Spoon and Fork: June 2009

Hayden Kho has saturated the Philippine media for past weeks. All other important news from across the country and around the world has been kicked off newspaper's front page. While I am all for women's rights and punishment of all perpetrators, I think the issue has become highly commercialized. Some (ahem, ahem) politicians have used the issue for free personal publicity, trying to portray themselves as the hero of abused women. Patricia Evangelista, columnist for the Philippine Daily Inquirer among other things, wrote a column about Sen. Ramon Bong Revilla's presence in the scandal. Shortly after the article was published, Revilla's Head of Public Relations (ahem, ahem) sent a response letter asking it to "be published in toto with the same prominence as the original literature." Below are both articles:

Method To Madness
The morality of Sen. Bong Revilla

By Patricia Evangelista
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 06:29:00 05/31/2009

EDITED VERSION--ACTOR Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. – Star of “Alyas Pogi” (1990) “Alyas Pogi 2” (1992) and “Alyas Pogi: The Return” (1999) – has a penchant for roles that demand bandanas, screaming half-naked females and paint-by-number tattoos. The boyish superman with the plastic M14 can take on a gang of hoods – hoods, we assume, by virtue of the mustaches – all while heroically sucking in the gut under the tucked-in T-shirt. This is the man whose defining moment in his role as Leon in the 2000 film “Ang Kilabot at ang Kembot” has three lovers accusing him of pretending loyalty, while at the same time attempting to get another virgin into bed. The women stride in, high heels clicking, big brothers in tow, all of whom launch themselves at a sheepish Leon. And then the action starts: elbow to gut, fist to face, knee to groin, the whining Casanova suddenly Zorro. The men fall bleeding at his feet, and so do the women, all four trying to squirm into his arms while Leon rolls his eyes. Another day in the life of a real man.

This is Bong Revilla, whose contribution to culture is in large part the image of the Filipino macho man in a country where film and television offer the public the most accessible set of social standards. In the celluloid world of Bong Revilla, women are either sluts or virgins, wives are forgiving, and a real man is someone with a gun in one hand and a breast in the other. This is Bong Revilla, whose various love affairs while married to his wife and former screen partner Lani Mercado has provided fodder for entertainment news, and whose final acknowledgment of a love child has even his father – who himself fathered illegitimate offspring at the age of 75 – lecturing him on the value of a good marriage. This is Bong Revilla, senator of the Republic, wire-rimmed glasses in place, pounding the lectern in a privilege speech demanding morality from a “maniac” and a “pervert” who he cannot believe is a real man.

There is little doubt as to the guilt of one Doctor Hayden Kho, erstwhile lover of plastic surgery queen Dr. Vicki Belo – he of the red bandanna, gyrating hips, and unfathomable love for George Michael. He has admitted to filming a number of women without their consent during sex, and whether he was responsible for the distribution of those videos, the act of filming alone is enough to toss him behind bars.

What is perhaps stunning about the entire Hayden Kho-Katrina Halili scenario is the level of attention it is getting from the national government. The Senate claims an investigation in aid of legislation is vital to ensure that instances like this will not happen again. Senator Revilla, in a GMA7 interview, claims there is no existing law that will hold Kho responsible, with the exception of perhaps a case of child abuse (Revilla says he has unsubstantiated evidence that Kho did film a minor) or civil damages. It is this “toothless” legislation that Revilla wants to change with his playing knight in shining armor, forgetting perhaps that Kho can be held liable under the Violence Against Women and Children Act.

It is difficult to understand why our national leaders feel the need to pit Kho and Halili against each other on taxpayer's time. Kho does not deny his responsibility. Halili has done little but weep and rail. And while the cameras are trained on the tears rolling down her cinematic cheek, the Comelec chief approves of a much-questioned automation bid, a landslide that kills dozens slips completely off the front page, and the GDP dips lower than conservative estimates.

Of course, allegations of Filipina rapes in Subic did not inspire privilege speeches from Bong Revilla. Charges of murder did not make Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez demand the blacklisting of now Partylist Representative Jovito Palparan. When the story first exploded, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita urged all the women in Dr. Kho’s sex videos to press charges, saying that “anything that is offensive to public morals must be sanctioned" the same day he brushed off a United Nations report on torture violations in the Philippines. Perhaps a blow job on youtube is more offensive to his morals than piss shooting down the nose of a Bulacan farmer.

And this is where morality walks into the limelight and demurely crosses its legs. Now every man is a puritan, especially the gentlemen of the Senate who “just happened” to view the sex videos. There is suddenly talk again of the evils of sex among the new generation, and a law, authored by Alyas Pogi himself--who has been unable to pass a single one of his bills--seeking to “safeguard the interest of the State" against the "menace” of “pornographic materials” that “disrupt the peace and order of the country.” Pornography, he calls it: anything that represents by whatever means a person “engaged in real or simulated explicit sexual activities or any other representation of the sexual parts of a person for primarily sexual purpose that is intended to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic or emotional feeling.”

