Is Willie suffering from burnout?

The Willie Revillame/Wowowee issue is still raging and is now into its third week — almost fourth. Anywhere I go, that is what people ask me and I can’t give them an answer since ABS-CBN is no longer my turf. This controversy, however, has made me look back into the past and is making me ponder on the events that led to this mess. Here are some random thoughts on Willie Revillame and Wowowee.

•After all those scandals that could have finished off Willie – the mechanical malfunction that made Wowowee look like it was cheating its studio contestants and that tragic ULTRA stampede that claimed the lives of almost a hundred people — who would have thought that it would take maverick writer Jobert Sucaldito and his critiques to cause what may just be the noontime show host’s eventual downfall?

•Seventeen years ago, it was also Jobert who almost put an end to my then year-old TV career after he accused me on print that Star Cinema paid me P247,000 to make an actor win in the 1993 Metro Manila Film Festival. I do not know where the amount went and why the figures weren’t even rounded off. As we say in the vernacular: May butal pa.

•This was how now National Artist Bienvenido Lumbera described the piece (one of the many — I didn’t bother to count) Jobert wrote about me then: “He (Jobert) whipped my body all over, pushed it to the ground, mopped the floor with it, mercilessly stomped on it and dragged it all over town for the entire village to see.”

•I still remember the date (second Sunday of January, 1994) and place (at the lobby of Kamameshi restaurant in Morato while we were waiting for a table) when Dr. Lumbera began shaking his head as he related to everyone the contents of that offensive piece.

Immediately after, I sought an audience with now ABS-CBN head Cory Vidanes and offered to resign from Showbiz Lingo if they felt I smeared the reputation of the show and the network with that Metro Filmfest mess. Well, we all knew the truth and she said that it was not necessary and I stayed with the station until I had to migrate to the US four years later.

•Am I mad at Jobert? No. In fact, I’m even quite fond of him. More importantly, I respect him and still hold him in high regard because his opinions and insights matter to me a lot. He may not have gotten his facts straight that time, but that happens to the best of us. But I salute him for his views. He speaks his mind and is fearless and that is how a journalist is supposed to be.

•I totally agree with Jobert’s criticism of Wowowee’s penchant for highlighting the mediocre in the show for laughs. There are brilliant people in this country and so why not put them on television to serve as role models to the young? Sure, you get some laughs when you see on TV contestants who actually think and believe that Canadians are people who live in a country called “Canadia.” But at the end of the day, that’s no longer funny because it only shows the kind (or lack) of education we have in the Philippines.

•Should Jobert have attacked Willie in his radio show on DZMM, which is also under the ABS-CBN roof, home to Wowowee? To that, I say: Bravo, Jobert! I wish I had the same courage.

•This controversy also made me hark back to the past — during Willie’s simpler and humbler times. He always had this showbiz image of being arrogant. But I’ve always known it was a façade for his insecurities — for the hurts he went through in life after being thrown from one relative’s house to another growing up.

•Is he a bad person? Not during the early years I knew him. But I hadn’t talked to him in 12 years. People’s status in life also changes personal attitudes. I have no way of telling if he did become the monster that he had been pictured to be since superstardom.

•The day he earned my respect was during the burial of his late mother-in-law, Helen Vela. Since Princess Punzalan was deep in grief, Willie took it upon himself to attend to those who paid their last respects to the beloved radio/TV host. I can never forget how he tirelessly thanked each one of us and how I admired him when he became Princess’ pillar of strength during that period.

Unfortunately, the couple later separated and Willie gained notoriety as a person you cannot trust even with an old pillow wrapped in a skirt.

•God is truly fair. As a youngster, Willie was poor as a rat. Supposedly, he worked as an office boy in his early 20s for an independent TV producer and he didn’t even have enough money to buy alum (tawas) for daily body use. Yes, his beginnings were that pitiful (he never hid that). But fates do change: He now has a yacht, fabulous residences and now lives like a king. But was he able to handle success? For all the riches he has accumulated, he may lose everything if he doesn’t know how to manage his financial affairs. I hope he learns to handle his finances well, especially if he doesn’t intend to return to Wowowee anymore and I wish him the best.

•I don’t understand how Willie was able to yield that much power — and why ABS-CBN was unable to clip his wings early on. Was it because he was a goldmine? That time slot will make money regardless of whomever you put there. It’s a show that can run on its own because the noontime slots of the two major networks had always been sellable. In show business, on-cam talents are disposable commodities. You lose one, there are hundreds waiting in the wings.

•Is Willie really making P25-M a month? Isn’t that scandalous? The way I understand it, not all of that come from his official talent fee from the network. The rest are supposed to be payments for casual plugs. From personal experience in my many years on TV, casual plugs are supposed to be exchange deals for products and services, but there is no cash involved. ABS-CBN was very strict with that when I was with them. I find it strange that they allowed it with Willie. Unless there is a mafia there that we do not know about.

•There is no such thing as a free lunch — not even when you are hosting a lunchtime show. There is a price for everything, especially success. Willie was pilloried for the ULTRA stampede, but the truth is, that wasn’t his fault. But he took the brunt of it all and suffered. So you think showbiz is fun? Think again.

•The way I analyze the whole Willie/Wowowee situation is that the host-comedian is just suffering from career burnout. He is tired and needs rest — and he should get it. He can only hope that when he returns, everything he left behind is still there.