PROPERTY FROM THE LETICIA RAMOS SHAHANI COLLECTION

ABOUT THE WORK

Portrait of a Boy would hang in the Philippine Embassy residence in Canberra, Australia, while Senator Ramos Shahani was ambassador — but it would also become famous as the face of ‘The Year of the Child’, selected by the Fookien Times Yearbook, one of the Philippines' longest-running publications for a special commemorative calendar for 1980. The Fookien Times was the largest Chinese language newspaper in the Philippines at one time and was founded by Go Puan Seng. who would become its legendary editor. His eldest daughter was none other than the distinguished publisher Betty Go-Belmonte who would found the Philippine Star. Betty was also the wife of Feliciano “Sonny” Belmonte Jr., former Speaker of the House. Chanda Narciso Ramos Shahani, son of the senator, recalls Betty GoBelmonte, rang his mother longdistance in Australia to ask if she could use the sketch to represent the Filipino child. “They were like sisters and Tita Betty was like a second mother to us,” he reminisces. “And for some reason, she knew about the Olazo and loved it so much, she asked to use it to represent the Year of the Child.” It was Chanda who would photograph and send the image of the Olazo to Mrs. Go-Belmonte. “I was just 15, a high-school student in Australia, working with an amateur camera, but somehow one of my photos passed the Fookien Times’s high standards. I guess, it’s a tribute to the power of this seemingly simple work.” (Lisa Guerrero Nakpil)