It was at the start of the sixties right after I returned from a one year fellowship in Toronto, Canada when I got to meet Virgilio “Beer” Flores. He was a department head at the CBN offices in the old CBN building on Aduana Street, Intramuros.This was years before ABS CBN established their modern network facilities on Bohol Avenue, in Quezon City.
I was hired as an independent director to handle STUDENT CANTEEN which was an established noonday program that was enjoying national attention and which was simulcast also in its radio counterpart throughout the archipelago.
With much care, since I was an outsider just coming over to handle th4e one and a half hour program I would greet Beer and address him as sir. His counterpart manager also with CBN was a warm hearted and witty fellow named Gumsy Alba.
While I was into my second year directing the most popular noontime show STUDENT CANTEEN which featured mainstays Leila Benitez, Eddie Ilarde and Pepe Pimentel, I got an offer to head the production department of another up coming TV station. It was an offer I could not refuse, as they say.
Not long after I moved out of directing the show which had as producer a very engaging Visayan named Bobby Ledesma, I began to hear about a new situation comedy show over the radio which later on moved to Television created by Beer Flores titled SEBYA MAHAL KITA. It starred Pugo, Bentot and Sylvia La Torre.
Sometime later, a film version of "Sebya, Mahal Kita" was produced in 1957 which starred the love team of Nida Blanca and Nestor de Villa. Of course, the driving forces of the show were still Pugo and Bentot who were also in the movie version.
As it turned out, the film version was not successful for the audience did not appreciate having their favorite radio show reformatted for the movie.
Philippine television was still in its infancy, but radio was as popular as ever all over the country towards the latter part of the 50s. Beer knew comedy and had written other situation comedies show before.
While the stage shows during the Japanese Occupation had showcased Pugo and Tugo (who died earlier) it was radio and TV that further boosted the popularity of Pugo and later Bentot (whose real name was Ben Cosca).
Up at this time I had no inkling that soon I would have Beer as my brother in law for he married my sister Nenita to my pleasant surprise. I stopped addressing him as "sir" by that time. Aside from Sebya Beer also produced another TV sitcom which was "TANG TARANG TANG". This sitcom featured Leroy Salvador, Rosa Aguirre and Cris de Vera in supporting roles but Pugo, Bentot were the main engine in the comedic shows. By this time Tang Tarang Tang enjoyed a faster rise in popularity brought about by Beer’s successful team in SEBYA. So talented was Beer that he even wrote the lyrics of the opening theme which was sung by the three maintstays thus: “Ako si Don Mariano (Pugo)Ibyang po naman ako (Sylvia) Bitoy ang pangalan ko (Bentot) Badong naman ako (Leroy Salvador).
As the show progressed, Sylvia decided to leave the show and was replaced by Marita Zobel who was paired with a young actor named Dindo Fernando.
Writing comedy in the Philippine setting, as I learned when I was doing TV and radio programs back then is more challenging than writing drama or action stories since comedy demands a good ear for humor especially the brand of Filipino humor that we do enjoy. Beer stood head and shoulders among them during his time.
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