What’s Vicki Belo’s ‘secret’ formula?

In this glamorous world called show business, almost every other movie and television star wants to look perfect — in the fastest way possible.

Often, we hear about celebrities having nose jobs, facelifts and breast implants. (But these are hush-hush procedures that are never discussed in public.)

The most common quick-fix job among most celebrities, however, is liposuction. And there is no doubt that the most popular in this field of specialization is Dr. Vicki Belo.

Although she originally specialized in dermatology and had gone through intensive training at the Institute of Dermatology in Thailand and, later, at Harvard (where she studied laser treatment), it is her expertise in liposuction that brought her fame as the doctor to the stars.

According to Dr. Belo, the practice of liposuction began in Italy in the 1970s and was started by a certain Dr. Gasparotti who used a medical tool originally meant for abortion to remove unwanted fat from the body.

Dr. Belo was introduced to liposuction when her father decided to go through this kind of operation years ago in one of the hospitals here in Manila. "But it was a stupid operation," so she claims. "A lot of blood came out, but very little fat."

The following year, she went to the US to accompany a schoolmate from Assumption who was scheduled to undergo liposuction. Dr. Belo was amazed by what she saw. After pints and pints of fat were removed from her friend, this friend still had all the energy in the world to go shopping almost immediately after the operation. It was then that she decided to undergo training on liposuction with her friend’s cosmetic surgeon, Dr. Jeffrey Klein.

When she came back, she first tried doing liposuction on relatives and friends for free — with amazing success. Her patients, in fact, were discharged immediately after the operation.

Eventually, she met Johnny Litton who asked her to guest in the now-defunct Oh No, It’s Johnny! show on ABS-CBN. After that one television appearance, the phone in her clinic never stopped ringing. Among her first clients were society matrons who had accumulated not only wealth, but also excess fat — in their arms, thighs and abdominal areas.

Later, Dr. Belo was asked by Channel 7’s Katok mga Misis to perform a televised liposuction on host Arnel Ignacio. This was viewed by thousands of people and, soon after, the showbiz crowd started knocking at the door of her clinic. One of them was Rosanna Roces who eventually became one of her dearest friends.

Dr. Belo was immediately impressed with the simple ways of Rosanna Roces who was already then on her way to becoming a major star on the big screen. Unlike most other film celebrities who come to her clinic with a coterie of aides, Rosanna came to see Dr. Belo just by herself. After they agreed on the price, they set a date for the operation and Rosanna had those unwanted fat deposits removed in her abdominal areas.

After the liposuction, Rosanna even went on national television and told the whole world about it — and the doctor who did it to her. At this point, more celebrities made a beeline to her clinic — although very few of them would admit it. And Dr. Belo isn’t about to divulge the list. In fact, even the people in her staff are not allowed to talk about anything that goes on in any of her clinics. Her newly-opened branch in Tomas Morato (fronting Virgin Café), in fact, even has a secret exit so that those who undergo liposuction may leave the place after the operation unnoticed. Her clinic in Makati, on the other hand, has a private elevator designed to spirit away clients who don’t want the world to know about the handiwork of Dr. Belo.

"Only about 2 percent of my clients admit publicly that they went to me for a quick-fix job," says Dr. Belo. However, she understands fully well why most of her works of art" have to be kept secret. "I guess this is still part of giving the public the illusion that they were all born beautiful," she rationalizes. "But even if they wouldn’t admit it in public, they still show their appreciation for what I did to them by sending me gifts and pasalubongs from abroad."

Dr. Belo, of course, also entertains clients from fields outside of show business. There was even a period when she had a lot of people from the military coming to her. This was the time when Panfilo Lacson required the men under him to lose weight — or else lose their posts.

Today, most of her clients are balikbayans who still find it cheaper (because it is really a lot cheaper) to have their liposuction done here.

Dr. Belo, however, will not just perform liposuction or any kind of operation on anyone who has the money to blow on such expensive procedure. "For liposuction, for instance, I will not do clients who are not willing to change their lifestyle — those who are not inclined to diet and exercise after the operation. Otherwise, they’ll just keep coming back to me and we can’t be doing that all the time," insists Dr. Belo.

And then, there are those women who come to her in the hope they’d end up looking like Rosanna Roces (or at least to have a skin as fair as hers), Vilma Santos, Gretchen Barretto and, lately, Kristine Hermosa.

Sorry, but there is a limit to what Dr. Vicki Belo can do. She may be an expert in cosmetic surgery, but she certainly ain’t God.