As we commemorate Christ’s suffering this Holy Week, I am led to revisit anecdotes I have written in past articles on the wisdom one can find by talking to those who suffer the most from our society’s inequities. Through the years, I have found some of the richest insights in conversations with common folk expressing their aspirations in ways that made me see their plight more clearly, and rethink old preconceived notions and ideas shaped by ivory-tower analysis.
i would have ignored kris’s latest drama, especially after reading BUSTED! Kris wags the dog, saves the king, but there’s a couple of things about this one that gives me pause.
for one, it would seem like kris has reached the limits of her powers. last wednesday, she was on the offensive, getting a 30-day temporary protection order against ex-husband basketball idol james yap on alleged grounds of unwanted amorous advances in front of their 5 year old bimby three months ago, and which she seeks to make a permanent protection order, the hearing set na for april 8. but that very night, james went on tv and disputed kris’s narrative, accused her of turning bimby against him, even quoted her as saying, “baka nakalimutan mo, three years pa ang brother ko.” (which gloating threw me for a loop. power-tripping to the max!) kris went on the defensive the next day, denied saying it, but only on tv patrol, not on jessica soho’s sona (correct me if i’m wrong), and disputing james’s narrative, as expected. what was unexpected, however, was the announcement that she is quitting showbiz for the sake of bimby; it surprised because it is NOT what the occasion, the problem, is calling for, which is that she continue to work at meeting james halfway for the sake of bimby. so what happened in the hours between offense and defense? was the powerful kuya livid? or is this just a strategic goodbye, complete with sacrificial-lamb effect, a temporary hiatus lang, before she sashays into oligarchic politics, running (it has been rumored) for no less than president in 2016! *ARGH*
for another, it amazes me that kris didn’t anticipate that james would fight back? with a kick-ass lawyer like lorna kapunan? sorry, frank chavez, but if you’ve got no better strategy than to count on a suggestible five-year old’s testimony, then you’ll deserve to get your ass kicked. besides, no matter how intelligent bimby is, the boy needs his father, too, especially in these formative years, even more at puberty and adolescence; too much identification with the mother, in this case kris, who is not exactly a model of maturity and balance and stability, is not good for the kid at all, as any worthy psychologist would tell you. the obsession, for instance, to deprive james of all of a father’s rights by legally adopting the child as a single parent and changing the boy’s name from aquino yap to cojuangco aquino, speaks volumes. it is to deny not only reality, but the boy’s paternity. ano na. parang immaculate conception baga? for the sake of the child? in what universe?
When I entered the State University as a freshman in 1995, I was part of an English block that was diverse by virtue of class. It didn’t take long to find that while some of us were from well-off families (I had a Romualdez in my class for example, and there were children of lawyers), and there were some of us who were versions of middle class; many of my blockmates came from poorer families, many from the provinces. Many of them, I later found, were dependent on scholarships, mostly from elsewhere other than the State U.
so, on facebook, someone’s blaming inveighing against the father now for “washing his hands in public of any responsibility he may have had in this tragedy” and of turning the university into the “sole scapegoat.” (19 likes so far.) so whose fault is it really that the father, a college graduate, was laid off and could find no job, kaya parttime taxi driver lang? the father’s? he didn’t try hard enough? heck no, it’s the economy, stupid!