BOOTS ANSON ROA (now Maria Elisa Cristobal Anson-Rodrigo, b. 30 Jan. 1945), may very well be one of the most versatile celebrities of the 60s thru the 70s—she was a sought-after TV and movie personality, actress, host and emcee, columnist, and diplomat. She also had an impeccable background as spotless and wholesome as the image she projected, that companies used her as a spokesperson and endorser of products.
The daughter of post-war actor Oscar Moreno and Belen Cristobal-Anson, a pharmacist-chemist, Boots was educated at the Assumption, and the University of the Philippines (1960-64, Speech & Drama), where, as an ROTC campus beauty, appeared on a magazine cover. Her studies were interrupted when she married Pete Roa in 1964, a popular TV host of Channel 5’s “Dance-o-Rama”. Baby O’Brien originally co-hosted the show, and Boots stepped in when she left for her U.S. studies.
She went on to foray in movies beginning in 1968, ding over a hundred films, highlighted by a FAMAS Best Actress award in 1973 for the movie, “Tatay na si Erap” and a Lifetime Achievement Awardee, also from the said body.
The well-respected Anson-Roa lent her credibility in various advertisements shown on this page. She promoted appliances, beauty products, food and beverages, all through the 60s and 80s. She was most visible with her then husband Pete Roa in the Blend 45 campaign series that ran in the late 70s.
Considered as a role model, Anson-Roa also had a successful professional career in the gvernment. She was the director of the U.P.-PGH Medical Foundation (1979- 81 and the Red Cross (1980-82) In 1982, she was appointed as Press/Cultural Attache at the Philippine Embassy in Washington. She was also a TOWNS (Ten Outstanding Women in the Nation's Service) Awardee.
After being widowed in 2007, she wed Atty. Francisco Rodrigo
Jr., son of Sen. Francisco "Soc" Rodrigo in 2014. The
multi-awarded Boots Anson-Rodrigo is set to launch her biography book this Jan.
2026, entitled "Grateful ," chronicling her checkered life and
times.
SOURCES:
Boots Anson Roa, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_Anson-Roa
