FIFTY YEARS AGO, when I was a professional neophyte in the movie reporting beat, I vividly remember the late veteran entertainment news hen Ched Gonzales telling us fellow newbies Lhar Santiago, Obette Serrano and Roland Lerum that we should not write something about showbiz that dealt with politics or simply, associate with politicians or cohorts and their activities.
According to Ate (a term of endearment to an older woman by affinity or sister by blood) Ched, we as movie reporters are only confined to writing purely showbiz news or features for fun and entertainment, no more, no less.
Anyway, after sometime that she said that, the Philippine Movie Press Club (PMPC) which we were part of as members, would welcome in one of our regular meetings through its president—the still missing TV host, talent manager, starmaker and columnist Boy C. de Guia—now Senator Imee Marcos, (daughter of the dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, Sr.) and the late Marichu Vera-Perez—wife of the late Senator Ernesto Maceda and scion of Dr. Jose R. Perez, founder of Sampaguita Pictures.
Imee and Manay (a term of endearment from a Bicolano dialect) Ichu talked about the potent force of the entertainment press as a catalyst of change that in my impression could help propel the leadership in the Martial Law government at the time its image of encouragement of freedom of expression, respect for human rights, means to economic headways, among other pursuits, were eroding.
It might just be a concerted effort from the emissaries as an implicit order to be writing about the good side of the New Society program.
At the time, the Experimental Cinema of the Philippines (ECP) which was conceptualized by Ms. Marcos and the Manila International Film Festival (MIFF) spearheaded by her mom former First Lady Imelda R. Marcos were prime cultural projects of the Marcos, Sr. administration.
I kept on thinking, what do you call that integration of Marcos and Vera-Perez-Maceda with the movie press?
Socializing, true.
Coming to terms with the most maligned journalism lot, truer.
Politicizing the entertainment industry, even truest.
IMEE AND MANAY ICHU
Whatever the motives of Imee and Manay Ichu were, they were simply politicking and sympathizing.
Not a bad idea, after all.
Because politics isn’t a demon but a boon, an important and essential aspect of human life to advance the aspirations of a struggling society to attain progress for the common good.
But politicking or politics for whom?
For the preservation of the status quo—the oppressive order of the atrocities of the dictatorship while the bulk of the citizenry were deep in the quagmire of social divide, exploitation, unfair labor practice, poverty, discrimination, influence peddling, colonial mentality etc.?
Or the liberalization, democratizing and equalizing opportunities for all Filipinos anytime through mass media?
ROBIN-KIKO SQUABBLE
What do you call the altercation between Senators Robin Padilla and Kiko Pangilinan at the Senate Tuesday morning?
To recall, Robin accused Kiko of shouting at him during interpellations over the jurisdiction of the ICC warrant against Bato Dela Rosa, a colleague charged with crimes against humanity and murders before the international tribunal as an accomplice in cases filed against his boss, the former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte?
Isn’t it a show of force like highly-charged, cutting edge scenes in the movies between two persons, each of them with entertaining streaks, inherent and otherwise?
Robin is a full-fledged action star (even if he is a full time lawmaker) while Francis is a real-life actor married to Megastar Sharon Cuneta who was romantically paired off with the Bad Boy of Philippine Cinema.
Trivializing things here the way critics or cynics are condescendingly trivializing tidbits and hot news as they label them gossip but simply stating complex web of people, events and places (PEP)?
Like movies, these images are slices of life.
Showbiz has been politicized since time immemorial, for God’s sake.
Philippine theater as the primitive form of show business activity is an ancient delineation of rituals showing the political structure of the hierarchy in the barangay like datus or babaylans leading the chanting for weddings of natives, burying the dead or supplication for rains in planting or thanksgiving for harvests of crops.
Andres Bonifacio as a theater actor
Remember that Andres Bonifacio was a theater actor (stage as a live performance is show business) and General Emilio Aguinaldo, though he might not be acting on the stage, was a kind of a patron of the arts.
Bonifacio and Aguinaldo’s rivalry as political figures in a future sovereign republic was a glaring example of the intrigue and true-to-life drama politicizing the arts in practice with the latter as the emerging leader as he commissioned Julian Felipe to compose the Philippine National Anthem while the former as a sacrificial lamb in a fledgling nation killed by the followers of Aguinaldo.
In the Commonwealth era, Manuel Luis Quezon revived on his own terms Philippine cinema by producing films with pioneer Vicente Salumbides through First Lady Dona Aurora Aragon Quezon as investor in Salumbides Film Company and did the first screen version of “Florante at Laura.”
Quezon also collaborated with American filmmakers like Eddie Tait and George Harris to purchase their cameras and other shooting and lab equipment.
Manuel Roxas and Elpidio Quirino coordinated with Salumbides as the emissary of local moviemakers to meet up with them from the infant industry in nation-building.
In fact, Salumbides was the epitome of an auteur of the art and business of films as producer, distributor, director, actor, writer, editor, make-up artist etc.
FIRST ACTOR-POLITICIAN
Salumbides was the image and personification of the marriage between politics and showbiz of yore as the first ever actor-politician when he represented Tayabas, now Quezon Province, as an elected delegate to the 1935 Constitutional Convention.
