National Artist Bing Lao, The Screenwriter Who Made Everyone Around Him Better

(SPOT.ph) Talking to Boy Abunda during a TV interview in 2015, Armando “Bing” Lao broke the moviegoing audience into three categories: educated (those who watch mainstream Hollywood movies); the undereducated (those who watch Filipino movies); and the film-educated (those who watch alternative, indie and foreign titles). Those generalizations may not apply today, but an argument can be made that at the height of his creative powers, the venerated screenwriter—who was just named National Artist for Film and Broadcast Arts by Malacañang more than two years after his death in June 2024—told stories that captured all three audiences.

Consider the Eddie Garcia-directed Saan Nagtatago ang Pag-Ibig? from 1987, produced during the height of Philippine cinema’s mania for melodrama. The premise, originally conceived by Gilda Olvidado for Tagalog Klasiks, is quintessentially komiks: A woman (Vilma Santos) impregnated by her no-good boyfriend (Ricky Davao) is foisted upon his mentally incapacitated elder brother (Tonton Gutierrez) for the sake of an inheritance. Saan Nagtatago ang Pag-Ibig? checks all the boxes of popular entertainment: underdogs, secrets, confrontations, a quotable line (“Si Val! Si Val! Si Val! Lagi nalang si Val!”). But in simply paying attention to his characters, Bing Lao crafted an affecting treatise on female empowerment and respect for the mentally challenged. To this day, it remains a satisfying watch—a guilty pleasure with none of the guilt.

Or what about the following year’s Itanong Mo sa Buwan? Long before Pulp Fiction, this bank heist/sexy thriller took the three-act structure and shredded it to riveting effect. Long before “unreliable narrator” became a catchphrase, it introduced Filipino audiences to Jaclyn Jose’s Josie, who is either tremulous hostage or cunning femme fatale depending on the viewpoint. And to local moviegoers who couldn’t tell Rashomon from The Usual Suspects, Itanong Mo sa Buwan presented truth as something elusive and slippery, hidden somewhere within the scorching chemistry between Jaclyn Jose and Mark Gil.

Lao’s knack for writing literate scripts—economical on the histrionics, extravagant on emotional punch—made him a magnet for directors like Jeffrey Jeturian and Brillante Mendoza who were interested not in capturing manufactured stories but slice-of-life reality. “Bing and I started together in the industry,” says Jeturian. “We first met in a scriptwriting forum sponsored by the Screenwriters Guild of the Philippines, then we were batch mates in the first-ever workshop of Ricky Lee. I believed so much in his talent that I made him promise to write a script for me if I got to direct my first film.”

That film became 1998’s Sana Pag-ibig Na, a coming-of-age tale about a son (Gerald Madrid) grappling with his deceased father’s relationship with one of his students (Angel Aquino). Lao also wrote Jeturian’s second and third films—the grittier Pila-Balde (1999) and Tuhog (2001)—allowing the up-and-coming Jeturian to deliver a one-two-three punch with the critics. “In a way,” Jeturian says, “I owe my career and professional reputation to him.”

Lao’s connection to Jeturian would lead him to another fateful collaboration, this time with lawyer/movie producer Joji Alonso. The trio collaborated the 2004 drama Minsan Pa, a love story about a Cebuano tourist guide (Jomari Yllana) whose side hustle catering to his Japanese clients’ prurient needs puts him at a disadvantage with the middle-class traveler (Ara Mina) he falls for. It would be Alonso’s first foray into feature film production, and while it again reaped praise from the critics, it bombed at the box office.

“During one of our many hour-long conversations, [Bing]shared that he felt guilty that I lost my savings,” Alonso said. Because of the dismal returns, Lao “wanted to shift paradigms and offer an alternative and cheaper mode of storytelling” to keep costs at a minimum.

The shift resulted in 2006’s Kubrador, about a bet collector (Gina Pareño) hounded by the police, co-written with Ralston Jover, produced by Alonso and again directed by Jeturian. “It went on to win over 40 awards both local and international. It even landed among the Urian’s Best of the Decade,” Alonso proudly declares. But most importantly, according to the producer, out of the film’s stark realism was born Lao’s pet project: the Found Story School of Filmmaking.

To hear Lao tell it, his establishment of Found Story had been gestating for quite a while, born out of the convergence of his decade-long stint as a UP professor in the 1990s and his disenchantment with the film industry. “Dahil hindi ako mentored, siguro kailangan ng mga baguhan ang i-mentor sila to fast track their development sa propesyon,” Lao told Abunda in his 2015 interview. “Pero nagkaroon ako ng disillusionment sa film industry at the time,” he continued. “The script is the bible of the film industry...pero hindi siya ang considered most important.”

Those twin concerns gave birth to Found Story, an industry-caliber workshop (usually held at Lao’s humble digs in Sikatuna Bliss) that teaches screenwriting, directing and editing that has so far mentored over 40 batches of aspiring writers and artists. Found Story is also a storytelling philosophy which states that “real events and issues happening in the country are taken as inspiration to build a story.” The workshop’s Facebook page also bears a post with the motto “Serve the story, not your ego” above a photo of Lao scribbling away at a white board.

Under the workshop’s guidance, director Raymund Ribay Gutierrez rode his film Verdict all the way to being selected as the country’s official selection to the Oscars in 2020. Acclaimed indie entries Bwaya (2014) and Pamilya Ordinaryo (2016) were both directed by workshop discoveries Francis Xavier Pasion and Eduardo Roy, Jr. (both gone too soon). From the farms of Isabela, Zig Dulay journeyed all the way to Quezon City to become a Lao protégé and, applying his mentor’s principles of grounded storytelling, directed the Metro Manila Film Festival entries Firefly and Green Bones. Found Story is littered with many such success stories.

With his creative consultant work with another fateful collaborator, Cannes Award-winning director Brillante Mendoza, Lao expanded upon his mentorship duties and oversaw the script development of such indie classics as Masahista (2006), Lola (2009), Ma’ Rosa (2016, which won for Jose her Cannes Award for best actress), and personally wrote two of Mendoza’s seminal works, Serbis (2008) and Kinatay (2009). He even got to direct two films, 2009’s Biyaheng Lupa and 2012’s Ad Ignorantiam, both produced by Joji Alonso, both award winners. Screenwriter and producer were so close that Lao even christened Alonso’s production company: Quantum.

During a fallow period in his screenwriting, Lao took up competitive scrabble playing. “Meron palang gano’n,” Lao told Abunda with a chuckle. “May timer tapos dalawahan lang, parang chess player. So kinareer ko rin ‘yon...walong taon!Kinodify ko ang Scrabble para maging champion ako!” It was a hobby that fit his cerebral and soft-spoken nature.

This inner quietness, an aversion to tooting his own horn, is perhaps the reason why his workshop acolytes campaigned so passionately to get him recognized as a National Artist. Longtime friend Alonso is certainly not averse to singing Lao’s virtues. Addressing her departed friend in a Facebook eulogy in 2024, Alonso delivers the most heartfelt of praise: “I can ramble on and on but it all boils down to the fact that you were that touch of Midas for every project that you dipped your fingers into. We all became better because of you.”