Zsa Zsa Padilla diagnosed with kidney cancer 40 days after Dolphy’s death

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“When life situations get rough, I find myself taking deep breaths… And I am ready 2 take on new challenges. Living life. One day at a time.”
That was Zsa Zsa Padilla’s tweet early Sunday morning as news broke out that the already grief-stricken partner of the late, great Comedy King Dolphy had been diagnosed with stage 1 kidney cancer.
Earlier reports stated that the 48-year-old singer-actress was conspicuously absent at the Mass for the 40th day after Dolphy’s death held Saturday because she had left for Los Angeles to seek medical treatment.
She consulted doctors at Cedars Sinai Hospital after her doctors at the Makati Medical Center had detected an abnormal growth in her kidneys.
Zsa Zsa told ABS-CBN News on Sunday that a certain Dr. Folkes, her doctor at the Los Angeles-based medical facility, told her that she has a malignant growth the size of a golf ball.
“The first time I saw Dr. Folkes, he immediately told me it was malignant. So when I heard that word ‘malignant,’ I said, ‘Oh man, I have cancer.’ I went back the next day for blood work and a scan and it showed the same thing — almost a 3 centimeters growth — and he advised for it to be taken out,” Padilla said.
News of her ailment took everyone by surprise, including the very people that form part of her extended Quizon family.
“I just heard about it too,” Ronnie Quizon, one of Dolphy’s 18 children, admitted to Interaksyon.
“Whether it’s confirmed or not, I think, with a little help, it could be cured. I have a friend who was diagnosed with stage 1 cancer before, and now he’s completely cancer-free. We even had common friends who were praying for him before, and have passed on even ahead of us,” Ronnie added.
Zsa Zsa’s colleagues in the industry were also quick to issue statements of support.
“We love you. Get well soon. We are all praying for you,” said fellow singer Gary Valenciano, a co-host at the Sunday noontime show, “ASAP” and a co-star in the upcoming movie musical, “I Do Bidoo Bidoo (Heto nAPO Sila)”.
Twitter was also flooded with an outpouring of support as “Zsa Zsa Padilla” is now a trending topic following the news of her ailment.

My battle is about to start - Zsa Zsa Padilla

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MANILA, Philippines – After staying by the side of Comedy King Dolphy as he battled chronic obstructive pulmonary disease for years, singer Zsa Zsa Padilla said her battle is just starting after they brought the actor to his final resting place on Sunday.

“When my friends would come and console me sa hospital pa lang, I would tell them I’m actually very strong but I know that this is not my fight, this is not my battle. Kay Dolphy pa iyon. My battle actually starts kapag nailibing na siya,” Padilla said in an exclusive interview with “The Buzz,” which was taped days before the actor’s burial on Sunday.

Padilla said it already pains to imagine life without Dolphy by her side.

“Para kanino ka gumigising? 'Yun 'yung masakit,” she told host Boy Abunda as tears welled in her eyes.

Padilla shared she once told her sister that she would not know how to move on with life when Dolphy leaves.

“In one of the times na na-ER si Dolphy, tumawag ako sa kapatid ko. Sabi ko sa kanya ‘Ate sa palagay ko mahihirapan ako kapag nawala na si Dolphy dahil talagang 'yung buhay namin for so many years nakapaligid sa kanila.’ Hindi ko na alam kung ano ang gagawin ko. All of a sudden, he’s gone,” she said.

Padilla, however, believes she would be okay because she is sure that Dolphy will look after her from heaven.

“Alalayan mo lang ako kasi ayaw kong mangyari 'yung nangyari sa akin noon na hindi na ako bumabangon sa kama,” she said.

Their relationship in the past 23 years may have been the subject of intrigues, but Padilla said she would forever love Dolphy for everything that they have shared together.

Now that he is gone, Padilla said she would always remember that moment when Dolphy told her “I love you.”

She is also hoping that she would again feel Dolphy’s presence. “I really wish I would feel his presence. I want a hug. I really miss him,” she said.

Asked how she said goodbye to her long-time partner, Padilla said: “Parati kong sinasabi, 'Come home to Jesus' and parati kong ina-assure na okay kami. Huwag mo kaming intindihin, okay lang kami. Binubulong ko na alam ko naman kapag nagpunta ka sa langit, hindi mo kami pababayaan lahat. Sinasabi ko na do not be afraid, come home to Jesus, we’ll be okay.”

