Director Maryo J’s last dance
There wasn’t any premonition at all.
Saturday night, director Maryo J. delos Reyes was dancing to his heart’s content and to everybody’s amusement at the birthday party of a friend at the Dakak Resort in Dipolog City when he collapsed.
He was made to sit on a chair but he was limp, unresponsive. A doctor at the party checked Maryo who was diagnosed to have suffered two massive heart attacks. Efforts to revive him by CPR proved futile. It was his last dance. He was 65. “As far as I know,” said the director’s manager June Torrejon
“he didn’t have any health problem. He wasn’t on medication. In fact, he was so health conscious that he didn’t eat anything with four feet. His diet consisted mostly of fish and vegetables.”
Delos Reyes’ sudden demise shocked the movie industry. It came seven months after scriptwriter Jake Tordesillas, Maryo’s dear friend, died in tragic circumstances on June 29 last year. Friends believe that Maryo had not really recovered from that tragedy, after all he lived with Jake for 45 years.
“I was with him last Wednesday and he looked well,” Regal Films matriarch Lily Monteverde told The
STAR; Maryo directed several movies for Regal. “I love him so much. Everybody loves him. Like Jake, he’s a big loss to the industry. Now, all the plans that we talked about during that dinner are gone.”
Since Tordesillas’ death, friends noticed that Delos Reyes became reflective, sometimes lost in his thoughts.
“He was deeply affected by Jake’s death,” Rufino said. “He would cry and tell me that when he took a shower he didn’t know whether what was flowing down his body was water or his tears. Every Wednesday, he would have dinner with us and those close to him, kuwentuhan lang, updating each other. When we parted last Wednesday, he hugged me so tightly as if he didn’t want to let go of me.”
Like Monteverde and Rufino, Kapuso star Ruru Madrid, one of Delos Reyes’ talents, was disconsolate and just as devastated.
“I saw him at the airport last Friday,” Madrid recalled. “He was going to Dipolog City and I was going to Iloilo for the Dinagyang festival. He was giving me so many pieces of advice that even when his boarding time was being announced, he lingered with me. I wanted to fly to Dipolog yesterday just to give him a last hug but management didn’t let me because I had to be in the show Sunday Pinasaya.”
Besides directing the industry’s finest movies – including the award-winning ‘Magnifico’ and ‘Bamboo Flowers’, set in his hometown Bohol – Delos Reyes also spearheaded the ToFarm Film Festival that has been turning out excellent indie films these past three years.
Delos Reyes’ body will be flown to Manila by today. The wake will be held at the Loyola Memorial Chapels on Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City where Tordesillas’ wake was also held. Interment (date to be announced) will be at Himlayang Filipino where Maryo will rest in peace beside Jake.