The Rise and Fall of the Pakwan Queen: Ilonah Marquez

Being a bold star can be difficult. Besides disrobing in front of the camera and making out with a co-star you’ve just met a few minutes ago, sometimes you get labeled as a mistress of a politician or a rich businessman and being an airhead. Some use their fame to get big money appearing and “performing” in nightclubs in or outside the country. That is mostly a life cycle of a bold star. It’s like getting fame on borrowed time.

Now besides Lolita De Leon that is featured on my post a few weeks ago, there is another bold star that is famous for her enormous breasts and having less information on her. She is none other than Ilonah Marquez. She is almost synonymous to Lolita De Leon because they almost have the same cup size, with Ilonah having a larger one and more obviously doctored. Ilonah Marquez looks petite and has a very captivating smile. As usual, I became intrigued on her whereabouts, even any information on her. So I searched again on the net for anything on her.

With Ilonah Marquez she’s an example of a catch-22: you realize that she starred in a handful of bold movies that you can download and appeared on a few men’s magazines, but got almost nothing on any personal information on her. I tried hard to find anything on where she lived before, what her real name is, who are her influences, dreams, etc. but got nothing except a few mentions on some forums and a multiply site.

Aside from a single article on her and an interview on FHM Philippines, I made use of what I had, while making my own interpretation of her answers to the questions thrown at her. Call it investigative journalism, if you may.

Ilonah Marquez was a bold star who went by the nickname of “Pakwan Queen” and “Pamela Anderson of the Philippines” because of her 40D breasts, appeared in titillating films from 2001-2003. She was discovered by a scout who was looking for local talent for a Korean movie. She got the part for the movie (although it was never mentioned what movie it was). Eventually the talent scout became her manager and helped her get into local showbiz in 2001. Her local movie debut was called Blondie 2. The first Blondie flick starred a different actress named Ilonah Jean. The “Pakwan Queen” recounted that she got her screen name because possibly her management or producers said that she resembled Ilonah Jean. A quick change on her last name and Ilonah Marquez was born.

Her movies are Blondie 2 (with Sabrina M. and Rey “PJ” Abellana), Ira, where she got the lead role and had an axed sub-title by the local censors it had double-meaning because when you reverse Ira you get something suggestive in the tagalog language, the subtitle almost would give it away with “Ako Ang May-Ari” (with Raffy Anido and Derek Dee), S.E.L.D.A (with a bevy of bold stars Natasha Ledesma, Rosalinda Rosal, Pam Lacson and Elaine DIzon) , the cleverly-titled amd notorious Kapag Ang Palay naging Bigas… May Bumayo (with Rose Valencia and Lara Morena), Mga Babae sa VIP rooms (with Rose Valencia, Mike Magat and Kat De Santos) and lastly Motel (with Mon Confiado and Allona Amor). There were other movies mentioned, like “Ang Paninda”, and “Ako, Siya o Ikaw” but there was no further information on them other than the title itself.

Even at an early start she already got into heated arguments with her fellow bold stars, like with Katrina Paula where she commented on Katrina offering herself to the Abu Sayyaf ( as a means to appease them, I suppose) , saying it is a cheap gimmick. And with Pyar Mirasol being furious with jealousy over Ilonah because she is being close to her Blondie 2 co-star Raffy Anido. Even Aiza Seguerra reacted when she said that she saw her in Thunderdome. Her answers to the accusations are pretty feisty and honest. She can defend herself well.

And as bold stars go, she temporarily vanished. She said in the 2004 FHM interview that she just took a break and that the offers got few, because a lot of bold stars appeared. If I remember correctly, 2003-2004 there were a lot of bold films that got shown that had “substance” and the supergroup Viva Hot Babes was born. So other bold stars got pushed back in the spotlight.

her last media appearance

Her last media appearance was when she decided to have her breasts be reduced and she was featured on TV Patrol World and in Charlene Gonzales’ lifestyle show “At Home Ka Dito”. She had it done because she had frequent back pains; she can’t jump, can’t sleep on her stomach and said that “[my breasts] were grossly disproportioned with my body” but credits them for making her well-known in local showbiz. Two doctors and an anesthesiologist from the famous Belo Medical group removed almost a kilo of mammary mass from the pair and her cup size was reduced to 36C. She was set to do movie awkwardly titled “La Tumba Cama” (another forum called it “La Tumba Casa”) but never saw production.

Upon cross-referencing the dates her last web mention was that she was seen performing in the infamous nightclub Takusa 3000 in Cubao last 2008.  The user said that her breasts still looked big despite the reduction. Apparently she used her fame to get good prices when men would “table” her.

And that’s it. Like Lolita De Leon, we no longer have any recent news on her. I recently saw a Facebook user using her name and that she comes from La Trinidad, Benguet. It may seem too good to be true to see her again and it seems so. I doubted if it really is her because there are no self-taken pics, pics of her with her dog, house, tourist attraction, etc. There are only her magazine pictorials gracing on her photo albums, so it leaves a lot to totally believe that she is the real deal. We could also think that she got married, had kid/s, went to Brunei or Japan as an escort girl and the like. It seems that she almost has the same fate as Lolita De Leon.

But when you think about it, bold stars have nothing to go once they’ve lost their sizzle. Sure they can try acting on teleseryes but they need a good manager to promote them to networks and such, and there are not a lot of managers willing to do that. So instead they go the usual way of a bold star’s end of a life cycle: a famous and high-end nightclub. After that, it’s anyone’s play of destiny. Life can be like that sometimes.

I'd like to think that like what she was called, the "Pakwan Queen" has already lived her royal life. So it is customary to say in this kind of situations; "The Queen is [Gone]!!! Long Live the Queen!!!"

EDIT:  10 years later, I have an update.

Someone following this blog post gave me new information about her whereabouts.

I cannot verify if it is REALLY her, but one comment called her by her screen name.

She is currently living in Rizal, is married to a foreigner that looks like of middle-eastern descent, and has a child that is 5 yrs old. She studied as a caregiver 4 yrs ago (2018), but is currently busy selling bags, beauty products, clothes, etc.

She looks very different now (although, you know, its a given, since people age) but it looks like she has some work done on parts of her face.

I have tried to reach out to her but as of now she has not yet replied to my message.