I’m not here to make excuses for a head of state making light of possible abuse of household help in his youth. That’s just not on. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte should really put a stop to making comments like that as it only makes him less effective as a leader. At the same time, however, there is something to be said about the outrage fad over this that had erupted amongst Opposition “influencers” since news of this ill-thought-out presidential quip broke.
The fact is, Filipinos may be suckers for victim narratives on the outside but, on the inside, within the closed doors of their private residences, the shocking manner with which Filipinos treat their household servants remains hush hush conversation in chi chi circles. We’ve seen this recently in how the most elite boys club at the University of the Philippines, the Upsilon Sigma Phi, counts amongst its members boys who evidently grew up in such households. Following that was a similar circus that exposed a disturbing tolerance for perverted bullying that flourishes with impunity at the Ateneo de Manila High School further highlighting evidence that misogyny and anti-social behaviour could correlate strongly with elite upbringing and education.
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As a student at the Ateneo, I myself laughed at and exchanged jokes about household help. From the most benign — making fun of their Visayan accents — to the most disturbing — stories about friends partaking of “practical” lessons on the birds-and-the-bees given by “friendly” servants — such discussions were par for the course in the all-boys environment of the Ateneo. Even in my university days, stories about maids’ “adventures” continued to fly about. There was this one about a friend of a friend who had his family’s maids’ quarters under “surveillance” and spied his brother one night walk in and have sex with the subject of this surveillance. As that story goes, having eventually gotten over that “shock” over the discovery of his brother’s late night shenanigans, the earlier eventually went on to sleep with the same maid himself.
One would understand now from that small sampling of polite conversation amongst the Jesuit-educated how terms like “chimay-killer” get thrown about casually. Back in the day there was no way of keeping a record of such conversation that could then go viral. Unfortunately for the geniuses at Upsilon and the kibitsers at that Ateneo Junior High “comfort room”, that is no longer the case. The days of casual misogyny amongst the chi chi boys clubs of yore are over thanks the the eagle eyes of social media keyboard warriors.
Even then, the root of the problem of casual sexual abuse will not be eradicated by social media shaming nor the shrill sloganeering of snowflake “social justice warriors” (SJWs). It is an issue of upbringing — perhaps made worse by the absentee, indulgent, or delegated-to-yaya parenting style of well-heeled Filipinos and, possibly, the OFWs of today. Indeed, the shaming we see today may only serve to drive these incidents and conversations underground. Some people are capable of learning to avoid the Net when engaging in truly interesting conversations, after all.
The more important question the Opposition need to ask themselves now that they’ve notched up another social media circus about the latest Duterteism is the ol’ timeless one: What next?
How sure are they that those triple-digit retweets and likes they get from their amigas and titas will translate to a political outcome in their favour? Stepping back from that, how sure are they that the larger Filipino public — you know, that inconvenient mass of people who live, work, and play outside of Bonifacio Global City and other such chi chi enclaves — even care about nor appreciate the supposed “outrageousness” of Duterte’s “confession”?
This is the question the Opposition need to confront — whether the stuff they focus their campaign around ultimately matters in the bigger scheme of things. There is a reason they lost the 2016 elections and a reason why proposals to change the name of Manila’s premiere international airport are gaining traction. The Opposition need to focus on those reasons. Allowing themselves to be led by a bunch of obsolete “thought leaders” will only hasten their failure to do just that.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
My parents stop hiring maids when I was 7 because of economics. Me and my wife stop hiring a yaya and a maid when our boy was only 3. Our son grew up into a fine kid. As for me, I did the things my wife hates like doing the laundry, washing the car and mopping the floors and still finds the time pursuing my career as a visual artist.
Washing machines, dishwashers and drive-thru car washes aren’t exactly cutting-edge technology. Maybe look to automation before bringing a stranger into your family home.
In most of the first world countries, families don’t hire servants, or maids. It is only the wealthy, who can afford servants; paid by the hour by their employers.
We inherited the “live in maid” culture from the Spaniards. Indio women and men , became servants and maids by the , mestizos and the Spanish ruling classes. They can mistreat their servants. They can rape their maids; they can do anything to these people, because they are the rulers.
Now, we have the “servant consciousness”, as most of us, go to the Middle East countries, as . “OFW slaves”. The Arab slave masters, are doing what the Spanish slave masters were doing to us…
We Filipinos, love and cherish our “victim mentality” !
