against those who, yes, "maligned my husband," a butterfly stinging like a bee, and breaking down only during the last moment at the North Cemetery when she bent beside her husband’s open casket to give him a final kiss.

Susan was The Woman of the Year.

2004 was annus horribilis as far as Local Showbiz was concerned. It ended the way it started: Shocking and tragic. The year began with showbiz-watchers trying to make sense of the death by accident of Mico Sotto (on Dec. 29, 2003) and ended with the landmark burial of FPJ that very clearly showed the whole world where the heart of most Filipinos is.

There were more deaths in-between: Theater Icon Zeneida "Bibot" Amador, Song Icon George Canseco, Jazz Queen Katy dela Cruz (in California), Halina Perez in a car accident and Rio Diaz, the inspiration of thousands she buoyed up with the strength of her faith, to the Big C with which she battled for more than five years.

Like the double-faced symbol of showbiz – one face smiling and the other face crying – there was a happy side to showbiz during the last 365 days, such as the fairy-tale wedding of Lea Salonga and Robert Chien in Los Angeles, and those of Gladys Reyes and Christopher Roxas, Eula Valdez and Richard Litonjua, Ima Castro and David Greenway, Assunta de Rossi and Jules Ledesma, Tonton Gutierrez and Glydel Mercado, Matet de Leon and Mickey Estrada. Kat de Castro and Eric Cruz. (Matet, Kat and Glydel gave birth during the year.)

It was also the year of domestic wars and "un-coupling": Arnel Ignacio vs Frannie Villanueva, Lotlot de Leon vs Ramon Christopher, Kim delos Santos vs Dino Guevarra, Phillip Salvador vs Cristina Decena, Rosanna Roces and Tito Molina.

The explosives on the streets of war-torn Iraq reverberated in the showbiz arena with the tirades (heated words, court suits, etc.) exchanged between Rosanna Roces and former manager/Nanay-Nanayan Lolit Solis and Dr. Vicki Belo, Gretchen Barretto in a one-side word war against Imelda Cojuangco (mother of Gretchen’s beloved Tonyboy Cojuangco), and ho-hum clashes between such showbiz nuisances as Madame Auring vs. Mystica vs. Mae Rivera, and the diminutive flirt Mahal against her own army of enemies.

But over all, the figure of FPJ stood tall, forever Da King; and beside and behind him, Susan Roces, Da Queen not only of his heart but those of millions.

Wish that this Year of the Rooster will be better than the just-passed Year of the Monkey for you and me, for all of us!