Mother’s non-show biz address

What makes Mother Lily run? Every day, Regal Films producer Lily Monteverde takes a walk or jogs around a park adjacent to her home in Greenhills, San Juan.

“For at least three hours, day or night,” she says and offers, as proof, the calluses on her feet. “But I have to keep walking,” she adds, “because of an old injury from dancing the tinikling in Dakak resort.”

Not even rain stops her from walking—she’d go round and round her vast living room “at least 200 times.” Which is quite a feat, because it’s as big as a five-star hotel’s ballroom (and also boasts of a baby grand and several crystal chandeliers).

She says the house fits her personality to a T: It’s always ready for parties and entertaining.

During gatherings, the producer almost always gives in to guests’ requests for her to play the piano. Actually, she has two baby grands; a third one, an upright piano, is a gift from Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr.

Once, while shopping for furniture at Landmark Trinoma for her Imperial Resort in Taal, Batangas, she chanced upon an electronic organ on sale. A tough customer, Mother Lily grilled the salesman about its various features. Not content, she phoned a friend and played “La Cucaracha” and some Filipino folk tunes on the instrument. She asked the friend on the other end of the line: “Does it sound okay?” (She didn’t notice, she says, that a small crowd of shoppers had gathered to listen.)

There’s a drum set near the lanai. She insists, “I also play the drums, but I can’t find the drumsticks just now. Maybe my grandchildren hid them. They complain that I’m too noisy.”

As in most Chinese-Filipino clans, Mother Lily built the house to accommodate five grown children—plus a brood of seven grandchildren (and two pets, Blue the Maltese and Truffle the poodle).

Living under one roof has its ups and downs, daughter Roselle Monteverde admits. “It’s very practical. But we’ve also learned it’s important to respect each other’s space. My mom has her own corners and we each have our own quiet time. It’s just a matter of give and take.”

Bought on installment

Mother Lily recalls that she bought the Greenhills property from beauty queen Juliet Mascardo in the 1970s. “She was kind enough to allow me to pay on installment basis for one year, with post-dated checks!”

Since they moved in over three decades ago, the place has been renovated only twice, Roselle relates.

Architect Joel Songsong volunteers that Mother Lily was hands-on throughout the second renovation, which took two years.

“The concept was Mediterranean with a touch of Asian. She wanted the ambience of a modern hotel or resort,” the architect says. “It’s free-flowing and features various conversation nooks. She didn’t even move out during the redecoration, which was smart, because she was able to personally supervise the process.”

“We did the renovation in stages,” Mother Lily recalls. “We did the second floor first and then the ground floor.”

The home is decked with souvenirs from her travels. Mother Lily collects antique clocks from Europe. “I probably have over a hundred. Some are gifts. I store many of them in [my other house in] Valencia.” Roselle says her mom’s favorite is a golden clock from Austria, embellished with a knight’s figure vanquishing a rival.

On the second floor, there are two large figures of Our Lady of Manaoag, “dressed up by couturier Aureo Alonzo,” Mother Lily notes.

The home is also decorated with an assortment of golden Buddhas and other Oriental ornaments from Thailand and China (where the “Mano Po” series was filmed).

“Mano Po 6,” starring Sharon Cuneta, was partly shot in this house. This way, Mother Lily is emulating another legendary movie matriarch, Doña Sisang de Leon, who shot some of her movies (like “Waray-Waray”) in her Broadway mansion.

Mother Lily doesn’t hide her admiration for Doña Sisang, with whom she shares the honor of being the only two Filipinas included in Cathay Organization’s coffee-table book, “Asian Women in Film.”

In spite of Mother Lily’s achievements in the movie industry, however, there are few signs of show business in the residence. Trophies are discreetly tucked in a hidden corner in the second-floor living room.

The only visible movie memento is an oil painting of the young Lily, circa 1985. “It was painted by the man who owns Sagmit Advertising. He made Regal’s giant billboards in the 1980s. He also painted [husband] Father Remy’s portrait upstairs,” Mother notes.

She recalls that she and Father Remy celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary last April, surrounded by their children and grandchildren, in the restaurant Summer Palace.

“I didn’t want to throw a lavish party,” she explains. “I just wished to be with my family.”

As she tells it, when the waiter brought out a cake, she sang “Maalaala Mo Kaya” to her husband who, quite understandably, blushed throughout.

She waxes sentimental: “I told Father Remy, it has not been a perfect life. Together we planted an orchard. Some of the trees may be barren. There may be falling leaves here and there, but… we planted the trees together and now we are enjoying the fruits.”

Her life in the movies, on the other hand, she describes as something like a roller-coaster ride. “I began as a popcorn stand concessionaire. I started Regal with P5,000.”

She remembers that she was on the verge of bankruptcy in 1997 when the movie industry was at its lowest. “I was running all over the place, trying to catch up with the post-dated checks I had issued so they wouldn’t bounce.”

Also, she remembers feeling disappointed when she had to part ways with Star Cinema in the 1990s. But instead of moping, she constructed Imperial Palace Suites in Quezon City.

To tell the whole story in the simplest way, her moniker, “Mother Lily,” is nothing short of a brand name now.

She has acquired not a few nuggets of wisdom throughout her years in the biz. For example, when stars quarrel—like Snooky Serna and Maricel Soriano did in the 1980s, or Heart Evangelista and Marian Rivera just recently, “It’s best not to take sides. They’ll  patch up sooner or later.”

Mother Lily never stopped producing, and has built a library with over 1,000 titles. For this December’s Metro Manila Film Festival, she is teaming up with two new producers, TV5’s Studio 5 (“Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow”) and mall giant SMDC (“Hototay”). She feels strongly about collaborating with new players, in the same way that she forged partnerships with ABS-CBN and GMA 7 in the past.

This month, she is unveiling Joey Gosiengfiao’s “Temptation Island,” a remake of the 1980s Regal camp classic, in cinemas nationwide.

Mother points out, “Critics used to snub Regal movies, but now some of my films are being given a second look. The original Temptation Island was screened at the Paris Cinema twice. Later this month, Joey’s ‘Bomba Star’ will be shown in Paris again.” Talk about appreciating the past, she actively supports the Society of Filipino Archivists for Film.

Her vitamins

While most of her peers would rather slow down, Mother Lily, who turns 72 in August, is still huffing and puffing, as though she’s on a never-ending marathon. (At times literally. She vows to lead the Regal contingent in a Philippine Red Cross fun run in December.) “I will never retire,” she says. “I will never stop working. Making movies is my passion, my vitamins.”

What keeps her running?

“When I’m tired of walking, I think of my grandchildren. I want to remain healthy so I can watch them grow. Then I think of my special child… who will take care of him? That motivates me to walk for another hour around the park.”

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