Delilah Aguilar

Delilah Aguilar – Proponent of Music and Fashion

For every successful man, there is a woman behind him. That adage is almost applicable in every walk of life; including music. “We are a music-loving family. My dad turned me on to Trini Lopez, The Beach Boys, Elvis Presley, Glenn Miller, Joan Baez.”, declares Delilah Aguilar.

While Howlin' Dave is credited for helping popularize what was then nascent Pinoy rock and a few years later, Punk and New Wave in the Philippines, what many do not know is that it was the DJ’s partner, Delilah Aguilar, who introduced him to the later genres.

“I always thought we had met because we had a purpose. And that was the music. When it was done. So were we”, says Delilah. “I didn’t liked that moniker ‘Punk Priestess’. The head of WEA records, Ramon Chuaying coined that term. I’m not punk. I'm simply me expressing myself and my thoughts and my feelings”, explains Delilah.

Delilah grew up in New Delhi, India where his dad worked at the Philippine embassy. She finished high school in a convent school ran by Irish nuns. Then went to Oregon and took up Fine Arts which included Classical Music.

Growing up in India, Delilah thought she wouldn't be the kind of person she is now. The spectrum of food, history, culture and philosophy is so immersing, that, it would seem a sin not to experience it.

“I was there at the right time. Everybody came to India. I met the Beatles in India, but I was too young then, to seduce anyone of them”, recollects Delilah

She met the son of an Irish aristocrat who is the father of her first born, Sebastian. “We were both very young and we parted ways and I came back to Manila while my dad got assigned in Lisbon, Portugal”, reminisces Delilah.

She met Dante thru a mutual friend Al Pena, who married the older sister of Sandy Andolong. “When I met Dante, he was already a very popular rock jock and what came to my mind was if I could make him play my kind of music on air, which something I dreamt of even before I met Dante, to share to everyone and to educate and open people's mind via music”, reveals Delilah.

“Fashion was and still is natural in me. I always dressed weird and shocking and I'm glad I have the figure for it. Dante and me parted ways 1994”, confesses Delilah.

The DJ passed away last May 26, 2008 (which be 11 years this year) due to a heart attack.  “When Dante was on board at RJ, I’d be the one at the booth to answer the phone,” revealed Aguilar of those subversive nights. “What was going on inside that booth in DZRJ at that time sure changed a lot of lives.”

The Pinoy rock explosion of the 1970s that launched the career of the legendary Juan dela Cruz Band. It was an exciting time for the local music scene. 

The re-formatting of DZRJ and the couple’s eventual split is almost instantaneous and teemed nonchalantly. But not before Dante and Delilah had a son, Adam, who in his own right, has become a top-notch writer. “He found a different calling,” stated Aguilar, once more proudly.

What pisses her off? “Ignorance. People with closed mind. Who refuse to learn and accept things”, explains Delilah.

Nowadays, she would spend a lot of time reading, and exploring the old ‘baul’ to haul out old mementos for sharing. She is accompanied by her cats named, Siouxsie, Eclipse, Archer, Coben and Garland. “When I die nobody will know. I will be cremated and it will be a secret. I want people to think I'm always around”, chuckles Delillah.