Them were the days
The venue for the bienvenida dinner hosted by Liberty Ilagan for Canada-based Balikbayan Baby K. Jimenez was conducive to traipsing down Memory Lane (a “trip” that’s becoming quite frequent these days as friends from way back when reunite after years of being miles apart).
The restaurant is appropriately named Pamana (roughly translated “legacy” in English, located on Mother Ignacia St., Quezon City, just across from the side of the ABS-CBN Studios) because it’s replete with showbiz memories immortalized in old pictures that light up not just the walls but also the ceiling (look up and you will tear up with a feeling of nostalgia), all of them taken from the precious family album of the Ilagan clan that included National Artist Gerry de Leon and his brothers Tito Arevalo (musical director), Conrado Conde (director) and Angel Esmeralda (husband of pre-war actress Corazon Noble and father of Jay Ilagan).
Handwritten on parts of the walls were lyrics of songs, one titled Nabasag
Ang Banga, that served as the backdrop
for the salu-salo.
Owned by Liberty’s daughter Happy Ongpauco, Pamana serves the most delicious lutong-bahay such as the Leyte Humba, Bagnet sa Pinakbet, Sisig Na Bangus and Lumpia Ubod which were some of the burp-inducing items Liberty ordered for friends that also included Susan Roces, Barbara Perez and her husband Robert Arevalo, Ronaldo Valdez and his wife Baby Ilagan, Tessie Villarama, Pempe Rodrigo, and Tempo’s Nestor Cuartero and Ronald Constantino.
Some people probably didn’t know that Liberty is the daughter of Manong Gerry, that Ronaldo’s wife is Liberty’s sister, that Robert (Tito’s son) is Liberty’s