We may have been accustomed to seeing Ramon Montenegro—the character being portrayed by Christopher de Leon—always hale and hearty, but in recent episodes of “FPJ’s Batang Quiapo,” we had witnessed him in his frail state. This was after his mortal nemesis, Rigor (John Estrada), seriously wounded him in their latest battle, and he was eventually taken away by the Red Phoenix group from Tanggol (Coco Martin)
WATCH: Rigor, pinagbabaril nang paulit-ulit si Ramon | Batang Quiapo
WATCH: Lucio, ginamit si Oweng para makuha si Ramon mula kay Tanggol | Batang Quiapo
But despite his condition, he still managed to unleash his innate mettlesome persona as he courageously fought and toppled down the goons guarding him at the Red Phoenix Group mansion all by himself. Unfortunately, he was still not strong enough to execute his escape plan, especially when Lucio (Ronnie Lazaro) and the Batang Tondo Gang arrived.
WATCH: Ramon, sinimulan ang pagtakas mula sa grupo ni Lucio | Batang Quiapo
Thus, as their way of punishing him for his misdeed, they didn’t just bring Ramon back to the bodega where they locked him up, but they also tortured him, which made his condition even worse.
As we look forward to seeing if Tanggol will be able to fulfill his promise to save Ramon from his abductors, let us take a peek at what went down behind the scenes during the filming of the abovementioned scenes via this video uploaded by CCM Film Productions across its social media platforms.
Unit Assistant Director Karlo Luis B. Santos pointed out that since Ramon is known to be a fighter and a gangster who would never let himself be defeated by his enemies, he mustered every strength left in him to get up, unshackle himself, and fight against them singlehandedly despite still being weak.
Ramon’s escape scene may not show his typical stance or movements whenever he’s in war, yet they made sure to still provide a glimpse of how he is a fighter but with quite different treatment.
On the other hand, Art Director JR Derama explained why he and Director Richard Somes had chosen the “bodega treatment.” According to him, “Napili namin ni Direk RS ang bodega treatment para maparamdam lang sa audience na magulo ngayon ‘yong buhay ni Ramon, para makita ng audience na hindi natin dinadaya ‘yong mga ginagawa natin, at saka para makita rin ‘yong hirap at struggle ng artista natin. Kailangan mahirapan sila, so hindi natin siya dinadaya.”
Christopher, meanwhile, revealed that he actually didn’t expect to have a fight scene, and that he’s still in the process of preparing for the next scenes that are as bloody and action-packed as well.
He may have been portraying Ramon Montenegro for over two years now, yet Christopher admitted to initially struggling a bit getting into the character of Ramon Montenegro because he’s a notorious gangster, syndicate leader, and murderer, not to mention that the delivery of his lines was supposed to be really scary at times.
But after a year, it had become easier for him to get into the shoes of Ramon, as he makes sure that he’s already in character whenever he arrives on the set of “FPJ’s Batang Quiapo,” without letting anyone notice it.
“I enjoy what I'm doing, so we will try to entertain the audience of ‘Batang Quiapo’. Hopefully, matuwa kayo o madala kayo sa mga eksenang ginagawa po namin, and nagpapasalamat kami sa pagsubaybay ninyo sa ‘Batang Quiapo,’ kay Tanggol. Maraming salamat po,” he conveyed.
Will Tanggol really come to rescue Ramon from the Red Phoenix group? If ever, will he succeed? Well, that’s for us to find out, so you better not miss an episode of “FPJ’s Batang Quiapo,” weeknights at 8 PM, on Kapamilya Channel, Kapamilya Online Live (KOL), A2Z, TV5, and iWant.