SENATE President Vicente Sotto III has filed a resolution expressing the “profound sympathy and sincere condolences” of the Senate to the family of Jesusa Purificacion Levy Sonora-Poe, popularly known as the award-winning actress Susan Roces, wife of the late actor Fernando Poe Jr.
“The passing away of a legendary movie star whose invaluable contribution to Philippine cinema is beyond compare and whose sincerity, warmth, guidance, and kindness had truly touched the hearts of her fellow workers in the film industry sector, particularly the young actors and actresses who have just begun their movie careers will be mourned by the Filipino people and the nation,” Sotto said in the still unnumbered Senate resolution.
Sen. Grace Poe, adopted daughter of Roces and Poe, said her mother died of cardiopulmonary arrest three days after she was rushed to the hospital.
Poe said they sensed something was wrong with her mother two weeks before her death.
“Kapag nag-uusap kami, minsan isang oras o isang oras at kalahati ang average niyan… (pero noong nakaraaang dalawang linggo), parang mga 10 minuto lang, sinasabi niya, ‘Sige na, sige na’ at parang nahahapo siya. Doon na namin talaga napag-desisyunan ng aking mga pinsan na mukhang meron nang iba dito kasi hindi na rin siya makakain, Ayaw na rin niyang kumain (Our usual conversion lasts one hour to one hour and half on the average (but in the past two weeks), it only takes around 10 minutes. And she was always in a hurry to hang up, and she seems to be always tired. That’s the time when me and my cousins sensed that something’s not right because she has no appetite to eat. She does not want to eat),” Poe said in a chance interview at Roces’ wake at The Heritage Park in Taguig City on Saturday.
Poe said the last time she talked with her mother was on Tuesday last week after President Duterte signed the Foundling Recognition and Protection Act.
She said Roces congratulated her for the passage of the measure since the issue of being a foundling was used against Poe when she first ran as senator in 2013.
“Kasi imagine pinaglaban niya ‘yan para sa akin matagal na, na magkaroon ng patas na karapatan ang mga batang naabandona… So, masaya siya. Tapos alam mo, pagkatapos nun parang naiba na. Yun na ang huling pag-uusap naming kaya napaka-symbolic nga, parang hinintay niya, pero pagkatapos nun, nung dinala namin siya sa ospital, parang wala sa sarili, tapos nagko-complain siya na may pain (She fought for [that law] so that foundlings can have equal rights… So, she was very happy. But after that, things changed.
That was our last conversation that why it was symbolic, that she seems to have waited for the passage of the measure. And then when we brought her to the hospital, she was not in her right sense of mind and was complaining of pain),” she said.
While in the hospital, Poe said Roces reminded her to take care of her grandchildren.
Roces died Friday night at the age of 80. She will be interred on Wednesday beside her husband’s grave at the Manila North Cemetery.
Roces, respected as the “Queen of Philippine Movies,” started her acting career when she was just 11 years old in the 1952 movie “Mga Bituin ng Kinabukasan” and has since starred in more than 130 movies in a career that spanned for 70 years.
In 1968, Roces married Ronald Allan Kelley Poe otherwise known as Fernando Poe Jr (FPJ), who held the title “King of Philippine Movies.” The couple produced movies under their own production outfits —Rosas Productions and FPJ Productions.
