Encounters with Joy and sadness in ‘Edjop’ film release

EDJOP. The real Edgar Jopson with Gloria "Joy" Asuncion (left 2 photos); Elijah Canlas as Edjop, and Frankie Pangilinan (right photo) as Joy in the film, Edjop, in cinemas on September 16, 2026.

Sam Calleja/Rappler; images from Jopson family, 'Edjop: The Movie'

With her memories fading, Edjop's partner, Joy, may not have the opportunity to appreciate the powerful performances of Frankie Pangilinan and Elijah Canlas in the upcoming film, 'Edjop'

AT A GLANCE

• The film 'Edjop' is set to release on September 16, highlighting the life of Edgar Jopson, but his partner Joy, who played a crucial role in his activism, is unable to fully appreciate it due to her declining health.
• Joy Asuncion, known as Joy, was deeply involved in the underground movement against the Marcos dictatorship alongside Edjop, but faced personal tragedies, including the deaths of Edjop and her second husband Rolly Kintanar.
• The author, who initially wrote about Edjop's life, felt his first book was incomplete and later published a revised edition, which coincided with the film's release, but Joy's illness has affected her ability to engage with the film and its significance.

This is AI-generated. Read the article for full context. Report any errors.

The release of Edjop, which opens on September 16, is a significant event for me personally except for a sad fact: the woman who played such a critical role in Edgar Jopson’s life cannot fully appreciate the powerful film about his journey.

Gloria Asuncion, known as Joy, became Edjop’s partner at a time when he was emerging as a nationally known student activist in the early 1970s. She joined him in the underground when the Marcos dictatorship began, embracing the movement to fight for the rights of the poor and powerless in the country.

It was a journey of commitment and courage, but it was also a painful one. Ferdinand E. Marcos’ military killed Edjop in a military raid in 1982. Then the movement Edjop helped build and lead killed her second husband Rolly Kintanar in 2003. (READ: War with the NPA, war without end)

Joy and I first met in September 1986 at the Jopson family home on Paraiso Street in Quezon City. She was still in the UG but she had agreed to meet after the family approved my proposal to write Edjop’s biography.

I then spent the next two years tracing Edjop’s dramatic odyssey. Joy provided much-needed guidance and support, setting up interviews with Edjop’s former classmates and former comrades in the UG. 

It wasn’t easy. Like many of the people I talked to, she was in hiding. This was in the late ’80s before cell phones and the World Wide Web. We had to plan meetings and interviews in advance. And each had to stick to that plan. I didn’t always succeed. When I failed to show up at one of our meetings, she chided me afterward: “Hoy (Hey) mister, where were you?”

We met at places where she felt she would not be recognized. A Mister Donut shop near a National Book Store and the Italian Village restaurant (which no longer exists) in Quezon City were regular meeting spots.

I was nearly finished with the book when she and Kintanar were captured. Ironically, her capture offered an opportunity for follow-up interviews with her and other UG leaders — in prison. She and Kintanar escaped shortly before the book, Edjop: The Unusual Journey of Edgar Jopson, was launched. Her life in the UG subsequently ended when they were recaptured and eventually released.

We lost touch after I moved to California. But I heard about the violence she encountered from the UG as the split within the movement escalated. 

By then, my misgivings about my first attempt to tell Edjop’s story were growing. There were so many things I missed. I slowly realized that I had written an incomplete, misleading, even dishonest book. I couldn’t sleep thinking about this.

When Kintanar was assassinated, I reached out to Joy to tell her that I wanted to write another book about Edjop’s journey. She told me to go for it.

U.G. An Underground Tale was published in 2006. A third edition of that book came out last year as Edjop, the film directed by Katski Flores and produced by Edjop’s daughter, Joyette, was being finalized. The third edition features essays from Katski, Joyette, as well as Frankie Cuneta Pangilinan, who plays Joy in the film, and Elijah Canlas, who plays Edjop. (The book’s royalties are donated to the Bantayog ng Mga Bayani.)

The last time I saw Joy was when Joyette and Katski organized a special screening of the film in Quezon City before the book’s relaunch in September 2025. Joy joined us for lunch, together with my friend Erin Tañada, who also supported the film. 

But Joy could not stay for the screening. 

She hasn’t been well. Joy has been fading, her memories slowly being erased by an illness. “She easily forgets,” my friend Marie Plopinio, Edjop’s sister, told me.

Joy got to see the film later that year when her children, led by Joyette, organized a screening for her birthday in November. But she didn’t have any significant reactions to the movie, according to Joyette.

This is unfortunate. How I wish she could have the opportunity to appreciate Frankie and Elijah’s powerful performances. Frankie happens to be the daughter of megastar Sharon Cuneta and Senator Kiko Pangilinan, an old UP friend of mine.  

“When I met Tita Joy, we flicked through her photo albums and laughed and gabbed about boys and sang a few bars together of ‘Cheek to Cheek,’” Frankie wrote in her essay for the 2025 edition of U.G. An Underground Tale. “In the in-betweens, I had to re-introduce myself to her seven times. Around the seventh, she asked about my parents. Her eyes flicked to me with a spark of recognition. She said, ‘Oh, what an honor!’ and something in me shattered. I didn’t know how to tell her, how to make sure she remembered that the honor was, is, will be all mine.”

“She sometimes doesn’t remember my name or who I am,” Marie told me. “I would just tell her that it is okay because I know she remembers that I love her so much and that she loved me. She’d smile and we would hug.”

Joy also smiled as we said our goodbyes after our lunch and as we prepared to watch Edjop. 

As she was leaving, I hugged my friend, a woman of incredible courage whose quiet, gentle strength lifted Edjop, who offered her life to serve the country and gave me the opportunity to write about one of the most powerful stories of heroism in our history. – Rappler.com

Benjamin Pimentel is the author of ‘U.G. An Underground Tale.’ He is also a journalist and technology editor based in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, USA.