Tila isang ketongin ang naging pakiramdam ni Chanda Romero noong bata dahil iniiwasan siya ng ibang tao sa Cebu dahil sa broken family ang kaniyang pamilya. Nang magdalaga, naisipan na lang niyang makipagsapalaran sa Maynila.

“What happened to me was I think I had the misfortune of being born three going on 33, meaning I was so precautious. I could see things and absorb things that no child should absorb, conversations and fights that I would overhear about other women as early three. And I would retain that,” panimula ni Chanda sa Fast Talk with Boy Abunda nitong Huwebes.

Kuwento ni Chanda, edad 12 siya nang iwan sila ng kanilang padre de pamilya.

Pito silang magkakapatid na naiwan sa pangangalaga ng kanilang ina.

“Sa eskuwelahan namin, eskuwelahan ng mga madre, exclusive girl school. I was an outcast, because the parents of my classmates would go, ‘Do not associate with her, because she is a product of a broken family’ like you were a leper,” saad ni Chanda.

“It was like being a leper, like you have this contagious disease,” pagpapatuloy niya.

Second year high school siya nang huminto na siyang pumasok sa paaralan, at umalis ng Cebu para makipagsapalaran sa Maynila.

“What could someone with no high school diploma, what would I be doing here in Manila? I had no answers for that, I had no plans, I just wanted to get out of there,” kuwento niya.

“I had to get out of Cebu. I ran away from home, I quit school. I came to Manila with only 50 bucks not knowing what I was going to do here,” sabi pa ng aktres.

Sa kabutihang palad, nadiskubre siya ng Tagalog Ilang-Ilang Productions habang nagmomodelo siya noon sa Cebu.

Nakagawa si Chanda ng anim na pelikula kasama si Vilma Santos, at dito na siya nakilala bilang artista.

Sa isang pelikula, P500 umano ang kaniyang bayad pero P100 ang unang tseke na natanggap.

“I just lived day after day after day. I was like ‘Huh bahala na si Batman,’” sabi ni Chanda.

Sa kabila ng mga natamasa niyang tagumpay, hindi pa rin daw iniisip ni Chanda na nagtagumpay siya sa kaniyang ginawa. Ayaw din ng aktres na maging kampante.

“Maybe there is one step more. Maybe there is more space in this room that I can move,” saad niya. -- FRJ, GMA Integrated News