Exploited women or women who exploit?

Last Sunday, during ABS-CBN’s "The Buzz", columnist Mon Tulfo virtually accused former Senator Raul Roco on his face and (in front of his wife) that he beat up his wife Sonia Roco. Of course, Raul denied the allegation and Sonia who was with her husband also denied this accusation. Now isn’t that an opening (which he also wrote in his column, entitled "Roco Uncovered") salvo by Tulfo to mark the beginning of the presidential campaign?

Remember when we used to complain that President Arroyo was hot-tempered or "Taray"? Well, media have always known that Raul Roco was a bigger "Taray" than GMA… but Tulfo’s accusations are entirely new. after all, one of the proud titles of Raul Roco is that he is often called the "Honorary Woman", because when he was a senator, he fought for women’s rights.

But now, Tulfo is telling us that the honorary woman is a wife-beater. Wow! That’s no simple accusation. I mean how Roco defends women’s rights and yet, he beats up his wife? So the question is, can Tulfo be believed? Is this plain and simple mudslinging or is Sonia merely keeping this a deep secret so as not to ruin the chances of her husband in this presidential race? Abangan!

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Still about the issue on women. Perhaps the most nauseating stories ever to come out of ABS-CBN is the Kris Aquino and Joey Marquez lovers’ spat which made national headlines a couple of months ago, when during a violent lovers’ quarrel, he beat her up and poked a gun to her face. Well, she got national sympathy alright when all this became public knowledge and ABS-CBN cashed in on this story! Now wasn’t that a form of exploitation?

Well, today, you can very well say that we the public seem to have been taken for a ride by the new "crying lady", Kris who publicly admitted that she’s still in love with Joey and then… that the rumors of them seeing each other were indeed true! As Mad Magazine’s Alfred E. Neuman would scream… Yeech! So all this public spat was merely to keep up her television ratings huh? How dare you Kris Aquino for using the public! How selfish!

So now, after taking the public for a ride, they’re going to have a public reconciliation also complete with tears and bull, much like a well-publicized boxing return bout? Now still on live ABS-CBN, Kris has given her terms for a comeback with Joey if he makes up with her mom former President Cory Aquino and her brother Noynoy Aquino. What about morality or right or wrong? Well, they threw that out of the window long ago, and never got them back.

Alas, we’re here in the Philippines and despite our Catholicism this public immorality hasn’t affected her television ratings. If this ever happened in the United States or in Europe, you can bet that the show of Kris Aquino would be "canned" or stopped because the people would no longer see her show. What about us Pinoys, aren’t we appalled by this nauseating Kris Aquino? I don’t know about you, but I am! Nakakasuka! Yuck!

What I find even more appalling is the fact that no one seems to mind that ABS-CBN continues to air this huge "con" job! Here I was, watching television and praising the staff of local ABS-CBN here when they went out into the slums caroling and giving gifts to the poor of Metro Cebu, especially that poor man inside a cardboard box he calls home. This is something I never saw the ABS-CBN staff in Manila do and I salute our friends here in DyAB and ABS-CBN for giving real meaning to Christmas, which is to love our fellowmen, regardless of his status in life. But then a few moments later, Kris Aquino appears to make me and my family nauseated!

Indeed, where are the so-called concerned non-government organizations (NGOs) that fights for women’s rights? Now isn’t this the height of exploitation by ABS-CBN? Sure, we submit that Kris Aquino is definitely a willing participant here. She’s no different from Ms. Maui Taylor who also appeared in the Senate, seeking the assistance of Sen. Loren Legarda that her nude photos have appeared in a glossy magazine and apparently, she didn’t like this. Come now, if she didn’t like those photos to appear in that magazine, why did she pose naked before their cameras in the first place?

While we submit that men do exploit women, but women themselves love to be exploited for the money! Yes, I would like to believe that Maui Taylor is merely using Sen. Legarda as part of her ploy to get more money from the publisher of that magazine. Of course, Sen. Legarda came out with a denunciation of pornography, which admittedly is so prevalent in our daily tabloids, magazines and yes the Internet. But then, why didn’t Loren chastise Maui Taylor and her bunch of boldies, the very reason why pornography of this kind exist?