Pepsi Paloma, also known as Delia Dueñas Smith before stardom, was a famous dancer/actress in the Philippines during the 1980's. She rised into fame through her debut in the pornographic film Brown Emmanuelle (1981) when she was 14-15 years old. This should have raised red flags during that time, as an under-aged person should never had been allowed to be involved in pornographic films. 14 year old Pepsi Paloma should have had a proper teenage life; worrying about school assignments and due dates. But instead, she was making pornographic films for immoral pieces of shit. Pepsi got her stage name 'Pepsi' when she became a part of the group 'Soft drink beauties' along with Coca Nicolas and Sarsi Emmanuel. Pepsi joined the industry due to poverty. She was the breadwinner of her family.
In 1982, Vic Sotto, Joey De Leon, and Richie D'Horsie made headlines when Pepsi accused the Eat Bulaga! trio of gang-rape. Articles based on this case written during that time had been removed, as Tito Sotto wished. Pepsi Paloma claimed that she was raped in June 21 at Room 210 of the Sulo hotel by Vic and Joey while Richie took pictures. Paloma also claimed that she and her friend Guada Guarin had been molested by the trio beforehand at a Broadcast city party.
In August 1 (two days after articles regarding the alleged rape case were released), Paloma and Guarin were banned by Broadcast city, and the following day (August 2) their manager, Rey de la Cruz started receiving death threats. Two weeks later, Paloma finally decided to file rape charges against the trio. However, there was no evidence to back up any of Paloma's accusation against the trio. Therefore, she was unable to press rape charges against them.
Tito defended Vic, his brother, in one of his interviews saying that Vic is too thin and frail to even have the strength to rape someone, and that a woman could easily beat him in arm wrestling. In the same interview, Joey wished that Martial law should be returned, so that press freedom would be stopped.
Since then, Paloma's life was followed by controversies until in May 31, 1986, the soda starlet committed suicide. Paloma left a suicide note saying, "This is a crazy planets", which perhaps was a mistranslation of the tagalog phrase "Baliw na mundo".
Paloma's diary was found in the suicide crime scene. The diary contained a list of expenses, which included the enrolment fees for her siblings. In the same diary, Paloma wrote multiples issues that possibly pushed her to commit suicide such as financial problems, lack of emotional support, weight of her family problems, and not having enough movie roles. However, her then manager Babette Corcuerra said that Paloma was doing well at the time. She said that Paloma was fully-booked for dancing performances, and had three film offers lined up. She also said that Paloma was excited to celebrate her 18th birthday the following year, and that they were already planning on throwing a big party for her, implying that Paloma was murdered.
Subsequently, Rey de la Cruz, Paloma's manager when she filed the rape charges against Vic, Joey, and Richie, was shot dead in the optical clinic where he lived. And to top it all off, no forensic investigations were ever done to confirm if the diary actually belonged to Paloma.
The Eraserheads , a Filipino rock band, wrote the song 'Splarium' in 1999 as a tribute tribute to Pepsi Paloma's tragic life.
No one knows, and no one will ever know what really happened to Pepsi Paloma. But one thing that I know is that this world did her wrong, and that hopefully, she is in a better place now.
Rest in Peace, Pepsi Paloma (1966-1985).
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