Human Rights Online Philippines

The Moral Depravity and Despicable Barbarity of the Impertinent Philippine Media
By Jose Mario De Vega

I am compelled to write to register my disgust with the way the media handles and reports the case of a certain model and a TV personality.

Bloody hell, here we go again with our impertinence and ignoble character! It been more a week now that the banners of the ‘shocking headlines’ and the dominant talk of the town whether in the newspapers, various social networking sites, including the radio and television is the event that happened to ‘boy manyak’ there in Taguig!

To quote Marlen V. Ronquillo of the Sunday Times, “Philippine society: Inexorably marching to full Kardashian-hood”, February 2:

“Since last week, no topic of substance and national importance has managed to get traction and public attention. To hell with stock market drops, the killer floods in the South and the traffic nightmares that Metro Manila would have to confront starting April. Even the most important news of the moment – the prospect of lasting peace in Mindanao and, the possible end to the historic bloodletting in the troubled region – was obscured by the messy news about TV host Vhong Navarro.

“Until today, what remains “trending” has been the sorry saga of Navarro inside a Fort condo.”

I am truly irritated with regard to this utterly rubbish issue. I cannot understand why some people have shown such interest and delight to this incident which to my view is a complete nonsense!

To paraphrase Shakespeare:

The whole bloody thing is a nonsensical tale told by the idiots, full of sound and fury, yet undeniably signifies nothing at all!

This is the heights not only of idiocy, but also of shame and unexplainable absurdity!

I am not saying that the media should not report the details and the facts of the alleged event, but to report and to highlight this ‘news’ as if this is so bloody important and to dwell on this like an extreme maniac and fanatic, in my view is the heights of foolishness and undeniably idiocy of the highest order!

There is nothing complicated with this issue and the facts are quite simple, hence I cannot understand why it seems that the bastard media are making big fuzz out of nothing!?

Why make a forest out of the damned tree?

Why go deeper to the sea, when the truth is already there at the beach for all to see?

‘Boy maniac’ alleged that he was buggerized, abused, physically assaulted and extorted! Is that so? Then, file the appropriate case before the duly constituted authorities! Done! Finish!

That self-proclaimed model, on the other hand claimed and cried that she was sexually assaulted and raped! Is that so? Then, file the appropriate complaint to the court of competent jurisdiction! Done! Finish!

While the assertion of that violent gangster group is that, they only do a heroic act and that is by helping a woman being rape! Is that so? Fine! Prove it then in an open court in an actual case! Done! Finish!

So, that it! Now, I cannot understand why some people are so agitated, so passionate to the point of being fanatical to this utterly rubbish and incontestably good for nothing event?

I am heavily thinking and wondering aloud: do those people also think what the hell would they gain from this issue?

Where the hell is the greater public interest here?

Is their act of feasting on this gossip, like hungry hyenas, bunch of piranha freaks and gluttonous vultures will develop their character and humanity? Will it make them better human beings and responsible citizens, not only of our society of also of the world?

This bastard country has so many pressing social issues and earth-shaking problems, yet I cannot fathom nor understand why it is that some of our people are wasting them time and energy to this undeniably garbage and nonsense news.

Instead of taking about those pertinent and important issues that gravely affect the whole of our body politic and to act accordingly as responsible and active members of our community, why the hell some of our people have become bastard gossipers and showbiz freaks?

I am referring to those utterly important social issues and burning questions such as the impending rise (again) to the fare of the LRT, MRT, the (nonstop) oil price hike, the call to kick out the stupid and useless head of the ERC (who is a super thick face and have no sense of decency and dignity, whatsoever), the call of the Labor sector to the ERC to allot a seat to their office that will come from the consumer, that utterly inhumane and incontestably Satanic secret torture chamber in Binan, Laguna (which the CHR discovered and promptly reported), the debate on the revival of the Death Penalty Law, the question of why up to now, the RH Law is still pending before the Supreme Court, the on-going debate on the FOI, that material question as posted by Senator Pia Cayetano, where does the money derived from the Sin Tax go?, the creeping threat from the bastard Chinese with regard to the issue of our territorial claims, the monopoly of the market of Meralco and their collusion with ERC, those bloody demolition at North Triangle and at Agham Road, the continuing struggle and suffering of the Yolanda victims; etc. — now, given all of these issues and problems, why the hell some of our people are wasting their time and energy on that garbage and rubbish news?

What kind of society do we have? What kind of people does that society produced?

What kind of people or citizens are we?

To quote from Benign0’s “ABS-CBN saturation coverage of Vhong Navarro and Deniece Cornejo causing Filipino intellectual bankruptcy”, Get Real Philippines, January 29:

“In recent days, that unsavory aspect of the character of Philippine society has yet again reared its ugly head. As the saying goes, a distracted mind is a happy mind. In no other place in the world does this truism apply better than in the Philippines where, despite monumental wretchedness casting a long-term pall over its society, a perverse “positivity” prevails. Is it really possible to distract an entire nation from its own wretchedness? Apparently it’s been proven time and again by successive Philippine governments that it is easy as pie.

“With many crises of national proportions raging around them — the humanitarian challenge left by Typhoon Haiyan, the vast corruption scandal rocking Philippine Congress and Malacanang, a brewing international conflict with China, and a parceling out of Mindanao “autonomy” resting on dubious philosophical grounds — Filipinos have tuned in en masse to a sensational rape-cum-gangster-cum-extortion drama (with apologies for the pun) involving a two-bit celebrity, a fame-starved facially-reconstructed starlet, and a shady underworld thug.”

I am blaming some of our people for their lack of character and sense of responsible citizenship! I am also categorically blaming and extremely denouncing the local media for their stupidity, impertinence and barbarity!

Instead of reporting about the truth, what they do is to sensationalize and dramatize issues; that does not contain even an iota of social relevance!

Shame on them for betraying their sacred duty base on the fundamental law and on social morality!

I join Benign0’s concurrence with columnist Isagani Cruz’ sharp indictment of the Philippine media industry in an article dated 16th of June, 2006 on the Inquirer.net:

“Benjamin Franklin said that if the people misuse their suffrages, the remedy is not to withdraw the precious privilege from them but to teach them in its proper use. The entertainment industry, which has the most available access to the [Filipino] people through the movies, television, radio and the tabloids, is instead purposely miseducating them.

“The Philippine entertainment industry is not only a vast wasteland, as television has been described in America, but a vicious instrument for the abatement of the nation’s intelligence. The shows it offers for the supposed recreation of the people are generally vulgar and smutty, usually with some little moral lesson inserted to make them look respectable, but offensive nonetheless. On the whole, they are obnoxious and unwholesome and deserve to be trashed.

“The indiscriminate audience eagerly laps them up because it has not been taught to be selective and more demanding of better quality shows for their pastime. In fact, the easily satisfied fans have been taught the exact opposite reaction — to accept whatever garbage the industry offers them and, to add insult to their injury, to pay for it too.

“The leaders of the entertainment industry are supposed to be responsible people but they have evaded their duty to elevate the taste of their mostly unthinking supporters. They have instead cheapened them into a mass of automated individuals whose ultimate joy is to roll up in the aisles at the lewd jokes of potential senators.”

The Filipinos must wake up and start to get a life!

Jose Mario Dolor De Vega

Philosophy lecturer
College of Arts and Letters
Polytechnic University of the Philippines

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