Butz Aquino has passed away. My feelings are with his family. He was a former politician, but I will always remember him as an actor. His first TV appearance was in my teleplay "Paghihiganti Ng Isang Bata", an episode in the erstwhile Channel 5's series Malikmata and directed by his sister Lupita Concio. That teleplay also marked the first appearances of child performers Mark Gil (now also deceased), his brother Michael (Eigenmann), and our neighbor Anna Artemyak whom I never saw again afterward.

The last time I saw Butz was but a year ago, in the U.S. Embassy's Charles Parsons Ballroom, during the launch of the celebration of the 70th Year of the Liberation of the Philippines. He seemed quite healthy then, and I remember that I was very glad to see him.