If you look closely, the incident in Naga City about the student who heckled President Benigno Aquino 3rd during his Independence Day speech—closely parallels and echoes the theme of Hans Christian Anderson’s short tale, “The Emperor’s New Clothes.”
First published in 1837, the tale tells of a vain emperor who cares about nothing except wearing and displaying clothes. He hires two weavers, swindlers who promise him the finest suit of clothes from a fabric invisible to anyone who is unfit for his position or “hopelessly stupid.” The Emperor’s ministers cannot see the clothing themselves, but they pretend that they can for fear of appearing unfit for their positions and the Emperor does the same. When the suit is allegedly finished, they mime dressing the Emperor and the Emperor marches in procession before his subjects. The townsfolk play along with the pretense, not wanting to appear unfit or stupid. Then a child in the crowd, too young to understand the desirability of keeping up the pretense, blurts out that the Emperor is wearing nothing at all and the cry is taken up by the others. The Emperor cringes, suspecting the assertion is true, but he bravely continues to march in the procession.
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