ACTOR TIRSO “PIP” CRUZ III says he has become the answer to the top pop trivia question these days: Who was the first talent that Douglas Quijano managed?

When Douglas was alive (he passed away last Saturday), Pip tells Inquirer Entertainment, “He would remind me of that whenever we saw each other.”

Except that, when they first met in the late 1960s, the term “manager” wasn’t being used yet. “Our arrangement was very informal,” Pip recounts. “He practically discovered me.”

Pip was only 14 when Douglas spotted the young singer at El Bodegon on Del Pilar Street in Manila.

“My uncle Joey Cruz co-owned the bar and Douglas would go there for a few drinks after work (at the Daily Star),” Pip remembers.

Douglas was already a “popular and respected writer then,” says Cruz. “Tito Joey asked if he could help me break into show biz.”

“Out of the kindness of his heart,” Pip adds, “he got me my first gig at the National Press Club, where he introduced me to other newsmen.”

That started the ball rolling for Cruz, who would later be signed up with Sampaguita Pictures and become half of the legendary love team Guy & Pip, with Nora Aunor.

First big hit
In the late 1960s and early ’70s, when Pip joined Tower Productions under director Artemio Marquez, Douglas, as company publicist, was there again to back him up. “Our first big hit was D’ Musical Teenage Idols, in 1969.”

Manager and writer Alfie Lorenzo recalls, “In Tower, I kept pushing Manny de Leon as Guy’s partner. But Douglas was the strongest supporter of the Guy & Pip tandem.”

Pip says Douglas inculcated in him the importance of professionalism. “He told me not to compete with others, only with myself. He wasn’t just a manager to me. I’m proud to say he was my mentor and, eventually, a close family friend.”

Even after the breakup of Guy & Pip, Douglas remained in Pip’s life and career. In the mid-’80s, Pip staged a comeback with several Guy & Pip reunion movies megged by Elwood Perez, that became box-office hits: Till We Meet Again, I Can’t Stop Loving You, and the award-winning Bilangin Mo ang Bituin sa Langit.

“Even though we didn’t talk [often], whenever I got an offer from Regal Films, I knew he was instrumental in that,” Pip says.

He learned of Douglas’ passing through wife Lynn, who was surfing the Net that day.

Immediately, he got on the phone with Gelli de Belen, one of Douglas’ current talents. “I gave her the names of the contact people in Heritage Park. I knew the people there because I also helped in the wake of Daboy (Rudy Fernandez).”

Pip says he will rememberDouglas as a “happy-go-lucky guy and a true friend, “a rarity in show biz.”

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