"The Renaissance Man"

Published in Special People magazine 1983

Victor Ordoñez typifies the modern renaissance man. He is not only masterfully equipped in one field of endeavor but in many fields as well, in arts, in scholarship, and in science. Vic's diverse accomplishments can attest to this. He is a highly respected academician, and is at present, a professor at the University of California , Los Angeles (UCLA). He once was a management expert, evidence of which was his selection as one of the Ten Most Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) awardees a few years ago. He was also a government bureaucrat, having served the Ministry of Trade as acting deputy minister.

His accomplishment in the field of arts, too, is by no means, a mean feat to follow. He has appeared in countless films and stage plays, has directed plays and television specials, and lately, Vic has proven his worth as a film director and producer.

It was at the recent Manila International Film Festival that people in the know saw the other facets of the multi-talented Vic. He co-produced and co-directed one of the films in exhibition, bearing an obscure title, Dragon Fly.

In fact, Vic's presence was very much felt in the huge PICC. Not only was he marketing his film but also acting as one of the consultants taken in by Entertainment Philippines (the private entity that managed the MIFF affair) to handle all co-production ventures.

Vic is no neophyte when it comes to handling and negotiating co-production ventures between local and foreign producers. He was just as active this year as he was during the first MIFF last year, when Vic was successful in packaging a series of co-production ventures for our local producers. Of course, Dragon Fly was among them. The others were Raw Force starring Rey Malonzo and The Island of Bloody Plantation starring local sex sirens Tet Antiquiera, Rosemarie Sarita and Karen Lopez. All three films were given exhibition slots during the recent MIFF.

Sining Silangan co-financed Vic's Dragon Fly project which he co-produced with Bob Waters. His handling the directional helm was by sheer necessity. Complications arose when the first director, a Filipino, left the set after shooting some scenes, forcing Vic to take over. Vic, to ensure no culture differences would arise, hired the services of an American director, Al Valletti, to co-direct the project.

Those who viewed Dragon Fly in two exhibition venues at the CCP complex noticed a very Filipino tempo in the movie. The leading lady, although played by an American, Karin Mani, possesses a Filipina charm, looking credibly as the Filipina-American character in the said film.

Insiders, who knew the project from the very start, reported that local actresses were originally tapped. Among those mentioned were Hilda Koronel and Jean Saburit.

"Well, you know the going-ons in show business. Last minute hitches would arise, thus whatever your original plans were would drastically be changed, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. And besides I had a deadline to finish the film."

But Vic did tap other local talents for his project. Composer-arranger Quito Colayco did the musical scoring while stuntwoman Lita Vasquez coached lead star Karin for the action and karate sequences.

"Dragon Fly is purely a commercial endeavor. It has no pretentions whatsoever of being a quality film. This was the concept we had in mind from the very start. This type of films earns money abroad, an action film with little sexy scenes in it."

It is a story of a Filipina-American whose helpless American grand-parents were mercilessly terrorized by hoods and was out to avenge the humiliations her grandparents receive from them using her martial arts training in pursuing the hoodlums.

The film, budgeted less than a million dollars, Vic informed us, was already bought for distribution in the drive-in circuit in the United States . It has a scheduled release date for the middle year. "It would also be released here locally about the same time."

Unknown to many, Vic did had a considerable background as a director. Prior to Dragon Fly, he directed a television special entitled. The Little Prince which was shown in segments in various shows on MBS Channel 4. He was also assistant director in the American Conservatory Theater production of The Miracle Worker in San Francisco , California .

He also had acted in some eight films. However, he appeared in only two local productions, Moral where he played psychiatrist to Lorna Tolentino and as General Ricarte in the unreleased NMPC historical epic Kasaysayan ng Lahi. The rest were all American productions or co-productions shot in the Philippines . Some of them are still unreleased here.

Ditto with stage plays. Of the some 50 plays he has appeared in, big or small roles, all were in English, with the exception of only two: Pusa sa Yerong Bubong, a Tagalog translation of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof starring Phillip Salvador, Beth Bautista and Subas Herrero, and Bangang, an adaptation of Does a Tiger Wear a Nectie? starring Gina Alajar and Michael de Mesa.

However, in his early teens, arts was just an avocation. Education was his main pre-occupation. With a doctor for a father, his urge to help humanity, although not in medical terms, was further strengthened by the FSC Brothers at De La Salle University where he studied.

Vic was especially influenced by the De La Salle Brother's thrust towards the higher learning - the FSC's main vocation being education - developing the human being in all aspects of life, in sciences, in the arts and in sports. As expected, Vic joined the religious order after high school and left his vocation after ten meaningful years.

