DIREK Peque Gallaga’s masterpieces as an artist and as a distinguished film director will continue to live on in spite of his demise on May 7, 2020 in Bacolod City.
Those people whom he shared his artworks, laughter and pain have shared how the legend had helped them sharpen their own starting from the lowly production assistant to internationally acclaimed film directors in the persons of Directors Eric Matti, Gabby Fernandez, Lawrence Fajardo and many others including the actors and actresses in the country.
As arts have many forms and expressions, one has to be gifted by it so that he or she can rightly and freely express and show it.
Despite the legend's accolades and achievements in the Philippine movie industry, Gallaga had never neglected his home in Bacolod City where he helped countless of Bacolodnons and Negrenses reach their dreams in acting, theater and film production.
Barney Molina, a known film director who was first turned down and finally been mentored by Direk Peque Gallaga for seven years has recalled that, “I started working with him in 1984. I have been wanting to work with Peque for a long time. My friend told me to apply because there were openings. So, I applied, but unfortunately, he turned down my application. It so happened that Peque’s wife Madie was around. She accepted me as her production assistant.”
It was a choice for Molina either he will proceed to film school or work for Peque who was an excellent director.
Gallaga never ceased to teach. It was in his character to teach and he was always a teacher for everyone.
“All my encounters while I was working with him had always been him teaching me. You will never hesitate to ask him because he will always respond to you in a way that he will clearly explain it to you. But he worked with collaboration. It’s not always that the ideas will come from him. He allowed others to express their own and acknowledge it when they have good ideas. That’s the way he worked and that’s the I way I learned from him,” he shared.
Molina is proud to say that he came from the Gallaga School of Film Making.
In the seven years that he worked with Gallaga he mastered enough experience and skills in film making. He decided to come home to Bacolod but Gallaga resisted it because he was grooming him to become a movie director.
Molina recalled that Gallaga invested seven years to teach him and all of a sudden, “I will just throw it away and go back to Bacolod where there was nothing happening here back then. People even go to Manila because opportunities were all there and here I was, going back to Bacolod? But I explained to him, it’s time that I should go home because I already learned so much from him and I feel like I will be doing pioneering work because nobody is going to do it here because nobody is here. Peque understood and gave me his blessings. I had the whole year (1990 - 1991) to say goodbye to Peque and he called it, the long goodbye.”
Going fast forward, Peque established the Negros Summer Workshops in Multi-Media in Bacolod that lasted for 20 years at the University of Saint La Salle - Bacolod. He did it in collaboration with Ms. Elsie Coscolluela who was then the USLS Vice President for Economic Affairs along with other people who mapped out the curriculum. Molina was there as part of the workshop instructors and facilitator.
“Every summer for 20 years, Gallaga would set it up and invite his award winning actors, actresses, directors, cinematographers and other friends to come to Bacolod for a month to teach. It never stopped. A lot of locals underwent the workshop. In Negros, whoever you will meet, in some way or another, was influenced by that. Those who are doing productions, are part of the 20 years of workshops done by Peque,” he said.
Such has evolved to Bacolywood, Institute of the Moving Image and currently Bacolod Workshops under USLS Institute of the Moving Image headed by Manny Montelibano.
Gallaga's work will live in everybody who had the chance to be taught and inspired by him.
Gallaga is proud that he is a Bacolodnon and he is also proud of the works that he had done in the city until now, Bacolod is never gonna be the same as regards the arts and film.
Bacolod tops in all provinces insofar as film making is concerned. It stands out.
Bacolod’s quality is far different from others.
“When we do the critic of several production works, Bacolod will always outshine the others. We have Eric Matti, Lawrence Fajardo, Gabby Fernandez who are all from here and they were all winning awards left and right not just in the country but in the international scene as well. Gabby’s “Mana” film won in Madrid and that story came from the workshops. It is an output of the Negros Summer Workshop,” he said.
Those are the concrete examples and influences of Peque Gallaga to others.
Rudy Reveche, an artist who had worked with Direk Peque Gallaga shared that Gallaga could easily spot innate talents of the people even on a first impression. He would then challenge and inspire you to do better.
In the many years Reveche worked with the Silver MassKara Festival, Inc., "I found out from Eli Tajanlangit that it was Peque who recommended that I should handle the street dance component of the MassKara Festival because of my background in grassroots theater.
When he appointed me to be his co-director in improvisational comedy play as an output of our Work-in-Progress Class in the Negros Summer Workshops, in a subtle way, he proclaimed that I can be at par with the established artists during that time.
That's Peque Gallaga, he would push you to Herculian tasks and seal your work with a certain brand, and he alone could weave around that magic.
Truly, Gallaga was a Busali-an, Reveche said.