
John Lloyd Cruz plays Lt. Hermes Papauran, one of the best investigators in the country who battles severe anxiety and depression. (Photo by Hazel Orencio)
Words of admiration and encouragement rained on John Lloyd Cruz after excerpts from his Best Actor acceptance speech in the recent Gawad Urian awards spread on social media.
On its 46th year, Gawad Urian is one of the longest-running and most credible award-giving bodies in the Philippine film industry, founded by a group of film critics, reviewers, and academics known as the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino (MPP).
Cruz won for Lav Diaz’s When The Waves Are Gone, which also brought home the Best Film trophy.

John Lloyd Cruz (far right) after the awarding ceremony, with Sine Olivia team. Center is co-actor Ronnie Lazaro. (Photo from Hazel Orencio)
“Why he’s a vast cut above the rest,” wrote theater critic and editor Gibbs Cadiz in his social media post.
“Isang aktor na mulat sa kanyang lipunan (An actor whose eyes are open to what’s happening in our society),” wrote seasoned music writer and entertainment editor Pocholo Concepcion.
Some netizens who shared the video of the speech describe it as “powerful” and “brave.”
Interior designer and composer Potchi R. Manda said, “Pucha, ang tapang ng linya. Kinilabutan ako (Such a bold line. I got goosebumps).”
Music producer and activist Monet Pura, wife of Pinoy rock living icon Chickoy Pura, barely had words and simply thanked Diaz and Cruz: “Naiyak ako (I was moved to tears).”
Filmmaker Joel Lamangan congratulated Diaz and the Sine Olivia Team, commenting in a thread how the film made him want to act again in another masterpiece directed by Diaz. In 2019, Lamangan played an autocratic president in Diaz’s futuristic film, The Halt, that starred Piolo Pascual.
Diaz himself was quoted as saying how he has found Cruz “a deep, insightful, human being.”
Perhaps the most fitting accolade came from producer Bianca Balbuena-Liew of EpicMedia: “Hindi na sya si Popoy sa buhay ko. Si Hermes Papauran na sya (He is no longer Popoy in my life. He is Hermes Papauran now).”
Diaz, who won for Best Screenplay, was not in the awards ceremony last Thursday night, Nov. 30, 2023 at the UP Film Institute, but some members of the cast and staff of Sine Olivia Pilipinas, one of the producers of the three-hour-long film, were there.
It was in 2015 when Diaz and Cruz started working together for their first film, Hele Sa Hiwagang Hapis (A Lullabye To A Sorrowful Mystery).
The eight-hour historical film was shown in local theaters the following year. In the latter part of 2016, they shot their second film, The Woman Who Left (Ang Babaeng Humayo).
It was also in 2016 when Cruz got his first Gawad Urian Best Actor award for Erik Matti’s Honor Thy Father. Cruz played an off-beat character named Edgar, a father who struggles to save his family from people duped in an investment scam and who now want them imprisoned or dead.
Back then, Cruz’s acceptance speech drew mixed reactions when he said he didn’t believe in awards. Rather, he said he believed that “there’s more in hard work, patience, perseverance and timing.”
And all the hard work, indeed, has paid off.
Seven years later and after six films with Diaz as director, Cruz has become a brave soldier fighting for the right to free expression in cinema.
“Salamat sa Sine Olivia Pilipinas sa pamumuno ng director kong si Lav Diaz. Kay Larry (Manda). Kay Ronnie Lazaro, isa kang pangarap noon. (Thank you to Sine Olivia Pilipinas led by my director, Lav Diaz. To Larry. To Ronnie Lazaro, who was a dream co-actor back then),” Cruz began his acceptance speech last Thursday night.
Manda won Best Cinematographer.
“Kay Hazel (Orencio), na walang sawang nagpapalakas ng loob ko kahit marami sa ginagawa po namin hindi naman talaga namin alam paano gagawin, kung paano ko gagawin, kung paano ko itatawid. (To Hazel Orencio, who tirelessly provides encouragement because in many instances, we were clueless how we’re going to do things, how am I going to get through),” Cruz added, referring to Diaz’s assistant director and one of the actors.
He also thanked the Sine Olivia team, his parents, siblings, son Elias Modesto, and partner Isabel Santos.
He expounded on his admiration for Diaz, on how the acclaimed filmmaker has helped him grow as an actor.
“Si Direk Lav. Napakahalaga po ng role na ginagampanan nya sa akin. Siguro kung sino man yung mga sumusubaybay sa mga ginagawa ko. Kasi napakabuti po ng ginagawa nya. Walang sawang nagpapa-alala sa ating mga tungkulin hindi lang bilang artista, hindi lang bilang aktor. (Direk Lav has played a very valuable role in my life. Perhaps for those who’ve followed what I’ve been doing the past years, you’d know. Because Direk Lav did an excellent work. He never stopped reminding us of our duties not only as artists, not only as actors.)
“Pero ‘yung pinakamahalaga ay ang tungkulin bilang tao na isabuhay ‘yung ating mga pinapangarap. Isabuhay ‘yung ating mga pinaglalaban. Isabuhay ‘yung mga ginagampanan natin. At nagbibigay ng napakalinaw na salamin sa akin, sa mga pagkakataong mabibigyan ako ng bagong papel na maaaring gagampanan. (But what is most important is my duty as a human being, to realize our dreams, to realize what we were fighting for, to realize the roles given to us. And these have given me a clearer perspective, like a mirror every time I was given a new role to play.)
“Napakalaking utang na loob ko po kay Direk Lav. Kung hindi dahil sa kanya baka tuluyan na siguro akong… (I have a huge debt of gratitude to director Lav. If not for him I might have gone…),” Cruz uttered before taking a deep breath, raising his right hand, and waving it as if shooing away a thought like one would a fly, before saying, “nagkawala-wala…kaya po para sa kanya ito (adrift, wayward, so this award is for him).”
He then thanked his Crown Artist Management team, led by the husband-and-wife tandem of Maja Salvador and Rambo Nuñez.
Like most of Diaz’s films, When The Waves Are Gone had made the rounds of festivals in Venice, Vienna, Bangkok, Cairo, Seville, Heidelberg, and Rio de Janeiro, among others, before its Philippine premiere last year at the QCinema International Film Festival.
Cruz’s speech is not without basis. In the film, he plays a good cop, one of the best police investigators, named Lt. Hermes Papauran. As living witness to the Duterte administration’s war on drugs, he gets a severe case of psoriasis due to stress and anxiety.

