Baldo Marro is among the veteran stuntmen who proved that he's no slouch when it comes to movie directing. After he served as a fight instructor in a string of Raymart Santiago starrers during the early 90s, he got a chance to direct the latter in "Leon Cordero", in which he also co-wrote the story with Ed Pajarillo and served as both fight director and one of the line producers.
Leon (Raymart Santiago) lives a normal life with his family in Leyte. His father Turing (Ray Ventura) works for Don Salazar (Eddie Gutierrez), not knowing that the latter is the head of a local syndicate. One day, Turing was killed by Don Salazar's men led by his right-hand man Claudio (Manjo del Mundo) after failing to protect the illegal imports in the pier; Don Salazar fears that Turing will expose Don Salazar's illegal activities in court. This leads Leon to investigate on who Turing's killer is, which earns the ire of Don Salazar. Claudio and his men attempt to kill Leon, who is with Don Salazar's daughter Lilet (Lailani Navarro) on the San Juanico bridge. However, Lilet ends up getting killed and Leon, who is pointed out as her killer, ends up being wanted in his hometown. After a couple of unsuccessful attempts in hiding, as advised by his mother (Marita Zobel), Leon moves to Manila to live with his uncle Ambo (Berting Labra). There, he meets gang leader Waray (Dick Israel) and his daughter Marissa (Jennifer Mendoza). After getting beaten up by rival Totoy Sputnik (King Gutierrez) and his men, Waray passes his throne to Leon, who accepts the offer despite being against Marissa's wishes. One day, Leon wins a big fight with Totoy Sputnik. As Totoy Sputnik refuses to accept defeat, he orders his men to kill Adiang (Angela Morena) and Ambo. This leads Leon and Waray's men to kill Totoy Sputnik and his men. This earns the ire of Frank (Johnny Vicar), a local policeman who has ties with Totoy Sputnik and a close friend of Claudio who was assigned to find Leon. Frank, Claudio and his men eventually find Leon's hideout in Cavite and kill Waray, Antik (Boy Alvarez) and Marissa. Leon and Claudio managed to survive the shooting. Left with no other choice, Leon returns to Leyte, only to find out that his mother and sister was killed by Claudio and his men. Leon eventually corners Claudio after unsuccessfully getting ambushed in the cemetery and forces him to take the former to the lighthouse, which is Don Salazar's base of operations. This is where Leon realizes Don Salazar's true colors, in which the latter ordered Claudio to kill Turing, Lilet and the rest of Leon's family. After a heated confrontation in the island's tunnel, Leon leaves Don Salazar tied up to a string of bombs and escapes the island by the time it blows up.
The script is heavily flawed. While Leon claims that he lives in Burauen, a landlocked town in Leyte, his house is really somewhere along the seaside. The scenes where Claudio assumes that Leon is hiding in Manila and where Claudio and Frank assume that Leon killed Totoy Sputnik are implausible. There are also some issues when it comes to dubbing. Perhaps, only one person dubbed Manjo del Mundo's characters and a handful of minor players such as Don Salazar's henchmen and the local police chief. It is assumed that the movie was shot a year before its release. By the time it was released, Raymart was almost done with shooting for Mumbaki, which was released a couple of months later.
Despite the decent performances of Raymart Santiago and Eddie Gutierrez, the performances of the supporting stars are uneven. Lailani Navarro and Jennifer Mendoza are just mere decorations as Leon's love interests. Dick Israel managed to bring in some humor in playing Waray. Not to mention that the bed scene of Raymart and Jennifer was executed quite good.
The action scenes are well directed. Baldo Marro made good use of the Capul Island Lighthouse as a setting for Don Salazar's base of operations and the final scene, which includes the island being blown up in several locations upon Raymart's escape. While half of the scenes were shot in Calbayog, Samar, the film also showcases the MacArthur Park in Leyte and the San Juanico bridge.
Overall, "Leon Cordero" is considered one of Baldo Marro's decent movies. While it falls short on the script, its action scenes and the glimpse of various places in Eastern Visayas are worth the watch. Baldo Marro would later on utilize the Capul Island Lighthouse and Calbayog as the settings on some of his movies, such as "Angel de Jesus" and "Parola".
