Filipinas Mag

“The Maggie now is not the same as the Maggie that was back then.”
Magdalena dela Riva is the epitome of someone who has come full circle. “I have peace of mind. God has already refined me through fire,” shares the 1960s movie actress.

It’s been more than four decades since her rape-abduction shocked the nation. With the wisdom of hindsight, she muses, “The world is a classroom. Maybe I was supposed to learn a lesson on resilience, courage and forgiveness. I have stopped questioning.”

These life lessons didn’t come in a pretty package. She recalls going through the gamut of emotions—the whole psychological phase of depression and blaming everybody for ruining her life, even accusing God. “There was a lot of confusion within me,” she recounts, adding that while people around her advised that she leave the country and live a new life, she wasn’t one to pretend nothing had happened. “I’m a fighter and a survivor, I cannot lick my wounds,” she stresses. With the support of her mother who convinced her to get out of the self-pity shell, Maggie put up a strong front and went to court, despite threats from the influential suspects who were eventually put to death by electric chair. “I did not ask for them to die, I just surrendered everything to God…bahala na Siya (it was up to Him)!”

Eventually she was able to pick up the pieces of her life and reached a point of total acceptance. It was during her period of healing when she gravitated toward psychic phenomena, which left her with a deeper emptiness. Then she discovered the spiritual path. “I began to see how everything that happened in my life started to have meaning; from ‘why me?’ to ‘okay Lord.’” The shadows of her past remain just that, shadows that can haunt, but never frighten.

Maggie admits that it was not easy to move on. “I think closure comes in stages, even forgiveness comes in stages. Little by little, you get to look at the situation objectively, you get to see the bigger picture,” she relates. If there’s anything she has learned from her own life, it’s that God doesn’t make mistakes. “He put me in that situation for a purpose.”

Now a trainer and motivational speaker for corporate and organizational clients, Maggie believes that much of her success goes back to her real-life experiences. “I’m able to touch lives because I’ve been through the same pain, I know what they’re going through,” she says, confident that every word she utters is not lip service as that from self-help books, but one of sincere empathy and genuine desire to uplift. She has compiled her inspirational thoughts in a book, Pebbles in the Pond, released in 2000, and is now working on a sequel.

Exiting the Stage
From the movies to the corporate stage, her evolution has been a natural progression after she chose to exit the limelight in the early ’70s at the height of the bomba (sexy) films.

Maggie first appeared on the silver screen as the leading lady of Joseph Estrada in the 1963 film, “Istambay,” where she portrayed the role of a social worker. Throughout her 10-year career as an independent star, she did around 80 films, including one opposite Dolphy for “Buhay Bombero.” “It was dream-like,” she says, recalling how the industry then was like a fairy tale where stars dress and behave the part. “It was alien for us not to be in cocktail or party dresses when we were in public. We kept that image of being ethereal,” she remembers her fancy giggly roles as a girl-next-door-who-meets-guy-next-door.

After she left the movies, she pursued her love for the stage by producing “The Maggie dela Riva Show” in the mid-‘70s. It was a musical variety show that performed at the top hotels in Asia. She did this for four years before joining the corporate world. These days, Maggie relives her flamenco dancing with famed instructor Señor Guillermo Gomez Rivera.

Currently keeping her on her toes is the weekly public affairs show, “Dial M,” which she co-hosts with Manoling Morato. “We discuss anything and everything under the sun and share our comments,” she explains of the government-sponsored program. Having done this for 12 years “on and off,” Maggie says that the hour-long live airing over National Broadcasting Network-4 serves as a vehicle to reach out to the viewers to explain pertinent issues.

“I’ve never been happier,” she quips, when asked how she’s doing. She’s contented with what she’s achieved—having gone from the little girl who would write “actress and teacher” in the ambition entry of slumbook pages, to becoming a seasoned actress, motivational speaker and a survivor of a devastating ordeal. “I mellowed with age, I just go with the flow,” she shares of her willingness to be led where God moves her, perhaps to be with her daughter in London or stay in the country with her son.

Despite her success on the public stage, Maggie doesn’t care to be remembered for her preppy leading lady roles, dancing skills or inspirational talks. Instead, she’d rather be known as a wounded Soul who found rest in the loving arms of God. “Ever since I’ve gone on the spiritual path, my purpose in life is to be a channel of God’s love to others.”

Jacqueline L. Ong is a free-lance writer currently based in Taiwan.