Category: gossip

sawsaw pa more sa barretto brouhaha (in defense of tsismis)

no, it’s not just us pinoys who are tsismoso, as pat-p daza suggested (or is it opined) on dzmm teleradyo.  gossiping is a universal human predilection, we are wired to gossip and to be receptive to gossip, not just for distraction or entertainment but as a matter of survival.

read  in defense of tsismis” [below], a 1996 column I wrote for jarius bondoc’s radical all-opinion tabloid where I quote evolutionary psychologist robin wright [The Moral Animal 1994] at the height of the gabby concepcion – jenny syquia scandal.  read too the new york times’ Go ahead. Gossip may be virtuous. [2002], the guardian’s  In defence of gossip: no better way to navigate life’s flawed relationships [2015], and psychology today’s  Addicted to gossip?” [2016]

medyo level-up pa nga itong barretto bruhaha compared to the usual showbiz scandals involving sex videos, love triangles, broken marriages, adulterous relationships, abusive or two-timing partners, lgbtq+ closets and out-of-closets atbp. because this one is, above all, about FAMILY, and the sisters’ slaphappy showdown at their father’s wake–everyone (burgis and masa alike) agrees–was inappropriately wild and uncivilized, and because (beyond the juicy tidbits and sideswipes) the fact and context of family looms large and touches us all.

the reaction that most resonates with me is that of pinoys who are also members of big families, like the barretto’s seven sibs: nag-aaway din naman kaming magkakapatid, pero never naming dinadaan o pinapaabot sa sampalan at sabunutan, sipaan at sapakan.  

true.  family conflicts can, and should, be settled amicably, but every one concerned has to be willing to rise above self-interest for the good of the whole.  it’s also good for the soul, and good for the karma.

In defense of tsismis
Isyu 23 January 96

Natabunan nga ba ng Jenny-Gabby scandal ang EVAT, jueteng, at iba pang isyu? Dapat nga bang lubay-lubayan ng media ang katsitsismis about the private hells of the rich and famous dahil wala naman itong katututuran except as escapist fare for the poor and obscure?  read on…

binay vs. binay-campos (the abby road)

listened to abby binay-campos on karen davila’s headstart.  my smpathies go to jojo binay.

this is what dynasty has come to.  abby says she worked so hard to do all the things she has accomplished for the city of makati, so it’s unfair that she’s being asked not to run for re-election, as in, paano na ang projects niya, something about a subway and free wifi, e baka di na matuloy, sayang naman.

crazy, right?  para namang hindi niya kapatid ang ibig makabalik sa puwesto.  bakit hindi itutuloy ni junjun ang mga project na nasimulan na kung para sa ikauunlad at ikaliligaya ng makati?  iyan na nga mismo ang rationale, ang advantage, ng dynasty rule, di ba, yung built-in continuity ng leadership ng isang angkang nagkakaisa, with the good of their constituents in mind.  but wait.  heto naman si junjun, saying the same thing, gusto daw niya tapusin yung mga nasimulan niya na apparently ay hindi itinuloy ni abby.  eh iyon naman pala.

life was simpler back when dad jejomar aka jojo, the original mayor binay, went national and became veep: the lines were clearly drawn, it seemed to me.  jojo left the mayor’s seat to junjun, abby went to congress, and nancy made it to the senate.  hati-hating kapatid, kumbaga.  ang kaso, into his second term, sometime 2015, nakasuhan si junjun sa ombudsman at na-suspend; saglit nakaupong mayor si oppositionist vice mayor kid pena.  noong 2016 elections, di pa puwede si junjun, dinidinig pa ang kaso, so si abby ang tumakbo in his place.  kaysa mapunta sa iba, di ba.  syempre, as with any dynasty, keep.it.in.the.family ang mantra.

perfect timing naman dahil kaga-graduate ni abby sa congress (one of two makati seats), three terms na, so ang asawang si luis campos ang tumakbo in her place, na nanalo siyempre.  kumbaga, bonus na kay abby yung biglang run-for-mayor-and-win.  ang problema ngayon, she’s enjoying herself much too much (and we can guess why) and simply doesn’t want to give it up / back to junjun now that junjun wants city hall back.  she practically tells junjun to clear his name first (or something like that) before going back to public service.  in a statement, meron pang:

… when she took over as mayor two years ago, Makati was “in a state of neglect and disorder… worse, dirty politics and shameless political patronage had taken their toll on basic social services.”

teka.  the year before she took over was the year when acting mayor kid pena couldn’t get anything done because binay supporters in and out of city hall were forever blocking him on every front imaginable.  dirty politics din iyon at dirty politics pa rin ang namamayani sa makati (like everywhere else), or at least that’s the maugong na chismis.

and now here’s junjun on headstart.  hindi pala siya bilib sa subway project ni abby, cute and fancy, but is it viable?  AND he reinforced some chismis i’ve been getting from three different grapevines about abby’s hubby who’s running for re-election sa congress, nag-e-enjoy din, I suppose, and abby doesn’t have the heart to ask for her seat back, pero si junjun kayang-kaya niya?

