Rebecca Lusterio

Rebecca Lusterio
Born December 3, 1989 (1989-12-03) (age 26)
Balicasag Island, Panglao, Bohol, Philippines
Other names Bikay
Occupation Actress and Student
Parent(s) Verano and Helen Lusterio
Awards Best Child Actress and Best Supporting Actress

Rebecca Lusterio (born on December 3, 1989, in Balicasag Island,[1] Panglao, Bohol, Philippines) is a Gawad Urian and FAMAS award-winning Filipino actress.

Biography

Rebeca Lusterio or Bikay for short, made an abrupt transition to show business when was cast in the movie Muro-Ami in 1999.[2] She was chosen out of the many kids who auditioned for the role of Kalbo. Bikay who grew up in the Balicasag Island, the movie Muro Ami depicted her prowess in swimming. The film is depicts one of the worst forms of child labor in the illegal fishing system. Fredo is the ruthless captain of 150 Muro Ami divers. The illegal fishing is done by pounding and crushing corals underwater to scare the fishes and luring them towards the nets. With a high quota to meet, Fredo forces the divers mostly children, to accomplish at least eight dives a day to meet their goal before the millennium. Tired and harassed after the burdening task being given to them, the children have to make do in subhuman conditions in the Aurora, the Muro Ami boat. They sleep in rat-infested bunks and are fed only twice a day. Life above the boat is much worse than the suffering the children encounter beneath the sea. For every dive, a child's life is perilously in danger. For her role, she was hailed as the Philippines best child actress by the FAMAS and STARS Awards.[3]

She had TV appearances in Manila but she got frustrated by some producers’ false promises and decided to go home to Bohol to continue her studies at the Saint Augustine Academy in Panglao.[4]

Five years after, she was wowed viewers with her role in the Visayan movie Panaghoy sa Suba (The Call of the River),[5] a romantic film shot in Bohol with Visayan dialogues, Cebuano to be exact, with English subtitles during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines during World War II.

In 2004 Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF), she grabbed the Best Supporting Actress Award [6] over veteran screen actors Jacklyn Jose, Angelu de Leon and Caridad Sanchez.

In Panaghoy, Bikay is one of the most moving characters - as the brave and obedient younger sister of Duroy (Cesar Montano) who closes the film with poetry. For an actor who never had any formal acting workshop, Bikay delivered a powerful performance, not allowing herself to be overshadowed in any scene by the more experienced ones like Daria Ramirez and Montano, who also directed the film. Even just her cry of “Nanay!” (mother) haunted everyone in the audience.

According to Ricky Lo, in his Funfare column on January 5, 2005,[4] he reported why Bikay didn’t make it to get her award. “ It would have been her moment of glory, a victory over heavyweight opponents, but where oh where was Rebecca Lusterio during the 2004 Metro Filmfest’s Gabi ng Parangal last Dec. 29 at the Aliw Theater where she was named Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Cesar Montano’s Panaghoy sa Suba? She was in Bohol, selling seashells in her native Balicasag Island in Panglao. According to Funfare contributor and journalist Leo Udtohan, Rebecca, whom he fondly calls Bikay, would have loved to be at the awards night but, sob and sigh, she didn’t have the money to buy a ticket (plane or boat fare) to Manila and a nice enough dress to wear in an affair where everybody displays his or her sartorial best – or worst.”

Bikay is the fourth among five children of a poor couple. Her father, Verano, is a fisherman; while her mother, Helen, makes souvenir items out of seashells which she and Rebecca sell at the Alona Beach (Panglao). Bikay and her family temporarily stayed in a P600 rented house in Tawala, also in Panglao. They left Balicasag for greener pastures.

Because Bikay is low-key and self-effacing, hardly anybody knows that she’s an award-winning In 2004, the Colegio de San Juan de Letran through the Rev. Fr. Edwin A. Lao, O.P., rector and president, offered a full-scholarship to Bikay after she was appeared in Ricky Lo’s column. She is now a 4th year Masscom student. Bikay commutes from Bacoor (Cavite) to the Letran campus in Intramuros during school days.[7]

In 2005, under CM Productions again (Cesar Montano with wife actress Sunshine Cruz) was part of the movie Ligalig [8] as a film entry in the MMFF 2006. Like perhaps a lucky charm, Rebecca is once again in the festival-Cesar Montano film.

Bikay finally got her degree in AB Communication Arts last April 27, 2010 at SMX Mall of Asia as a scholar of Colegio de San Juan de Letran Manila.

Awards and achievements

Lusterio won five awards and one nomination.

Awards

Year Award-Giving Body Category Work Result
2005 Gawad Urian Awards Best Supporting Actress
(Pinakamahusay na Pangalawang Aktres)		 Panaghoy sa Suba
(The Call of the River)		 Nominated
2004 Metro Manila Film Festival Best Supporting Actress[9] Won
2000 FAMAS Award Best Child Actress Muro Ami Won
Star Awards for Movies Star Award Child Performer of the Year Won
New Movie Actress of the Year Won
1999 Metro Manila Film Festival Best Child Performer[10] Won

Facts

• Discovered by Marilou Diaz-Abaya.

• Cesar Montano always casts her in films he produced. Cesar was impressed with Rebecca when they did Muro-ami (1999).

• She appeared in a musical video prepared by the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) Federation headed by SK National President Jane Censoria Cajes. The musical video pays tribute to the young Boholano achievers in the Bohol Youth Week on May 26, 2008.

Filmography

Year Title Role
2006 Ligalig Rowena
2004 Panaghoy sa Suba Bikay
1999 Muro Ami Kalbo

TV appearances

Sources

References

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