The trophy that Dolphy didn’t see

EPY QUIZON was excited to show this to his father. BAYANI SAN DIEGO JR.

Comedy King Dolphy had undergone a new procedure on Tuesday before he succumbed to a long battle with a debilitating pulmonary disease.

His son, indie star Epy Quizon, said the family didn’t know what to expect of the procedure called platelet apheresis, but allowed it because they could see that Dolphy was fighting to live.

(The procedure required the collection of blood platelets through an apparatus that separated one constituent and returned the remainder to the circulation.)

Epy was interviewed by the Philippine Daily Inquirer only a few hours before his father died. Inquirer caught up with him at an awards presentation lunch given by the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP).

“We’ve come close to renaming Makati Med, Quizon Medical Center,” joked Epy, who won a Best Actor trophy for an entry to the recent Sineng Pambansa national film festival. “Imagine 18 siblings—the hospital room that we occupy really gets crowded,” he recalled. “We’re driving the doctors and nurses out of their wits.”

Epy then admitted: “People just don’t see my sadness… I certainly can’t show my dad, so I cry in the car.”

Best actor/actress

During the interview, Epy said more than once: “I can’t wait to show this trophy to my dad.”

He had won as part of the ensemble in Sigfreid Barros Sanchez’s “Mga Kidnaper ni Ronnie Lazaro,” tying with costars  Ronnie Lazaro, Nonie Buencamino, Dwight Gaston, Raul Morit, Soliman Cruz, Hector Macaso and Mon Lee.

Epy said, “The last time I won Best Actor, I shared it with my dad and my brother.” During the 2001 Brussels International Festival of Independent Films, Epy shared the Best Performer award with Dolphy and Eric Quizon for their work in Gil Portes’ “Markova: Comfort Gay.”

Assignments

During this latest family episode, Eric was designated official spokesperson. Epy was tasked to oversee the annual Pidol Golf Cup, a charity tournament that raises funds for the Dolphy Aid Para sa Pinoy Foundation.

The tournament, set at the Eastridge Country Club, would have opened on July 25, Dolphy’s 84th birthday. Epy has moved the date to July 30.

He reported that eight scholars sent by the foundation to the Reyes Cutters hair-cutting school recently graduated. “They are survivors of the floods caused by Tropical Storm ‘Sendong’ in Cagayan de Oro City.” For the next batch, Epy would like to find scholars from Tondo. “My father was born there,” he said.