I don't know if there'd be enough space here to talk about Sir Gardy. But I'll try to give you an impression of him with as few words as possible.
He's a founding member of the PETA (the Philippine theater institution, not the ethical treatment of animals group), and a renowned and award-winning theater director, composer, factotum, and impresario. Just among the movies he has scored are Magnifico, Tinimbang Ka Ngunit Kulang, and Ganito Kami Noon, Paano Kayo Ngayon. He won his first FAMAS for the score of Ganito Kami Noon... at the age of 23.
For most of his life, he lived far from Bohol, though both his mother and his father were Boholanos. Then, in 1995, he came home to Baclayon to visit his mother, who had been wheelchair-bound after a traffic accident. One fateful rainy day that year, in Baclayon Church, he waited out the rain with the Loboc Children's Choir and Ma'am Alma Taldo, their conductor. They talked and, inevitably, he asked them to sing for him. The children sang and as their voices soared up to the rafters of the church, tears streamed down his face. Since then he has made his home in Bohol and has done everything in his power to help bring forth the next generation of Bol-anon artists and cultural workers and help protect Boholano heritage.
We can also call him the Godfather of Bohol's Cultural Renaissance. And, though I know a couple of people who might take offense if you ever called him that in their presence, that wouldn't make him any less worthy of the title.
I hope this is helpful, Lumine.
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