OR the chismis goes, okay lang kay campos na bumalik sa congress si abby but he wants to run for mayor in abby’s place?  junjun does not say it in so many words but he certainly says a mouthful.

…my father doesn’t like him, may mga issues with him, may nga nagsasabi sa father ko na may sinasabi na hindi maganda tungkol sa family. … I’m sure he has his own ambitions. Isa yan sa naging isyu dun sa ground. Naging isyu yan… my brother in law. Meron siyang iba ring agenda eh.   Which is, hindi namin gusto ang agenda niya, it wont be good for the city.

and yet jojo in his wisom has refused to rule, or even just remind, that city hall is junjun’s, congress is abby’s – the husband is abby’s problem.  i’m still trying to figure out why.

sabi naman ni rene saguisag who was with jojo sa comelec.

The other day Mayor Abby Binay filed her CONA. The day before, JunJun, her brother, did. Normally, one may say that the Binays and the Estradas enjoy the paradise of pedigree, but not this time. How I wish they could find a way to reconcile, but a Prez Duterte, Mayor Duterte and Vice Mayor Duterte?  https://www.manilatimes.net/cream-rises-and-values-dip/453983/

hard to sympathize with either binay or binay-campos.  much easier to sympathize with the poor people of makati, and of davao, and poor people everywhere in this benighted land, who aren’t really being given a choice any longer, kept largely without options, caught in the cruel trap set by dynasties who mean to rule forever.

tony lopez rightly asks, what has been the impact of dynastic rule?

Is it a coincidence that the Philippines has one of the worst income equality ratios in the world, that it is the only major country that failed to solve its poverty after the entire world solved its poverty in 2015, that in ASEAN, it has the highest poverty incidence, the highest unemployment rate, the highest inflation rate, the highest interest rates, and the lowest level of foreign investments?

no coincidence.  more like cause and effect.  political dynasties enrich the dynasty at the expense of the masses.  at the expense of democracy.  which makes ours a poor and fake democracy.

mike drop

when director mike de leon started quarrelling with rogue magazine and the MMFF peeps last year, i started getting nervous for his comeback film Citizen Jake.  i wished him well, if not better than ever.  in my book mike de leon was neck-and-neck with peque gallaga, next only to lino brocka and ishmael bernal in the roster of top directors of the second golden age of philippine cinema.

i wished atom araullo even better, hoped the new road taken would mean a level-up in his activist advocacies as journalist for nation.  i wasn’t surprised that mike had thought him perfect for the role — atom is muy simpatico with tons of sex appeal, and he looks good on screen.  can he act? was the 64$ question, but it didn’t seem to matter, or mike would not have made the effort to convince him that only he could play the role of jake herrera, citizen journalist — even, that if atom said no, then it would be the end of citizen jake the concept.  that must have been the clincher, so to speak.

it promised to be interesting at the very least, a blockbuster at the very best.  unfortunately the jury is in, and the verdict is out, as in, out cold.  the legit reviews (as opposed to promotional pieces) are of a flawed film, but i haven’t seen it so i won’t go there.  but i will go where mike de leon himself has dared, beyond the film, to his outrageously nasty and scandalizingly out-of-control take-down of atom as actor as journalist as person for some 10 days now on citizen jake’s facebook page.  all in the spirit of truth-telling, he says

Citizen Jake: its strange that the phenomenon of social media has made us even more timid to speak the truth about anything. people cannot seem to get that one of the major reasons i have decided to speak out publicly on this issue is that it is undeniable that we have made a very politically charged melodrama. and AA was part of it not just as an actor but as a very active screenplay collaborator. please do not forget that. end of discussion.

it seems to me that it’s not speaking the truth that mike is up to as it is spinning the truth and blaming, taking out on, atom his failure as director of Citizen Jake.  no doubt there was a huge clash of egos and that atom gave as good as he got, why not.

and then, again, it could just be a case of unrequited love, as in, hell hath no fury…. as many opine.  or maybe mike simply brought out the worst, instead of the best, in atom.  what.a.waste.

*

‘Citizen Jake’: Brave but unrealized by j. neil c. garcia
Monsters in white sneakers by arnold alamon

Gossip as history

By Luis H. Francia

NEW YORK CITY — Imelda Romualdez Marcos leads a charmed life. So far able to dodge the bullet of criminal liability and seemingly inured to the regular impugning of her past and her character, she’s living proof that lives can have third acts.

Ooh’d and ahh’d over in public, the congresswoman now has her own “Evita,” the musical based on Evita Peron’s life with whom she was often compared, a comparison she didn’t like one bit. But she has never raised objections, at least publicly, to the rock musician, he-of-Talking-Heads-fame, David Byrne’s poperetta “Here Lies Love,” reviewed last year in this column.

Read on…