I do not trust the gentlemen of the Senate to define what is aesthetic, what is emotional, and what is crude, as they do not recognize crudeness in themselves. It is a law that has nothing to do with the Hayden Kho case, whose main issue is essentially a conceded lack of consent. Neither does this explain why Revilla and other senators insisted on keeping the investigation public, when aiding legislation is not affected by whether senators have a venue to grandstand. And yet this national outrage can very well justify the passing of a law that can give a Manoling Morato reason to kick out another “Schindler’s List.” It would mean a farewell to films from “Orapronobis” to “Scorpio Nights” to “Burlesque Queen” to Ai-Ai de las Alas’ “Tanging Ina Mo.” It means the possibility of canning “Star Trek” and “Kill Bill,” of wiping out National Geographic features, of knocking out half the shelves of Fully Booked. Brillante Mendoza, recent Cannes best director, may find himself penalized for screening last year’s critically acclaimed “Serbis.”

Democracy isn't a sorority with conditional membership. It is a door that opens to all comers, even if it means turning the knob to a threesome of leather-clad men who fuck each other blind to Guns and Roses and the red light of a camcorder. Halili may not have been given a choice, but it does not mean it should be withheld from everyone else. It's all or nothing; to demand free speech means to permit all others to speak. Senator Revilla cites the Middle East and China as his models for pushing the Anti-Pornography bill, forgetting that the system that allowed an action star to be elected as senator is neither theocratic nor communist.

It's unnecessary to argue the height of hypocrisy for such a man to propose this bill. The only added value I see is a wholesale ban on Bong Revilla films from the shelves of Video City.
***
Originally published as The morality of Sen. Bong Revilla for the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Edited version.

Revilla's Reply:

1 June 2009
MS. LETTY JIMENEZ-MAGSANOC
Editor in Chief
Philippine Daily Inquirer
MS. PATRICIA EVANGELISTA
Columnist, “Method To Madness”
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Madames:

This is with regard to the column “Method to Madness: The morality of Sen. Bong Revilla”, published in page A13 of the Philippine Daily Inquirer on 31 May 2009.

It is with deep regret that I convey my disappointment on the over-all condescending tone of the literature which I believe is based on false premises.

It is true that Senator Revilla, since 1986 when he first played a role in a motion picture, has been cast to portray the brusko and barako types. This however does not mean that Bong Revilla is each and every character that he has played as the column would suggest. You see, Senator Revilla has developed to become one of the most respected institutions in the local film industry not for the roles he has depicted on the screen, but for who he really is behind the camera – an emphatic, caring, and concerned individual who will always go out on a limb to help those who are willing to take his help.

Because of what has been written, I am now convinced that Bong Revilla is a better actor than what others credit him to be, especially now that presumably very educated people have been convinced that the persona he represents onscreen is who he really is, failing to distinguish between the roles he plays and his person off-camera. We should not confuse Bong Revilla with Leon, with Alyas Pogi, with Crisval, nor with any of the over seventy characters he portrayed in over two decades.

I personally expected these criticisms to surface even before Senator Revilla delivered his privilege speech. In fact, I expected worse, knowing how prominent, influential and financially capable the personalities involved are. The Senator shared these apprehensions, but regardless, decided to take a stand throwing caution to the wind.

What is saddening is that as the matter develops, it seems that public attention is systematically being diverted from the root cause, the real culprits of the whole “Hayden Kho Hidden Camera” brouhaha, so that Dr. Kho and his fellow perpetrators could recede to the shadows of obscurity.

Now it has become an issue about Bong Revilla and not about the hapless women in the over forty videos who were videotaped without their consent. Now, the issue is transforming to be about the messenger and no longer about the message. Now, the public is being led to believe in and sympathize with the plight of the evil-doer just because he is being defended by a recognized Women’s Rights activist, and at the same time, is also being led to condemn the victim just because her cause is being carried by an actor whose motion picture image is a barako.

We, as responsible citizens, and I as a parent, should not allow this to happen. We must look beyond the smoke and mirrors and realize what is absolute – the victim and the perpetrator. This is what is important. We must not make the mistake of turning the victim into the perpetrator. If we allow this to happen, then we will be sending the wrong signal to other victims. We will be imparting the message that justice may no longer be had, and that it would be better for victims to remain silent and secluded instead of embarking on a quest to vindicate themselves from the wrong done them.

It is true that Bong Revilla is not perfect, neither am I, nor anyone else for that matter. We do not and can never claim perfection. This should however not keep anyone of us, despite our faults and imperfections, from striving to do good things, to do what is right, and to stand up for it. We must always keep in mind that evil can only triumph if good people choose to do nothing. If all waits for the faultless, perfect, and untarnished to act, then nothing good will be done, for the perfect being exists only in our ideals and in our faith.

I am sure that we are all striving for justice so we should all work together so that justice is served.

Thank you very much. I am hoping, in the spirit of fair-play and responsible journalism and the Code of Ethics of Journalists of the Philippine Press Institute, that this reply be published in toto with the same prominence as the original literature.

More power to you and your publication.

Very truly yours,
F. ROBERT A. MORALEDA
Head for Public Relations
Office of Senator Ramon Bong Revilla, Jr.

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