The Philippine Online Chronicles

You’ve gotta love a Filipino woman who has come of age a million times, with now nothing to hide or lose, and can just afford to be downright honest. In this land of coy Pinays and pseudo-Maria Claras, this woman is rare; for current showbiz where image remains crucial for every woman regardless of age, even rarer. This is the value of someone like Maria Isabel Lopez who seems to have always had the daring to sincerely speak of her world since she came to Pinoy consciousness in 1982. Of course in hypocritical Catholic-conservative Philippines, this would necessarily be to her detriment.

At the final deliberations for the Binibining Pilipinas pageant she joined, her being a Gerard Peters lingerie model would be taken against her, as if parading in a bikini on the pageant stage was any different. After winning the national pageant, but losing in Miss Universe, Lopez’s image would be a tug-of-war between being seen as a boldstar and being celebrated as the queen of the 80s’ Experimental Cinema. She leaves the country and comes back to the same struggle, being uninvited to the Bb. Pilipinas Pageant in 2009 when all previous winners are always on the guest list; at an exhibit of past winners, no photo of her appeared. On the same year she is central figure in the Cannes Film Festival entry Katayan by Brillante Mendoza.

Lopez is conscious of this struggle, speaking as she does of being vindicated for being ostracized as a boldstar by becoming a “real” actress via Katayan. But more than this, Lopez wins at being a woman with a voice that’s difficult to ignore, because it is one that has come of age, has learned well, has suffered enough, and is now just a smart sincere refreshing voice that’s rare in these shores. In a 2007 radio interview with DJ Mo Twister, in his 40 Questions segment that has seen many celebrities crumble, Lopez’s answers were fearless without being crass or libelous. So yes, she’s tried everything as a young woman; yes, she had a very close relationship with boldstar Pepsi Paloma – yes, would count as lesbianism; yes, she’s been mistress and girlfriend to politicians and older men in the course of her life; and she will compare ABS-CBN 2 and GMA 7, but will say she’d rather the latter because the money’s better.

A sense of Lopez’s 1982 Bb. Pilipinas win in fact should’ve prepared us for her trajectory as a public figure, which is really just ahead of her time. In the final round of questions for the pageant, she is asked if she’s a virgin – a question that could only be asked at that time with a judge such as Rita Gomez. Lopez replies, “Will it make me win the crown if I say yes?” That this is still daring in the present is what’s downright crazy about Lopez, but more importantly about how far we’ve come with regards women’s rights to her own sexuality, and body, and life.

Lopez reminds us paradoxically that this isn’t very far.