Padilla also said she now understands why Dolphy had to stay inside the hospital for more than a month.

“Yung tagal niya sa ICU naiintindihan ko na kung bakit nangyari iyon. Kasi talagang maging united kami bilang isang pamilya, with 17 of his children dahil iyon ang gusto niya eh,” she said.

Dolphy was rushed to the Makati Medical Center on June 9 and was confined at the hospital's intensive care unit until his death last Tuesday.

Ex-convict Dolphy Jr. is now a Pastor, thanking his dad

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“I love you, thank you for teaching me forgiveness.”

This was Rodolfo Dominguez Quizon Jr.’s “final message” for his father, Philippine entertainment’s comedy king, Dolphy, who will be buried this afternoon at Heritage Park in Taguig City.

Quizon, 57, known in local movies as Dolphy Jr., talked on Saturday with interviewers on a morning show aired live from the wake at Heritage via TV5, the late comedian’s home network.

The message would have made perfect sense to televiewers who had gone to the wake on Friday night and participated in a service led by Bro. Eddie Villanueva of Jesus Is Lord Christian church. Dolphy Jr., an ex-convict, is a pastor of the church.

During the service, Dolphy’s third child in a brood of 18 was introduced as the “black sheep of the Quizon family.” He didn’t look the least bit bothered by the moniker as he told his story.

Clad in a white barong, Dolphy Jr. admitted that he was his father’s biggest problem. “I could tell that his health suffered when I was in jail,” he said.

Arson conviction

Dolphy Jr. figured in a sensational arson case in 1981 that led to the death of six people, and for which he was imprisoned and drew a life sentence. He served almost 18 years.

He recounted his journey from son of show-biz royalty to heroin junkie, from convicted arsonist to Christian pastor.

As a child, he craved his father’s attention, Dolphy Jr. confessed. His parents separated in 1963 when he was 8. His mother was the late Grace Dominguez, a former actress. Of six children, Dolphy Jr. was the only one who stayed with Grace.

He became a child star, acting with his father in the 1967 movie “Like Father, Like Son: Kung Ano ang Puno, Siyang Bunga,” with Helen Gamboa as leading lady. In his teens, he starred in his own movies, among them “Anting-Anting ni Ompong” and “Ay Manuela.”

Hooked on drugs

He thought the good times would never end and started buying the love he sought. “I thought friends and drugs were all I needed. I was soon hooked on heroin,” he said, showing needle scars on his arm.

He had given this testimonial before, Dolphy Jr. said, “Dad has heard this.”

In a previous interview, Dolphy Sr. admitted that he was never a perfect father to his children by six different women. “I left the disciplining to their mothers. It’s very difficult when one of your children goes astray,” the comedian said.

Soon enough, Dolphy Jr. learned: “If you have lots of money, you’ll have lots of friends. But just try to land in jail and you’ll lose all of them.”

In 1991, he and two friends, Alfonso Perez (comedian Jerry Pons) and Mario Salvador, were convicted of arson—for the burning of the Greenhills home of actress Mina del Rosario and producer Vic del Rosario.

Vic and Mina’s daughter Vina; Mina’s son by Andy Poe, Fernando III; Mina’s mother, Corazon; Mina’s nephew Ramon; midwife Trinidad Briones, and nanny Nograles Ylescupides perished in the fire.

In his testimonial, Dolphy Jr. repeatedly professed his innocence. His father had believed this as well. In his biography, “Dolphy: Hindi Ko Ito Narating Mag-Isa (I Didn’t Get Here On My Own)” by Bibeth Orteza, the comedian said his son’s only crime was that he was a drug addict.

‘Wrongfully convicted’

“He knew I was not guilty because we were together the night of the fire,” Dolphy Jr. said on Friday. “I was wrongfully convicted.”

He rebelled inside the penitentiary. “I felt my life had ended anyway.” He looked forward to his dad’s visits only because he got an allowance with which he could buy his new drug of choice, shabu. “Everything is available in prison if you have cash,” he said. “I once went for two weeks without food and sleep.”

He related that his father confronted him on one such visit: “Bakit bulol ka (why is your speech slurred)?”

Thankfully, his father didn’t give up on him, Dolphy Jr. said, with a slight catch in his throat.

One night, in a drug-induced stupor, he turned on the black-and-white television set that he had in his cell and “tripped” on a gospel show. The speaker was Bro. Eddie.

