It was the late entertainment journalist Billy R. Balbastro who echoed that every single movie reporter should have a “sense of history” before he or she calls himself or herself a writer.
Generally, Balbastro said, if not Philippine history, at least, film, including radio and television broadcast, theater or even social media and the concurrent multimedia history.
Billy, Filemon Balbastro, Jr. in real life, wanted movie reporters to, at least, have an idea, however widespread information, of what an ancient drama like or the pre-Hispanic theater to the Spanish, American, Japanese and contemporary colonial stage influences; the advent of film at the turn of the twentieth century; the emergence of radio and TV and the post-modern dawn of digital communications because these are basically, the areas they cover.
Or course, the personal history of movie, television, theater and multimedia stars which can be gathered from news, controversial, reportorial or plain, tidbits, feature stories or even blind items identifiable, vaguely or giveaway.
For Gen Zs, millennials, Generation Alpha, Billy Balbastro might not ring a bell but for the Baby Boomers and Gen X, he was a popular movie columnist and an entertainment radio host in DZMM, the AM (Amplified Modulation) of ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation, years before his death in 2008.
Remember the showbiz group, the original Troika?
Billy shared the triumvirate hard-hitting pop culture journalism with Oskee Salazar and Alfie Lorenzo, initially from the sensational and colorful fanzine Jingle Extra Hot in the 70s to the grassroots tabloid Abante in the 80s where they ran showbiz columns.
I suddenly thought of Billy when the UP College of Law 2026 graduates staged a lightning rally in protest of the pervasive corruption in high and low places, mostly perpetrated by lawyers.
Because Billy was a graduate of the college in 1962 sharing commencement exercises with the late feisty human rights advocate and former chair of the Commission on Elections Haydee Yorac whom I likened to the principled and fiery lawmaker Leila de Lima.
Anyway, I could vouch for this because I was close to Balbastro when he stayed in three different places in Sampaloc, Manila where I always dropped by his successive houses in the district to personally chat with him when cellphones were not available yet or go with him in showbiz functions like movie premieres, interviews with stars and other creatives, movie set visits, parties, out-of-town gigs or bring him press releases or stories to be published in his columns etc.
The late prolific writer Gil E. Villasana, who I consider one of my mentors, would also tell stories about Billy since the former was a more senior reporter, writer and editor and navigated closer to the latter.
“Bar topnotcher si Billy noong 1962. Nasa Top 10 siya. Si Haydee Yorac, Top 8. Ang galing talaga ni Billy (He was in the Top Ten. Haydee Yorac also topped),” informed Kuya (a term of endearment to an older brother by affinity or by blood) Gil whenever a piece of conversation about Billy would crop up.
According to Villasana, Balbastro who was on Top 7 got 87.50% while Yorac, added Kuya Gil, scored 86.95%.
Balbastro was a lawyer during his stint as an arts, culture and lifestyle feature and movie writer.
Although Billy hadn’t talked about a lightning rally of UP Law grads during his time, the protest action, according to many UP students and alumni is a long-standing tradition by the Iskolar ng Bayan (Scholars of the Nation) done before the commencement exercises proper.
I wonder if Billy was still around if he would tackle in his writeups the passionate and emphatic scene-stealing tableau of the 2026 College of Law graduates which was praised by many academicians which I presume would include Atty. Tony La Viña. I even heard an off-cam spoken reaction in the reel posted on Facebook from a spectator probably seated onstage along with the guests who said that the students’ number was great. “Ang ganda ng ginawa nila (What they did was beautiful),” the natural sound or nat sot (natural sound on tape in the broadcast parlance) commented.
This was done before Pasig Mayor Vico Sotto had his speech as the special guest of honor on the occasion.
Billy wasn’t known as a social or political activist as a movie journalist.
But he had his own way of fighting for truth and justice, the very bedrock of his education.
I vividly remember his mantra in the face of conflicts over issues or which side of the fence one is made to choice from two opposing forces or if he is pinned down or quashed to be defenseless among the cases he was part of when everyone was for the popular and safe side: “I fight my own battle.”
Since Balbastro was an entertainment writer, he would stick to the rigors and styles of showbiz reporting—celebrity-laden column inches and mostly first-hand news about the latest in the beat and Billy had the knack for fresh materials taken from his exclusive sources although common information like coming from presscons and other showbiz convocations were indispensable.
Billy was writing from his heart and from his mind. Rarely did he speak sans contexts and foundations.
In his opinion-making acumen, though, Balbastro alluded his arguments from his legal point-of-view as needed although the personal was more utilitarian like keeping family traditions or wisdom he got from his dad especially if he wanted to be didactic, like, “I was taught by my father like this and that or I wasn’t taught by my father to be like this or that.”
The lawyers from UP who came after him were either freedom fighters with moral compaction intact in or outside the courtrooms or instruments of oppression and corruption and the others in between.
It’s quite intriguing why Billy had to concentrate on showbiz writing instead of balancing it with legal practice, purportedly on his expertise but it would be more interesting if he was able to lend his lawyering in litigation.
That’s water under the bridge, though. Or simply, the ideals are buried with him.
Who knows, he might have cases filed for special people in his life.
Most of his legal knowledge was spent at the Comelec and some provincial assignments from the agency.
Being an Ilonggo (from Oton, Iloilo), Billy was your soft-spoken person but when occasions called for him to be furious and defiant, he could shout on the top of his lungs but that rarely happened.
Even on his radio show “Showtime with Billy,” he was just cool and couldn’t even utter a dent of loudness or scandalous guffaws contrary to his feistiness in the print medium.
It’s because it was his nature.
And how are other UP grads in showbiz fare?