The anti-hero lead character, police investigator Hermes Papauran played by John Lloyd Cruz, deals with anxiety-induced psoriasis. (Photo by Hazel Orencio)
Ronnie Lazaro plays his mentor-turned-nemesis, the disgraced cop Primo Macabantay.

Like family, Ronnie Lazaro is one of the few veteran actors who Lav Diaz loves to work with, here in a scene from ‘Kung Wala Nang Mga Alon’. (Photo by Hazel Orencio)
In the story, Hermes (Cruz) takes a break from the police force and searches for answers through the help of his sister, played by Shamaine Centenera-Buencamino.
But he is now being hunted by Macabantay, who wants to exact revenge. Decades ago, Hermes exposed Macabantay’s corrupt practices, causing his imprisonment.
As parting words, Cruz thanked all the filmmakers, producers, and stakeholders who continue to create brave new works.
“Salamat po sa uring manggagawa sa pelikulang Pilipino na walang pagod na lumalaban para ikwento ang mga kwentong dapat lumabas lalo na sa panahong ito.”
He referenced the previous administration’s war on drugs, the subject of the film that was also tackled in the second installment with Papauran as lead character, Essential Truths of the Lake, which was shown in the recent QCinema International Film Festival.
“Tapos na po ba yung dalawang minuto ko? Bilis ho pero mas mabilis pa ring pumatay sa bansang ito, maraming salamat ho,” Cruz ended his speech with that searing message.
One of the producers, Bianca Balbuena-Liew of EpicMedia, said they will find a way to screen again When The Waves Are Gone in local cinema and other alternative venues. She wrote: “We won’t stop, we’ll keep showing it in non-commercial theaters, cinematheques, etc. I believe this is a very important work of Lav Diaz in these trying times.”
The Gawad Urian Best Actor trophy is also the second Best Actor award Cruz received in 2023. In August, he won the Boccalino d’Oro prize or Golden Jug Award for Best Actor in the 76th Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland for the same role, Lt. Papauran, in Essential Truths of the Lake.
Diaz has said that there would be no prequel or sequel.
“The two films, Waves and Essential Truths, are part of a trilogy called the Papauran saga. Nagkataon lang na si Lt. Hermes Papauran ang pangunahing tauhan. Malaya sila sa isa’t isa, ang mga nabanggit na mga pelikula, pero kung panunoorin mo sila, halos i-isang film lang sila. It’s like James Bond,” Diaz said in jest.
Diaz is shooting the third installment of the Papauran saga.
The present Gawad Urian by MPP has Prof. Gary Devilles from Ateneo de Manila University as chairman and Shirley Lua from De La Salle University Manila as vice chairman.
The current members are Nicanor Tiongson (University of the Philippines Diliman), Grace Javier Alfonso (UP Open University), Patrick Campos (UP Diliman), broadcast journalist Butch Francisco, Miguel Rapatan (DLSU), Rolando Tolentino (UP Diliman), Tito Genova Valiente (Ateneo de Manila University, Ateneo de Naga University), Anne Frances Sangil (DLSU), Laurence Marvin Castillo (UP Los Baños), and Katrina Ross Tan (UPLB).