Dim the lights
MEDIUM RARE
Minus the light from two shining stars, the sky is darker now.
“Mother” Lily Monteverde, a name as colorful as some of her movies, and Henry Lim Bon Liong, the “father” of hybrid rice whose planting techniques enabled an initial batch of 100 farmers to become millionaires, have done their work and now they’ve got the time to rest on their laurels.
Henry was president of the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry who rallied the Chinoy community to “speak up, do more.” Henry was producing paper products from notebooks to stationery when he became passionate about planting hybrid rice after he was singled out by the “rice king” of China to use a new technique. The knowledge was shared and spread to a generation of Filipino farmers whom he called the new millionaires.
Henry was satisfied with his “Sterling” brand of notebooks until he saw his mother in a dream, standing in the middle of a green field. He interpreted the dream to mean he should become a farmer, and that was how Doña Maria became a household brand for locally grown rice.
As much as he was a farmer with the drive of a businessman, Henry was a behind-the-scenes philanthropist. A dream he would not now be able to pursue is digging into the history of Limahong, the pirate of Pangasinan, perhaps even producing a movie about him. “For all I know, I could be a descendant,” he mused once upon a time.
Speaking of movies, Mother Lily’s role as a colorful, oftentimes gossip column-worthy producer has come to The End. Almost like a love story brought to the silver screen, her passing last Sunday, Aug. 4, happened five days after that of her beloved Remy, aka “Father Remy” Monteverde.
The last time I saw Mother Lily, she was dining at Café Juanita in Pasig with a small group of friends. When she saw my son Paul walking into the restaurant a few paces behind me, she said aloud, pointing at him, “That’s Paul, my son!” I agreed, said yes, and we ended up chuckling heartily. (Paul was her executive assistant at Regal Films for a number of years.)
They don’t make producers as colorful as Mother anymore, do they?