Meaningful in the sense that his preoccupation towards education remained in his heart. Today, at a youthful age of 39, he has seven academic degrees, graduated Summa Cum Laude in four of them. He has a P.h.D. in Oriental Philosophy plus a post doctoral work at Harvard University .

His accomplishment in the academic community was far reaching. He was a former Dean of the Masters in Business Administration (MBA) program and the Graduate School of Education at De La Salle University. When the Maryknoll sisters turned over their school in Quezon City to the lady academicians, Vic took over as Chairman of the Board and at one time became interim President of the college after its first lay administrator had an untimely death. He relinquished his post after a year-long search for a new administrator in the person of Dr. Lourdes Quisumbing. Vic was also the director-general of the Assocation of Asian Universities.

His career took a turn momentarily when he became one of Bancom Corporation's vice-presidents and was managing director of several of Bancom companies.

In 1979, Vic joined UCLA as a professor of the university's Doctorate program on Management.

"The course, I teach is Management of Educational System in Asia . It is a course attended mostly by non-Americans. Most of them are Asians, Europeans, Arabians, and from the Latin American countries. Most were sent by their respective governments with the hope of managing their respective educational ministries in the future."

How about Filipino students at UCLA? Vic admitted he had made acquaintances with most of them. "Majority of the Filipino students at UCLA are mostly second generation of Filipino immigrants in the United States . They have never set foot on Philippine soil. In fact, they have this association of Filipino students at UCLA. They suggested me to teach them some units of conversational Filipino."

It was during one of his UCLA teaching lulls that he was taken in to do service for the government. Vic took a leave from his teaching job when then-Trade Minister Luis Villafuerte took him to help assist in reorganization of the ministry.

"It was initially a three-month leave, then it was renewed again for another three months, and it was renewed again and again, until the three-month leave became three years."

During his three-year stint at the Trade Ministry, Vic was senior ministry adviser, heading trade missions and international negotiating teams abroad. Under his area of responsibility were commercial attaches in 72 cities throughout the world. He was finally elevated to acting deputy minister, however, he did not wait to be sworn in. He left his government post.

"I had to leave and return back to UCLA or I will lose my teaching job." Unfortunately, when he returned for UCLA last year, he was late for classes.

It was while waiting for UCLA classes to resume when he decided to handle the co-producing and co-directing chores of Dragon Fly. Vic finished the post production of the film in time to market it during the recent MIFF. Before he knew it, he was taken in, upon his arrival, as consultant to supervise the co-production aspects of the festival.

Entertainment Philippines took him on the strength of his previous involvement in co-production work, particularly his successful packaging of co-production ventures during the first MIFF.

"This year, the prospects for co-production are brighter. At my table are 27 co-production proposals. It's now a matter of ironing out details of the contract, like how much money each will put in. I could safely say about for or five are already in the can."

One would ask how come he did not choose a 100 percent Filipino film in his first crack at producing and directing?

"I am known more here for other things, but not in film."

He is very open through to direct a local picture in the near future. However, he is quite hesitant to produce one. Vic is of the opinion that one would need a Vilma Santos and a Christopher de Leon for your film to make money. Besides, the market for local films here is very limited. A low-budget commercial film even with unknown actors when released in the United States in liable to earn money because of its vast market audience.

While his classes at UCLA resume in September this year, Vic is making sure he would not be idle. For the next few months, he is appearing in an American film currently being shot here in the Philippines , entitled Purple Hearts, a war film about Vietnam where Vic plays a Vietnamese. The film is being directed by Sidney Furie, whose previous work, Boys in Company C, also shot in the Philippines , was well received by film critics.

But the thing that would make Vic very occupied until September is when his next film project gets off the ground. It is an American telemovie with intended overseas theatrical releases, entitled Doctor Pits, a comedy in the tradition of Mel Brook's Young Frankenstein. This time, Vic would only assume the role of the producer. Americans were tapped to do the screenplay and directing.

"I don't intend to berate Filipino talents, but this is a comedy that would rely primarily on American humor, therefore it is but proper that an American handle his own brand of humor. But definitely, I would hire local talents in other technical aspects."

Only when he is idle would he be tinkering with his collection of miniature ship models, a hobby he had since he was a kid. He has some 60 of them in his collection.

Still a bachelor, Vic claims his lovelife is zero. Although he goes dating a lot, he insists there is no one special. "I am just a kuya to them, always the big brother."

He does not believe in planning for the future. "I am tired of planning my life. Laging iba ang nangyayari."

Vic Ordoñez diverse career accomplishments may never what he intended them to be. We believe, however, everything that has happened to him was for the better.