Dolphy Jr. recounted: “He started talking about my life. I wondered who had told him. At the end of the program I was kneeling in front of the TV, weeping.”

Pardoned by Joseph Estrada

This was in 1994. “I avoided vices and gangs in jail. I started reading the Bible.”

Four years later, he was pardoned, when Joseph Estrada was President.

“On Sept. 28, 1998, I was released,” Dolphy Jr. said. “I remember standing outside Muntinlupa penitentiary, in the clothes that my dad had sent for that day—all-white, so I’d look good, he said—holding my release papers and feeling so afraid, I started weeping again. Only months before that, my wife had visited only to say she wanted to marry another man. So I had no home to go to.”

Dolphy Sr. was recovering from a heart bypass, so the returning black sheep waited a while before visiting.

“He was very thin,” Dolphy Jr. said. “We both cried. Soon I was asking for his help yet again, to set up a modest business. He said he had spent a lot on the surgery and had no cash. But he gave me four hectares of land to sell.”

He knew nothing about real estate. Providentially, he met a broker who agreed to help in his new venture. “Problem was, every time we met, he would read the Bible to me. I wondered how we could sell the property if all he wanted to discuss was God.”

Friendship brokered

This fetched a good deal of laughter from his listeners and Dolphy Jr. had to pause for a while. Then he said the broker paved the way to his ministry. “We became friends. He encouraged me to speak to congregations all over the country and even abroad.”

Once he visited his father with good news. “I told him I was going to Japan,” he said. The reaction he got was vintage Dolphy.

“He asked who would pay for my ticket. I said, ‘Jesus.’ He said, ‘Ang gulo mo kausap (It’s impossible to have a sensible conversation with you)!’”

Father and son found themselves in opposing camps during the 2004 presidential election. Dolphy Sr. supported the bid of friend and fellow actor Fernando Poe Jr. Dolphy Jr. campaigned for pastor Villanueva.

Apologize to Zsa Zsa

Still, their bond remained strong till the comedian’s passing on July 10.

During Dolphy Sr.’s last hospital confinement, Dolphy Jr. ran into a little argument with Zsa Zsa Padilla, the comedian’s long-time partner. When she started preparing Dolphy Sr.’s burial outfits, Dolphy Jr. was slighted.

“I had not given up. I was still asking God for a miracle,” Dolphy Jr. recalled. “Of course I was enlightened, eventually.” He apologized to Zsa Zsa in public during one of the services at the wake.

Comeback

Recently, Dolphy Jr. made a comeback via the TV5 soap opera “Babaeng Hampas Lupa.” During the interview on Saturday, he profusely thanked the network and its chair Manuel V. Pangilinan.

“Imagine, even when my dad could no longer work, he was still getting a salary,” he said tearfully.

In his biography, Dolphy Sr. related: “I sent Dolphy Jr.’s eldest Ryan to school. He is now an engineer. One Christmas, he gave me a gift: Money. It wasn’t the amount [but the thought]—I was touched. God is good.”

Zsa Zsa Padilla's last words to Dolphy

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MANILA, Philippines - A grandson of King of Comedy Dolphy revealed the final words of singer Zsa Zsa Padilla to her beloved while his body was being prepared. 

Ruel Quizon said Padilla was present when the funeral home prepared the comedian's body for public viewing.
"Kanina noong inaayusan si Lolo, kinakausap-usap niya parang 'Lovey ang pogi pogi mo' tapos luluha siya," he said in an interview on ABS-CBN's Umagang Kay Ganda.
Quizon said Dolphy's children including Sally and youngest son Vandolph are still emotional over the death of the King of Comedy.
"Iba iba kami ng nararamdaman kasi ang iba sobrang pagod na din kaya nag-relax na. Pero ang iba sobrang emotional pa din. Sila Tita Sally, si Vandolph," Quizon said.
He said that a mass will be offered for the soul of Dolphy Wednesday morning  at Heritage Park.
He extended his appreciation to all Filipinos who prayed for the King of Comedy.
"Maraming maraming salamat sa inyong lahat sa pagdarasal niyo sa kanya nadugtungan pa ang buhay niya nitong nakaraan, humaba pa. Mahal na mahal niya kayo kung alam niyo lang, kung makakapagsalita lang siya," Quizon said.
Born Rodolfo Vera Quizon, Dolphy was widely regarded as the country's "King of Comedy" in a career that spanned seven decades playing colourful comedic roles, from a cross-dressing homosexual to a poor jack of all trades.
He made millions laugh even during the Philippines' darkest moments, including the brutal 20-year rule of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, which ended in 1986.
Dolphy became a household name on "Buhay Artista" produced by ABS-CBN in the 1960s, on "John en Marsha" in the 1970s, and his major comeback sitcom "Home Along Da Riles" that marked his return to ABS-CBN in the 1990s.
ABS-CBN, in a statement, said Dolphy is "the symbol of every Juan de la Cruz who loves his children and can make light of life's trials."

