Skip to main content

A Sick Mind in the Entertainment Industry

THE RECENT CONTROVERSY involving Willie Revillame brought to surface how sick this man is. And he should be banned completely from the entertainment industry in order to effectively avoid his sick mind from getting into homes through the tube. No amount of apology can restore the damage he continues to cause through his TV programs. It is not the first time. And it will not be the last even with all his apologies.

On its 12 March 2011 episode of TV5's "Willing Willie," Revillame abused a child on air without even realizing what he was doing. The early evening program allowed a six-year-old boy named Jan-Jan Estrada to perform dance moves like a male erotic dancer, and endure public redicule and banter from the audience. The boy already cried in embarrassment, and Revillame did not even have a clue on how much suffering the boy endured on the stage in the name of "his" brand of entertainment. Worse, he had the show's spinner repeat the song five more times, forcing the boy to continue "macho dancing," rubbing acid into the boy's wounded psyche.

Revillame's statement during the event tells a lot of his mind: "Umiiyak pa yan... Ngayon pa sa hirap ng buhay ng tao... Si Jan-Jan siyempre sasayaw bilang macho dancer sa edad na yan para sa kanyang pamilya... pinahanga mo ako Jan-Jan... Lumuluha yan... parang sa pelikulang 'Burlesk Queen'... umiiyak na ganoon... ginagawa para sa pamilya. Masama ang loob pero kailangang gawin para sa mahal sa buhay." [Is he encouraging the boy to do so by giving him reasons to become a macho dancer? Very sick.]

I have not seen this episode. But imagining what happened, my stomach turned in disgust.

The worse thing about this is, Revillame's moral bankruptcy towards child protection spilled into his audiences who joined him in psychologically abusing the child in public.

The Special Protection of Children Agains Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act (Republic Act 7610, Section 10) defines "child abuse" to include such acts as "psychological and physical abuse, neglect, cruelty, sexual abuse and emotional maltreatment." What happened to Jan-Jan Estrada fell very well within "psychological abuse," "cruelty," and "emotional maltreatment."

Maybe it is time to clean show business from sick minds like that of Willie Revillame.

At the end of the day, corruption does not exist only in the field of politics and government service. This case shows that it has dangerous heads in the entertainment industry too. And corruption like this are no less damaging and repulsive to Filipinos of commendable decency.

[ECHOES
Senator Francis Pangilinan held the same opinion and made the same call on 10 April 2011.] 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Gifts of Discounts

SECTION 13 of the New Code of Philippine Judicial Conduct (27 April 2004) stated: Judges and members of their families shall neither ask for nor receive any gift, bequest, loan, or favor in relation to anything done or to be done or omitted to be done by him or her in connection with the performance of judicial duties. Its annotation explains that: Public officials and employees shall not solicit or accept, directly or indirectly, any gift, gratuity, favor, entertainment, loan or anything of money value from any person in the course of their official duties or in connection with any operation being regulated by, or any transaction which may be affected by the functions of their office." The key phrase here is--"in the course of their official duties." It means that as long as a judge remains a judge of Philippine courts, this Code applies, prohibiting any receipt, directly or indirectly, from any person. The question then is: Is a discount a gift? ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Substate-of-a-Gun

THE MORO ISLAMIC Liberation Front (MILF) boldly declared that Muslims be allowed to run their government even "if they go to hell by their own making, so be it." I go for a lasting peace in Muslim Mindanao; but I have serious doubts on real peace when these armed Muslim leaders cannot accept the fact of life that Mindanao is no longer a Muslim territory after Muslim settlers took the land from the Lumads in the prehistoric Philippines. I came from Zamboanga, and grew there. Despite MILF's claim of representing the dream of Muslims in Mindanao, I have serious doubts if the leaders are merely using this separatist slogan for their own aggrandizement. Look at ARMM under MNLF's Nur Misuari who had nothing to show for the tax shares it received from the government. And reports had it Misuari kept a huge sum from this money for his own accounts. So I have so much reservations on the lasting peace settlement with the MILF can bring. First, how much really of our Muslim si...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Catholic-Ivory Connection

THE ENORMOUS FIGURES of seized ivory smuggled "through" the Philippines--5.4 tons in 2009; 6.1 tons from China in 2006; 7.7 tons in 2005--prove the huge market of ivory in the country. It may be argued as a mere transhipment affair; but from all indications, it may not be so alone (why in the first place would smugglers from China passes through the Philippines? Does that make Philippine shipments to China safe by reputation?). By these figures alone we can surmise that these smuggling activities happen year in and out. With 2007 and 2008 reporting no cease or seizing of shipments, you can only presume that the supplies reached their intended receivers. I noticed in Brian Cristy's National Geographic article "Ivory Worship"  the perceivable excitement in the Catholic clerics he interviewed when speaking about the ivory icons. The reports from icon-makers in Manila on the regularity of Catholic clerics, religious and laity in their shops to purchase icons...
Post a Comment
Read more