Read over your article again Jojo. Love the personal details.
I think I can trace the critical re-appraisal of the film back to 1996, during one of the earliest of the Pelikula At Lipunan festivals in Megamall. The film had been largely forgotten by most people then (unless you know otherwise Jo!), and seeing it then for the first time I was--what? I'd seen Bagong Hari on its comercial run, and that blew me away; I thought O'Hara was the greatest Filipino action filmmaker ever. Seeing Tatlong Taong in that 1996 screening was, if anything, the film that confirmed for me that he was the greatest Filipino filmmaker, period.
Haven't stopped writing about it ever since, and I notice a little bandwagon starting around the time, one that hasn't quite stopped, and hopefully won't stop for years to come...