February dons its velvet cloak, adorned with Cupid’s
arrows, yet whispers tales of heartbreaks. Imagine, if you will, a grandiose victory
ball – the ambience thick with celebration by the crowd of socialites, billionaires,
and nobles singing Umagang Kay Ganda, the chandeliers casting a golden
glow upon faces on cloud nine at the dance floor below.
In this glittering soiree, love pirouettes with grace,
but heartbreak, oh heartbreak, waltzes with a tempest’s disgust. It wears a
tattered gown, its hem trailing through memories of tear-streaked vlogs and shattered
P20 per kilo promises. As violins weep, heartbreak twirls, leaving splintered
shards of unity in its wake.
Darryl Yap is a credible exemplar, I presume, for the
31 million Pinoys who voted for Bongbong Marcos last presidential election and
have been coming to grips with heartbreak these days shaken by the breakup of
the UniTeam.
Yap, a UnitTeam top promoter, is the writer and
director of the controversial film Maid in Malacañang. Wikipedia
chronicled: “Upon release, the film received a generally negative reception,
with certain scenes garnering much controversy over misrepresentations or lies as
well as reviews criticizing Yap’s direction and screenplay, production, acting
cinematography, and pacing.”
HEARTBREAK KID
Surfing the internet, I stumbled upon a YouTube video
clip where Yap was opening his heart, bringing out into the open his heartbreak
which I transcribed and excerpted below:
“We are just stupid. I’m sorry. You know it took a
while I’ve been processing all of this… gaano kahirap sa akin para aminin. But,
thank God, if you view my wall, ni isang ‘Vote for Bongbong’ wala. Pero, that’s
not an excuse. We helped him. Ayaw mang tanggapin ng asawa niya, o kahit sinong
Pontius Pilato ang nakapaligid sa kanya, what we did… helped a lot.
“So, nasa kunsyinsia ko yon. Kayo naman
ipinagtatanggol nyo sya sa TikTok and everything… we are guilty… tayo ang mas
galit… ang hirap ipagmalaki ng pagtatanggol ang pagbibigay ng alibi, pagbibigay
ng rason… Sobrang disgusted ako. I don’t want to use disappointed because I am
not expecting anything…
“I don’t care, I don’t get offended, I don’t get hurt,
when people say, “O, natanga ka, nabudol ka” and all…
“We are all part to be blamed… even though we were
given his background, alam kong hindi madaling maka-alpas doon sa mga sisihan
and all. But, you know, even the second highest person in the country, naluko
din sya… tayo we can feel it over and over again, but if we try to make sisi
ourselves or other people, we can’t find the solution…
“I’m correcting my series with another series. I don’t
know how to cope. Honestly, this is more than a heartbreak. This is really a
sad moment in my life. I studied the Philippines, I studied somewhere, I
achieved these things, and my IQ is this high. Pero, still…”
Golly. That’s a bonanza of letting the cat out of the bag. Sure enough, and for the better, Yap has already come out on top of quite a few stages in healing his heartbreak: from shock and denial, pain and guilt, anger, depression, and then acceptance. His reconstruction stage is now a work in progress where, in his words, he is “correcting” his “missteps.” That’s cool.
I put a question mark after 31 MILLION in the title of
this article for two reasons:
First, other than the four of them, Yap and company in the YouTube video clip, I am not sure if the rest of the 31 million have been burdened by the same severity of heartbreak which Yap had gotten off his chest. Even more so, I am clueless about the varied restorative stages of such a heartbreak the rest of the 31 million have been presently going through.
IP 192.168.0.2 REVISIT
Second, the 31-million-figure still hangs around as
fantastic. I am in the dark about the latest
on the Rio and company’s “preponderance of evidence” showing that the May 9,
2022 election was rigged. So far, my modest inkling on, in the words of Rio and
company’s words, “the biggest scam in our electoral history” is way back when Philstar
Jarius Bondoc spotlighted the use of an “illegal” IP address 192.168.0.2 while Inquirer
Randy David, accenting the lightning speed of the counting, has kept alive the “lingering
doubts about the 2022 election.”
The recent UniTeam breakup appears to have reignited
attention to Rio and company’s issue as Philstar Ana Marie Pamintuan asserts:
“Non-partisan cyber experts must work together to
decisively address this IP issue before it becomes the norm and destroys free
elections in our weak republic. This is a cause that even the Dutertes will not
take up despite their war with the Marcos-Romualdez clan because it also
questions the legitimacy of the victory of Vice President Sara Duterte.”
Looking back, President Bongbong Marcos (PBBM) unburdened
that the long wait during his family’s exile was a painful time and later laid
bare that he entered politics for his family’s “survival” and to preserve his father’s
legacy.
Oddly enough, as the son of the former dictator who
plundered the country, PBBM’s election triggered the question “What is wrong
with the Philippines?” on the world stage coupled with the recent breakup of
his UniTeam that, out of belated awakening, has stirred up a ton of heartbreaks,
crying out for the “survival” of Pinoy’s sense of worth and the preservation of
the Philippines’ image in the eyes of the world.
WHAT’S RIGHT WITH PINOYS
It conjures up an image of the election as a snake bite
whose venom has spread around the whole system of the body. The only antidote
is Rio and company’s solution. In my past ATABAY article What’s Right With
Pinoys I wrote:
Have you ever wondered that this rigged 2022 election
exposé by the TNT Trio [Rio and company] may be a blessing in disguise to Pinoys
and the Philippines? Maybe, the TNT Trio are heaven-sent instrument and the
exposé is a wake-up call on a platter, as a gift dropped from the sky, to pave
the way for the rare opportunity to reveal the truth about the “scam”, busting
a smorgasbord of political myths and concocted theories bandied about by a
bunch of pundits in opinion pages, thus, bringing about the transfiguration of
Pinoys’ long-suffering despondent image from “suckers” to “busters” in the eyes
of the world.
The TNT Trio’s claim of the rigged 2022 election is
not only a legal battle, but also a moral crusade. It is not only a matter of
justice, but also a matter of dignity. It is not only a test of our
institutions, but also a test of our character.
It is not only a question of what’s wrong with the
Philippines, but also a question of what’s right with us, Pinoys.
In the fullness of time, as Darryl Yap has been pressing ahead, here’s hoping for the Pinoy persona to bounce back, and be viewed, not as a “heartbreak,” but a “comeback” kid in the eyes of the world.
Head photo courtesy of pixabay
Video clips courtesy of YouTube
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