'Family Kwarta o Kahon' host Pepe Pimentel passes away
(UPDATE 3) Pepe Pimentel, or “Tito Pepe,” host of the RPN 9 game show Family Kwarta o Kahon is dead. The 83-year-old former host and actor collapsed in the bathroom of his home along Scout Tuazon, Barangay Laging Handa, Quezon City in the morning of Thursday, Jan. 24. As of posting time, the exact cause of his death is still unknown.
Related story: Pepe Pimentel found dead in QC home
Former child star Chuckie Dreyfus, who guested several times in “Kwarta O Kahon,” remembers Pimentel as a jolly person who takes his work seriously.
“He would make fun of himself by jokng about his toupee,” Chuckie adds.
Pimentel was also known for his “biyenan” or mother-in-law jokes. But all these are just for laughs. In truth, he’d often say, he and his mother-in-law are in good terms.
Neighbors remember Pimentel, a former barangay chairman, as very helpful and tidy.
“We always see him cutting grass in front of his house,” recalls a neighbor, “He himself would take down election paraphernalia using his own tools.”
Another neighbor adds that Pimentel thought nothing of giving even total strangers like him a lift in his van when the TV host-actor saw him walking on the street.
“He helped us get directions to a friend’s house who lived in the area. He even used his own phone so we can contact that friend. And we were complete strangers to him,” shares another neighbor.
Virgie Balatico, who used to coordinate talents for “Kwarta O Kahon” shares that Pepe never turned her down when she wanted to guest a singer or actor in his show.
“He was a nice man. So were his children,” comments Virgie.
“Kwarta O Kahon,” which aired from 1962 to 2000 was the inspiration behind the “Pera O Bayong” segment of Willie Revillame’s “Wowowee.”
Pimentel was also the first winner of the defunct talent show “Tawag ng Tanghalan.”
The veteran host’s remains were cremated several hours after he died at the St. Peter Memorial Chapels along Quezon Avenue, Quezon City. According to his grandson James Pimentel, his grandfather was cremated on the night he died because he expressed a wish years ago that he didn’t want people to see him inside a casket.
James added that his grandfather’s remains are now at the family residence at 37 Scout Tuazon st., Barangay Laging Handa, Quezon City. Interment is on Tuesday, Jan. 29.