During the Japanese war, Salumbides was the mayor of Lopez, Quezon debunking the idea that Rogelio de la Rosa was the first actor-politician.
Sergio Osmena was no different in defining showbiz as a conduit of political control and public image when he employed Jose Nepomuceno, Father of Philippine Movies as the audio-visual chronicler in the death of his first wife, Dona Estefania Chiong Veloso Osmena as a cinematic tribute.
Under the administration of Ramon Magsaysay, the so-called Idol of the Masses was a frequent guest in the various socials of LVN Pictures hobnobbing with impresarios like Dona Narcisa Buencamino de Leon, better known as Dona Sisang, founder of the motion picture company and interacting with movie stars.
If that wasn’t politicizing or engaging political aspirations in show business, I wouldn’t know what that was.
Carlos P. Garcia wasn’t new in managing political machinery employing showbiz as a cultural intervention in his regime as a supporter of the Bayanihan Dance Troupe and other artistic pursuits.
During the Diosdado Macapagal and Ferdinand E. Marcos dispensations, they used popular culture to gain public support in elections like the feature film “Tagumpay ng Mahirap,” a biopic of Macapagal and “Daigdig ng mga Api,” a big screen platform to highlight his advocacy in land reform while Marcos launched his presidential bid in 1965 in his film bio “Iginuhit ng Tadhana.”
In so many instances, the tumultuous 60s and 70s found the power of showbiz as a premium in maintaining one’s political supremacy although in an atmosphere of strict censorship as long as escapist fares were churned out which was opposed by the Free the Artist Movement.
QUEEN OF ALL MEDIA
In the recapture of the democratic space, Cory Aquino, consciously or unconsciously, gave the public the so-called Queen of All Media Kris Aquino and other landmarks like showcasing no-nonsense liberal art works albeit the regime’s pronouncements that art wasn’t the state priority policy but economic recovery, the sex flicks of the pene movies (or actual penetration in sexual intercourse) etc.
In the succeeding occupants of Malacanang, showbiz wasn’t a far-fetched harbinger during the Fidel V. Ramos presidency instead players in the field were encouraged as well to contribute like the late presidential daughter, dancer and choreographer Jo Ramos became the wife of actor Lloyd Samartino.
As such, the political kingpins Estradas are engrained showbiz royalty while the Macapagal descendants were to be forced as a screen action star in Mikey Arroyo.
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo capitalized on the late Nora Aunor as her campaign doppelganger.
Well, P-Noy was brother to Kris and “hilaw” brother-in-law to Phillip Salvador.
DU30 dragged in his family to court showbiz like assigning Liza Dino-Seguerra, daughter of his political ally (the late ex-barangay leader who was elevated as undersecretary of the Interior and Local Government) Martin Dino as Chairman of the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) and paving the way of Baste Duterte romancing Ellen Adarna.
PBBM has maintained all these years all his showbiz linkages.
In the hierarchy of the interplay of movies and governance, these are just icings on the cake but speak a lot of the social structures in relationships, definitions and nuances.
JOHN LLOYD CRUZ
The other stakeholders, social groups, sub-agents etc. in the other downward levels have also inter- and intra-connectedness and multidimensional combination of the binary more multifaceted, detailed and reflective of the socio-political attributes to diversified fields and their high profile or celebrity statuses.
In the age of Dutertismo, Marcos’ cult, Aquino clique, Leni Robredo influence etc., the politicalization of television, film, stage and multimedia stars is more apparent today than ever.
To wit: Celeste Legaspi, Mitch Valdez, Vice Ganda, Pat Castillo, Anne Curtis, Gardo Versoza, Adrian Alandy, Bibeth Orteza, Julia Barretto, Maris Racal, Jasmine Curtis-Smith, Lovely Rivero, Glenda Garcia et al might not be pro-Marcos but they are against corruption.
Ipe Salvador, Vivian Velez, Cesar Montano, Nick Nangit etc. are DDS.
In the oust Tito Sotto as Senate President campaign, media players like Lito Lapid, Raffy and Erwin Tulfo and Risa Hontiveros stuck it out with the Dabarkads while Jinggoy Estrada, Chiz Escudero (ex-Angel Radyo anchor), Loren Legarda and Padilla voted for Alan Peter Cayetano as the new Senate Prexy.
Name dropping, positioning and identifying to easily relate to the general audience, lawmakers in Lower House like Congresswoman Gerville Luistro has underscored and attracted the crowd in a congressional hearing on the Sara Duterte impeachment by alluding to John Lloyd Cruz’s Popoy character in a pharma ad “Ingat” and the Tik Tok cult hit “Hawak ko ang Beat” in popularizing both the barefoot and high-heeled politics.
Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “politics” as “the total complex of relations between people living in a society.”
The nameless fans, supporters, followers and their ilk and other social classes also have their own conflicts and struggles in varying degrees in dealing with their idols and themselves.
Therefore, it is in the broadest sense of the complexity of the human agencies in Philippine society, in Filipino life, in general, that expresses the interdisciplinary reactions, interpretations, judgements and actions.
What else is new?
“Ang buhay ay showbiz, ang showbiz ay buhay (Life is showbiz, showbiz is life).”