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IF Filipinos had the US primary system, we would have a complex but
interesting presidential contest.
For a change, the voters would go around the
political parties and choose the party’s (or coalition’s)
nominee directly.
In the 2010 presidential race, a primary system
would send presidential candidates Mar Roxas, Manny Villar, Noli de
Castro and Bayani Fernando scrambling around the country way ahead
of the May election.
Every province would want to have the honor of
holding the first primary, so the parties and the Comelec devise a
system for that purpose. In our scenario, Catanduanes gets the
privilege, and the presidential candidates campaign in Virac to win
the first-ever Philippine primary.
To Catanduanes fly the campaign teams of Mar (Oras
Na!) Roxas and Manny (Sipag at Tiyaga) Villar for the opposition,
and Noli (Magandang Gabi, Bayan) de Castro and Bayani (Pink na Pink)
Fernando for the administration.
The Philippine media cover the first primary in
full force. The world press takes interest. The combined force of
the presidential campaigns and the media outnumber the Catanduanes
population. Floating villages are built to house the newcomers.
The candidates address the issues of the day:
rising oil prices ($150 a barrel), the strengthening peso (P25.50 to
the US dollar), constitutional change (allowing a naturalized
citizen to run for the Senate), privatization (turning the Bilibid
prison over to private business) and urban development (the
importance of pink-colored sidewalks).
Roxas wins the primary for the opposition and de
Castro for the administration. Villar and Fernando vow to move on.
The next primary puts Biliran on the map where
the previous winners repeat their victory. Analysts say Villar and
Fernando should withdraw, but they persist.
From single-state primaries, the process moves
to the “Super-Tuesdays” where groups of provinces and cities
vote. The candidates continue their fight in the MIMAROPA (Mindoros,
Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan) region, the CALABARZON (Cavite,
Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) provinces and the SOCKSARGEN
region. CAMANAVA (Cavite, Malabon, Navotas and Valenzuela) leads the
primaries for the big cities.
Later, the administration party formally
proclaims its candidate at a national convention at the Mall of Asia
while the opposition convention announces its standard-bearer in
Cubao, Quezon City.
The scenario is incomplete without our
equivalent of the US Electoral College. In such a system, a
candidate may win the popular vote but would not be proclaimed
president without the electoral votes. So please stop asking
why the Filipinos, great imitators of most anything American, will
never have the primary, the electoral college, the jury system and
probably a federal government.
Language and citizenship
The Philippines has more than 90 languages but
one—Filipino (or Tagalog)—dominates domestic movies. One gets
the impression all Filipinos come from one region, the Tagalog-speaking
provinces in southern and central Luzon.
The other languages are often used for comic
effect. For a perverse reason, our producers and directors find
humor in, say, the Visayan languages in the south or the Ilocano or
Capampangan in the north.
Dialogue or lines in the non-Filipino/Tagalog
languages are often assigned to comedians for laughs. Either the
language is obtuse to Tagalog speakers, or the accent is considered
hilarious.
The lines often go to secondary characters, a
maid, a sidekick, a supporting cast—the ordinary Joes whose job is
to play foil to the lead actors.
Some comics in fact have turned their
identification with a language or accent into a career, such as Leo
Martinez (Batangas), Elizabeth Ramsey (Visayan) or the late Bert
Marcelo (Bulacan).
Using skewed or ungrammatical English for laughs
is also an asset, which partly explains the popularity of former
actor and president Joseph Estrada.
What else is considered funny in Filipino
movies? An ugly face or any physical defect. Toilet humor is always
good material.
Moviemakers may argue it is logical to use
Filipino because the majority speaks the language.
Granted. But there are thousands of stories in
the regions and the rural Philippines that could be told in a second
major language in part or in whole to capture realism and the
diversity in the national life.
Thousands of migrant families have moved to
metro Manila, each bringing its roots, culture and language. Surely,
an imaginative producer would have the insight and the enterprise to
tell a story in a rich language other than Filipino/Tagalog.
This has been done in the past by a few
trailblazers. In 2004, Cesar Montano produced and directed Panaghoy
sa Suba (Cry of the River) in Cebuano with subtitles.
If the producers do not have the imagination to
film the varieties of the national experience in another language,
they should at least reject the rusty formula of using a non-Tagalog
tongue to make audiences laugh.
At the metro Manila film festival, the character
who plays the grandmother in Sakal, Sakali, Saklolo asks the yaya,
“Bakit pinapalaki n’yong Bisaya ang apo ko [Why are you raising
my grandchild to be a Visaya]?” The mother butts in and tells the
maid, “Dapat Tagalog para Pinoy (Use Tagalog because it’s Pinoy].”
Sen. Aquilino Pimentel was incensed by
this foolishness and called it a slur on Visayans. So were other
moviegoers. Star Cinema produced the movie. It should apologize
for the insult.
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