There is some kind of a recognizable magic among entertainment celebrities. It makes them an indefinable, at times grotesquely unreasonable, center of attraction. People gravitate towards them. Some fans swoon just seeing their favorite stars. Do you, for instance, know that when the British Beatles visited the US of America for the first time, their trip was labeled “an invasion” of sort because wherever city they went to, they gathered crowds comparable to if not bigger than the audiences the late Pres. John F. Kennedy attracted?
Unfortunately, some (to mean few) showbiz characters, maybe for reasons of lack of appropriate education or perhaps for unwholesome upbringing, or for plain swell-headedness, are unable to react to this form of adulation positively. They mistake their popularity with license to abuse demonstrable by their foul lingo. The saddest part of this condition is that they do not know that they have, somehow, over stepped the bounds of proper conduct.
To be graphic, let us take the case of the family of Ms. Annabelle Rama, candidate for congresswoman of the city’s North District. As reported, her children descended upon the Cebu City office of the Commission on Elections apparently to register as city voters. Because they are movie stars in their own right, their “recognizable magic” worked. It was not difficult to surmise that almost everybody peeled off from the line of electoral would-be registrants, rushed towards them, marveled at their handsome and beautiful looks and asked for their signatures on anything they could temporarily hold as mementoes. Naturally, their sheer physical presence adversely affected normal office activities. So, to correct the impending work disturbance, the registrar took the showbiz characters out of the queue line and attended to their registration ahead of others. Or, so I heard.
That was what Sir Leo Lastimosa, the manager of ABS-CBN’s Cebu radio station DYAB, must have also heard. To the radio commentator, the fact that the group of Ma’am Rama was composed of popular show biz personalities was no justification to prefer them ahead of others who were patiently waiting for their turn to register. Sir Leo thought that it was more a disservice to the registering public to discriminate against them in favor of movie personalities. I did not hear his commentary though, but the reaction of Ma’am Annabelle, gave me the impression that his criticism was rather harsh.
That Ma’am Annabelle is feisty, an understatement, seems to be matter of public knowledge. Her legal skirmishes with other showbiz characters, matched by unprintable verbal expositions, are, to the horror of many, well publicized. The language she unleashed against Sir Leo was not polished. But what really caught my attention was when she called Sir Leo as “Dong”.
Per se, “Dong” is not derogatory. In fact, it is a Visayan word of endearment, if couched in certain ways. Older men call younger ones Dong and in our culture, that is an acceptably good norm. However, in the way Ma’am Annabelle used Dong in addressing Sir Leo, I could discern utter distaste. She was impolite and rude. The twang of her Dong tried to show her imagined superiority. Under her self-indulgence of fame and popularity, the ugliness of her notoriety surfaced. That was most observable in the peculiar way she called Sir Leo, Dong. Mora’g nakamenos ba!
Ma’am Annabelle and Sir Leo are not peers for the former to call the latter Dong. Yes, she is described as a “talent manager” (whatever it means, and assuming that profession exists), but surely she is not Sir Leo’s manager. I like to believe that Ma’am Annabelle knows Dr. Jose “Dodong” R. Gullas, of the University of the Visayas. This former congressman is the publisher of this paper where Sir Leo writes. In a manner of speaking, Sir Dodong is an employer and Sir Leo is an employee. But, each time this school owner/publisher meets the radio station manager, he calls him as Sir Leo. Not even just plain Leo. Certainly, not Dong. If one cares to ask Sir Dodong why he does that, his answer is simple. Respect.
I really wish Ma’am Annabelle success in her political endeavor. But to me, her first mandatory step on the way to Congress is to show people an appreciable degree of respect. If she could understand that how she addressed Sir Leo was wrong, such first mandatory step includes saying sorry to the radioman.
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