IF you went to the wake of the late broadcaster, host and DJ Boyet Sison at the Funeraria Paz in Sucat, Parañaque, while there were some tears, it was actually more of a party.
There was music from a DJ set, standees of Boyet that were as tall as he stood, including one in the toilet that seemed like he was peeking. There was food, a little bit of drink, and well, hobnobbing.
Just the way he would like it or want to go—with a party.
It’s hard to imagine that in planning this, there was a lot of introspection and well, laughs from three people who made sure to give Boyet a proper send-off—his close friend Joanie Mitchell, his lawyer Charlie Cuna and director and confidant, Juno Oebanda.
“He wouldn’t want anyone to be crying,” reasoned Oebanda. “In fact, you should be dancing.”
Cue in Saturday Night Fever, the Bee Gees and John Travolta.
With Sison’s parents long gone and whatever family he had far away, it was up to his large and extended family of friends to plan for the wake, er, party.
His passing was lamented across the board. In fact, it trended on social media.
“The last few days after he passed,” offered Cuna, who like Sison, is prominent in the world of sports as a sportscaster. “It has been surreal for me, I can’t quite grasp that he is gone. We had some plans. We were supposed to get together for drinks. But the amount of love for him that has been shown on online posts and in private messages sent to me has been overwhelming.
“I’ve enjoyed reading them. They make me smile. Clearly, he touched so many lives and made so many smile. But it has been tough trying to understand what happened. It was just too sudden. He is a tremendous loss for me. We had such a close relationship and I have been reading back our exchanges and shifting from smiling to laughing to shaking my head and almost crying.”
If you went to the wake or the zoom meetings, you were asking if you came from either the music/DJ scene, the broadcast industry or the sports world. That’s the depth and breadth and height of Boyet’s involvement. Although he might bristle at the mention of height.
Just kidding, bud.
“We briefly dated when I was 18 years old,” reminisced Mitchell who is English and Danish but has lived here for several decades now. “It seemed from the start that we were better off as friends.”
Their closeness, however, left people wondering—are they or are they?
“It was a close friendship that was full of love and respect,” simply described Mitchell.
However, for friends in the know, Boyet and Joanie are “each other’s person.” And she was there to take care of his affairs in the hospital in Boyet’s final days and after.
Since only the family could sign the hospital paperwork, the two looked at each other with Joanie wondering, “So what are we?”
“Common-law-wife,” was the answer in lieu of any proper wedding or ceremony.
That Boyet handed over his ATM to Joanie says something.
While he had many many friends, that close circle was small.
When the global lockdown due to the pandemic began, he would meet up with Oebanda, director Alco Guerrero, musicians Bing Austria, Sancho Sanchez and Nicole Asensio, as well as actor Jamie Wilson to plan for a wide variety of events.
One such prominent event was the “Hinahanap Hanap Kita Manila” that brought many popular recording artists to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the founding of Manila by shooting videos at various city landmarks.
Oebanda and Sison were in the midst of a new plan, when the latter passed away.
It was a distraught Oebanda along with Wilson who related Sison’s passing to me, who is Sison’s oldest friend on this planet (simply owing to the fact that we were next door neighbors and playmates for almost five years).
“I don’t think we should be sad at the wake,” Oebanda told Mitchell during the planning for the wake.
“I agree,” she replied. Mitchell also oversaw Sison’s cremation last Wednesday along with a few people.
“Tito Boyet played the soundtrack of our lives so it is only fitting that we celebrate his life with music. DJs were playing and their own version of Tito Boyet’s sets. It was a happy and sad thing. Some of them would break down in the middle of the song to cry. This kind of love is rare because Tito Boyet is that rare kind of person.”
“When he goes Up there,” said Mitchell referring to Heaven, “They better be prepared because the life of the party just arrived.”
As for me, going there wasn’t easy. I almost never go to wakes and funerals no matter who it is. It is simply because I cannot deal with death very well. But I could not resist my old friend. So I went and shed a few tears.
But I left happy as I touched that bowtie—which was his signature piece of clothing—on his urn.
As I made my way out, one of the men manning the DJ’s booth asked, “Would you like to dance?”
In my own awkward way, I tried a move that John Travolta made it look so easy in Saturday Night Fever.
I sang, “You should be dancing…. Yeah.”
Bye, Papa B. I’ll see you when I see you.