Dela Cruz is Philippines’ first international celebrity. First Lady Imelda Marcos who invested a lot of resources in Filipino Cinema, organized the first Manila International Film Festivals to promote the local productions to the rest of the world. Dela Cruz became the mediatic center of attention, making one appearance a day at the festival performing stunts, with exercise and Martial Arts demonstrations. This led for his film "For Your Height Only" to outsell every other local film by a very large margin and made and to this day is Philippines cinema's most exported film.