Dolphy pass away at age 83

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MANILA, Philippines—Veteran actor-comedian Rodolfo “Dolphy” Quizon passed away Tuesday evening, his son Eric Quizon announced.

Dolphy died a few days before he would have celebrated his 84th birthday on July 25.

His remains now lie at the Heritage Park in Taguig City.

Dolphy was taken to the Makati Medical Center last June 9 due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and has been confined since then at the intensive care unit.

Dolphy’s children, grandchildren, and other relatives stayed with Dolphy until his very last.

Among his visitors were co-stars Maricel Soriano, Nova Villa, Ai-Ai delas Alas, Nora Aunor, Charo Santos, Edgar Mortiz, Bentong, Smokey Manaloto, LVN Star Mila del Sol, “John and Marsha” co-star Madel de Leon, as well as healing priest Fr. Sonny Ramirez, who offered prayers.

Son Eric Quizon said those who dropped by recently were comedian-TV host Vic Sotto, (producer) Antonio Tuviera, Senator Manuel Villar and (actress) Eula Valdes (who has a son with Ronnie Quizon).

Dolphy’s career in entertainment as a comedian—on stage, radio, television, and movies—lasted for more than six decades. He is survived by Padilla and his 18 children.

‘Humble, honest, and helpful’

President Benigno Aquino led the nation in paying tribute to Dolphy, calling him the embodiment of the “humble, honest, and helpful” Filipino, who made life easier for his friends and followers in the face of daunting challenges.

“He changed not just his industry, but also the national consciousness,” Aquino said in a statement.

“Through his art, he widened our outlook, he gave us the power to find and cherish happiness in our daily lives.”

‘King of Comedy’

Dolphy was widely regarded as the country’s “King of Comedy” in a career that spanned seven decades playing colorful comedic roles, from a cross-dressing homosexual to a poor jack of all trades.

His passing was announced by ABS-CBN television,  which aired his hit sitcom “Home Along Da Riles” in the 1990s about a poor widower struggling to raise his children in the slums.

ABS-CBN said Dolphy’s passing was confirmed by his partner Zsa Zsa Padilla, an actress also employed by the station, and other relatives.

Dolphy made millions laugh even during the Philippines’ darkest moments, including the brutal 20-year rule of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, which ended in 1986.

In the 1970s  sitcom “John and Marsha,” he played the poor husband to a rich wife, who poked fun at his loud-mouthed mother-in-law, giving comedic relief during Marcos’ martial law regime that left thousands dead and missing.

It was a slapstick brand of comedy that steered clear of politics or criticism of Marcos.

The show was so popular that it was revived in the form of at least eight movies over the last two decades, introducing younger generations to Filipino humor.

Bob Hope of the Philippines

Movie critics branded Dolphy the Bob Hope of the Philippines, and his philanthropic work helping the poor and unemployed actors was also well known.

Politicians looking to exploit Dolphy’s mass appeal for years unsuccessfully tried to lure him into running for public office.

Social media tributes

News of Dolphy’s death sent shockwaves across social networking sites, with many of his fans and colleagues paying tribute to him.

“RIP Dolphy. Kevin Cosme really gave so much laughter to my childhood,” tweeted Andreo Calonzo, referring to one of Dolphy’s most memorable television characters.

Former president Joseph Estrada, an ex-movie action star and a long-time friend of Dolphy, said he joined millions in mourning for a “national artist.”

“His memory will live forever. He was the kindest, funniest, most helpful man I know,” Estrada told AFP.

“He made life bearable for the masses, and his roles sympathized with the plight of the millions of poor Filipinos.”

Movie industry icon

While he never married, Dolphy was a known ladies’ man who fathered at least 17 children with various women, some of whom also went on to enter the showbiz industry.

President Aquino rallied Filipinos while Dolphy was on his death bed, calling the actor a “revered icon of the Philippine movie industry”.

A heart bypass 15 years ago had left him perennially weak.