FOR years, the original Pinoys in ''Miss Saigon'' have looked forward to celebrating the 10^th anniversary of the show. We were hoping it would be something like what ''Les Miserables'' had-a spectacular concert with all the Valjeans from different productions worldwide, plus more than 200 actors in the ensemble held at the world-famous Prince Albert Hall.

We were also hoping that the Filipinos in the first production of the musical (Cocoy Laurel, Michael Williams, Jenine Desiderio, Monique Wilson, Lea Salonga, Robert Seña, Miguel Diaz, Lyon Roque, Pinky Amador, Junix Inocian, Jon Briones, Bobby Martino, and myself) would all board an airplane bound for London and re-live that great experience we all had when we first came to London. Those were the best years of our lives. So many things happened. So many lives were changed!

But we all lost hope that we could all attend the celebration when nobody from producer Cameron Mackintosh's office contacted us--until two weeks before the anniversary date of Sept. 20, when they faxed some of us, inviting us to come, but offering neither compensation nor plane tickets. So we said, ''Thank you na lang.''

Friday, Sept. 17, Robert and I were at the premiere showing of ''The Thomas Crown Affair'' at Megamall when I received a call from Saya Ogilvy, the administrative officer in Cameron's office. Nick Allot, who was also responsible for bringing us Pinoys in London, said if they couldn't bring all of us to London, Robert and I should at least be in the celebration.

We panicked!!! Ako lang pala, kasi I don't have a visa. Robert is a resident, kaya OK lang. We went to Cocoy Laurel's house, hoping he knew the telephone number of the British ambassador to the Philippines. I needed to talk to him that night because our flight was supposed to be the following night, which was a Saturday, and they didn't hold office on weekends. We called Tita Terry (Wilson) and Tita Bibot (Amador) for the ambassador's number. We finally got hold of him and told him of my situation. Ambassador Collins was very helpful, and so was Consul Ian Sargeant who had to open the embassy that Saturday morning to help process my visa. Our big thanks to both of them!

After hurriedly bundling our stuff in suitcases, we dashed to the airport. Our tickets were ready for collection at the Lufthansa counter. We arrived in London at 6:30 a.m. on Sunday, and a cab was waiting to take us to the White House Hotel. That was cool.

We were told to go the theater at 12 noon for costume fitting. Ibig sabihin, manggugulo kami in some scenes. Our call time the following day was 10:30 a.m. We rehearsed till 5:30 p.m.--my feet were numb because I was no longer used to walking and I was standing for hours during rehearsals. Of course, being Pinoy, naka-project ako--I was wearing leather boots with heels! The result was a disaster to my feet and legs!

The show started late--quite unusual in British theaters. It was a regular performance with Leo Valdez, Joanna Ampil and Jojo dela Cerna in it. We joined in the ''exodus to Bangkok'' scene. Robert had more to do because he was one of the guys in the ''Bui Doi'' number. Very strange indeed for somebody to travel all the way from the Pacific to London just to be a vendor in one scene!

Then it was time for the mini-show. Lea opened it by singing ''The Sacred Bird,'' the first finale of the show before Alain Boubil and Claude Michel Schonberg changed it three more times. She thanked Cameron and the ''sweetest Frenchmen'' on our behalf. It was very heartwarming to hear the audience's response to Lea's singing and her endearing speech.

Then she called Simon Bowman (original Chris), Claire Moore (Ellen) and Keith Burns (Thuy) on the stage. They sang ''This is the Hour'' with Lea. The chorus (a mix of the present chorus and former members of the cast) joined in the second half of the song.

It was followed by ''American Dream'' with no less than Jonathan Pryce as The Engineer. The climax was when the Cadillac came in with the creative team of ''Miss Saigon'' in it--Cameron Mackintosh (executive producer), Nick Hytner (director), Alain Boublil and Claude Michel Schonberg (lyrics and music), John Napier (production design), and David Hersey (lights design).

Lea, Simon, Keith, Claire, Leo, Joanna, Jojo were joined by the 20 or so children who played Tam from 1989-1999. Then there were fireworks and confetti on stage.

Cameron, Nick, Alain and Claude Michel all spoke, but it was Claude's speech that blew us all. He started it by saying that his speech was personal because he wanted to thank the Filipinos first for changing his life. He adopted a Filipino baby (who must now be 5 or 6 years old) and this daughter has brought joy and love to his home.

He acknowledged how the Filipinos of ''Miss Saigon'' became a very important part of the production. In the end he said, ''Salamat, Philippines!!''

The party was held only at the theater's front of house, which covers the foyer, the staircase and the grand saloon. It was a far cry from the venues of past anniversary celebrations. With 1,000 invited guests, we had to elbow our way in to find the champagne and friends. There was a band playing at the ground floor and the guests seemed to be having a wonderful time.

Robert and I were feeling strange because it would have been a lot better if the majority of the original cast members were there. Because not everybody was invited, many were disappointed. From the original cast, aside from the ones mentioned above, we only saw Ray Shell, Michael Strassen, Mark Carrol, Junix Inocian, Jay Ibot, Miguel Diaz, Antoinette Lo, Suchitra Sensawrattan, Shukubi Yo, Pinky Amador and Lyon Roque. The others were either not invited or couldn't make it because of other commitments.

A lot of the former cast members wanted to come to the party but couldn't because they didn't receive invites. The majority of the 1,000 guests didn't have any direct involvement in the show at all, but because they knew somebody from the production, they were able to receive invitations.

Still, it was good to be back in London and to be in the show, even for only one day--and only two scenes at that. But it was even better to come home after that short trip to London and our frightening experience onboard the BA31 flight to Manila--frightening because, one hour and 15 minutes after taking off, the pilot announced a bomb threat! But that's another story altogether.