Tunting Cruz-Matters opens up about rebuilding her career from the ground up and nurturing her cultural roots while living abroad.
This is an excerpt from Lifestyle Asia’s October issue.
Upon the invitation of her niece, FilAm actress Ana Cruz Kayne, to the Hollywood premiere of Barbie, US-based lawyer Tunting Cruz-Matters packed her get-up: dad’s vintage jusi barong, a beaded undershirt and batik pants for easy travel.
Arriving at the Shrine Auditorium, Matters realized that there was a red carpet walk and felt underdressed for not bringing a dramatic Filipiniana gown. Kayne, who played Supreme Court Justice Barbie in the movie, donned a pink terno top over a tiered, fringed gown. When Matters and her older sister, Maria Cruz Kayne, clad in an heirloom piña baro’t saya, were photographed with Albanian singer Dua Lipa, she felt some consolation. Channeling her Mermaid Barbie, Lipa only wore a lace bikini panty under a sheer, sparkly fishnet gown by Bottega Veneta.
“We were overdressed beside her,” Matters says in jest.
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HOMAGE TO HOME
Living in the United States since 1998, she thinks global but references local in her home and fashion choices. On a video call at 7 A.M. EST., Lourdes Bernadette Cruz Matters—Tunting as she is called, sits behind her desk at her home in Providence, Rhode Island, robed in a kimono with fish scale patterns over a white ribbed t-shirt. She accessorizes with necklaces of charms from different countries, including her wedding ring.
Peering from the background is a statue of her namesake patroness, Our Lady of Lourdes, which obviously came from the Philippines. Having lived in many residences in America, she decorated all of them with Philippine-made antiques, contemporary furniture, artworks, and objets d’art. For special occasions, her heritage-inspired outfits have been de rigueur.
Since childhood, Matters was immersed in Filipino culture. Her mother, Lourdes Lontok Cruz, chairman of the cultural exchange program, Youth For Understanding Philippines, organized summer classes at home in folk dancing and culture for Filipino students who would study abroad. Tunting recalls spending her early teens in Toledo, Ohio, where she had to perform tinikling and educate her host community about her culture.
“Early on, you learn the importance of who you are and what you represent—wherever you are,” says Matters. The Cruz residence was decked with life-size santos that intimidated her friends. On weekends, her mother brought her on trips to antique shops and jewelry stores. Ms. Cruz wore the baro’t saya daily and collected a trove of antique Philippine jewelry. Her father, Angel, dressed up in a barong or business suit even for a casual dinner at then popular Alfredo’s steak house.
LEAVING A SIGNIFICANT IMPACT
Following the law careers of her parents, Matters studied at the University of the Philippines College of Law and pursued graduate studies at Yale Law School.
“I grew up with my mother who was surrounded by tough women, lawyers, judges and bankers. The conversations were about accomplishing something,” she recalls.
Specializing in family law and criminal prosecution, Matters rose to prominence when she was interviewed in groundbreaking, high-profile cases. Despite those cases being widely reported, she requests this writer to withhold some names.
Matters is a member of the UP Women Lawyers’ Circle, Inc. which provides pro bono services for abused women and children. In the late ‘90s, she became the legal counsel for an 11-year-old victim who was peddled by her guardian. The molester, a politician, was sentenced to two life imprisonments after being convicted of statutory rape or sex with a minor and acts of lasciviousness. The rape case was heralded as a triumph in upholding the principle of no man was above the law. However, his sentence was commuted or reduced considerably by the powers that be. He walked free after a decade in jail and was recently in the news.
A domestic battery case, involving a prominent family, became the first to be reported under the Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act (VAWC Law) in the early aughts. Likewise it became the talk of the society circles. Matters counseled the wife who filed for frustrated parricide against her husband.
“The case was filed and settled,” she says with discretion. During President Benigno Aquino III’s administration, an assistant of a counsel in Malacañang sought her help to strengthen the prosecution of the impeachment of the late Supreme Court Justice Renato Corona. Matters led the team in investigating the anti-money laundering activities, his involvement with his wife’s malpractices in her family’s real estate firm, Basa Guidote Enterprises Inc., and his bank accounts.
“There were so many charges. I said we should pinpoint on integrity,” she explains. Corona made history by being the first Philippine justice to be convicted and removed from office in 2012.
A CAREER RESET
Although Matters was a hotshot lawyer in the Philippines, she had to reboot her career when she followed her husband, John H. Matters, an American executive, to the United States. Still, she frequently visited the Philippines to be with her parents.
After studying American laws and passing the New York bar exams, she first worked as a general counsel for Fil-Am philanthropist Loida Nicolas Lewis then moved to another law firm.
“You are coming in as senior counsel in the Philippines. Then you’re not when you’re here. Your resumé with accomplishments means nothing. You have to start from zero. We are spoiled in the Philippines because we live by connections. Here, you learn to make your way,” she says. “No matter how old you are, learning is never ending.’’
Today, Tunting specializes in litigation–settling disputes in court, which can be complex. Many of her cases involve bitcoins and cryptocurrencies. “America at its most litigious,” she remarks.
Tunting admires US lawyers for their incisive critical thinking and attention to fine details. “They go through thousands of documents with laser focus and bite into them. Ang galing nilang lumaban (They are excellent at contesting),” she says. “Our lawyers should train abroad or with international firms.”
FILIPINIANA PRIDE
Off hours, she enjoys living near the ocean in Providence where she and her husband of 28 years take walks on the beach or do kayaking which she has never done before.
“You adapt,” she says on the secret of their lasting marriage. “We are nice to each other. It’s not always about you. It’s about him and both of you.” Cultivating cooking skills, Tunting has learned to make sinigang and adobo in their family tradition.
Despite her distance from New York, she has maintained a busy social calendar. In galas, premieres, weddings and fund-raisers, she proudly wears modernized Filipiniana.
Unknown to many, Tunting was a muse of the late designer Auggie Cordero. While studying political science and history at De La Salle University, Tunting would go to his atelier to enjoy coffee and conversations with him. When she moved overseas, Cordero continued to make her clothes because he could perfectly customize them according to her personality. At home, she proudly displays a framed sketch of her wedding dress signed with his expression of gratitude and autograph.
“I kept most of Auggie’s modern baro’t saya not the Audrey Hepburn dresses,” she says. “I wear Filipiniana because it’s comfortable. Foreigners stop and ask, what’s this? I wear them with my mother’s antique jewelry. Filipinos abroad are proud of who they are.”
These days, she favors younger designers such as Jor-El Espina from Iloilo and Jaggy Glarino. At the premiere of Here Lies Love, the first all-Filipino cast in a musical on Broadway, Tunting donned a loose silk top with blackand-white photographic images by Jo Ann Bitagcol.
Read the full cover story by purchasing a copy of the Lifestyle Asia October 2023 magazine via SariSari.shopping or select newsstands in National Bookstore and Fully Booked. Subscribe to the E-Magazine via Readly, Magzter, and Press Reader.
Text by MARGE C. ENRIQUEZ
Photos by EXCEL PANLAQUE OF KLIQ, INC.
Sittings Editor: CANDY DIZON
Art Director: MARC YELLOW
Video by POGS FRANCISCO
Stylist: ROKO ARCEO
Makeup by BAMBBI FUENTES
Hair by PATTY INOJALES
Set Design by ALLEN UY AND JP DE JESUS
Shoot Coordination: MAE TALAID