We never had servants. We had part-time househelp, like, Maid-4-U, Maid-to-Order for after-party clean-up. They have 800 numbers to call. My Mum gives them our address and time they should come and how long. They come in with industrial vacuum cleaners and other paraphernalia (wow! What a word, paraphernalia! That is old world word. I like the word so what!!!)
Morning after-party I woke up like there never was a party.
Oh, we do not use the word “servants” that is slavery word !
When I came to the Philippines and work with a BPO (not naming here) I am surprised call center agents have house helps !!! (Plural) I have tiny cramp condo (thanks to BPO that hired me) I clean it up myself. I do not make a mess. When my buddies drops in for cooking-party (drinking to Filipinos) we clean as we go.
IS THAT DIFFICULT TO DO? Well, to Whites it is not difficult. To Filipinos must be very difficult, appears so, so their house help have some work? I do not know. That bothers me.
My Pinay GF house is not a mansion. They do not have moat-and-drawbridge and turrets with security-guard-who-goes-there-or-i-will-shoot kind. They do not have servants and houseslaves. They cannot afford one. BUT I LIKE LIVING WITH THEIR FAMILY. They are down to earth. Not those pretentious U.P. Ateneo la Salle graduates that abuse and deprive their house slaves and house servants.
FILIPINOS STILL HAVE A LONG LONG LONG WAY TO GO …. America was discovered about the same time Philippines was YET AMERICA IS NOW IN MARS while Philippines, (THRU THE BRILLIANCE OF UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES STUDENTS) just sent a satellite to space only U.P. students knows what it was for …..
What this reveals is the reality that even a progressive leader like President Duterte also has an inner sick mind and isn’t shy to make it public in spite of having a position that represents a nation to the world.
And there are sectors of the public (including the Intelligentsia) that could be persuaded to greet it with normal acceptability as long as the leader is perceived as popularly belonging to the same political camp.
Duterte should practice not to taint his political progressiveness with his personal kababuyan.
Most tend to be baboys inside the room when it calls for it but the norm is to behave with upright elegance like an animal of a different breed outside.
Duterte is just “brutally frank”. What Filipino men who have maids are doing in secret for many years, like sexually abusing their maids is a reality in our country…
Some Filipino men have sex and have illegitimate children with their maids. Some Yayas are sex education teachers for their teen age children.
So, let us all face it…time to give dignity to the profession of servants. We are servants of the world !
That’s some left-leaning, elitist, SJW thinking right there. Perhaps, you’re gonna say the same thing about Trump. Typical.
You need to check yourself first, Yellow snowflake. That’s not how things work.
@Hail2U:
I am neither, left leaning nor a snowflake. I don’t care what Duterte said about his misbehavior on her maid… I don’t care about the misdeeds of Trump; of whom he had sex with…it does not diminish his competence to lead the good old U.S.A.
Most of our leaders are not Saints; except, maybe , Cory Aquino, who had shown to us: she was working to be a Saint. Praying infront of the church altar for photo opportunities. With priests, nuns and bishops hailing her , “holiness”…
I rather have a leader who is brutally frank, and tell us the truth; than a leader who is hiding his/her evil deeds , and pretending to be a good person !
That boboy guy is a left-leaning, elitist SJW cuck. End of story.
Just ask him to take his shitposting to somewhere else.
End of story? It is for me, but for you, definitely not!
Apparently, you know something that we don’t so could you please expound, in your view, of “how things work” or how things ought to work?
Obviously, my opinion is mine alone.
If you don’t agree that President Duterte is even capable of having a bearing or demeanor of someone befitting the stature of a president, dignified and confident, then be my guest, but, tell us why you’d prefer him the way he is.
Better yet, you can watch and listen to him unfiltered with your little children (or kid brothers/sisters), if that would apply, and honestly declare, “I still don’t want him to change!!!”
As for me, I can identify with the PROGRESSIVE but NOT with the BABOY! We are what we are!
You’re missing the point, fam. Seems you really got TRIGGERED.
Populist is the right term for someone like Duterte and not progressive because as far as I’ve known, the progressives are mostly associated with the Left. Thanks for proving to me that you are an actual BABOY because the elitists, the SJWs, the feminists and those who are Left-leaning are actual BABOY.
Ehem, pardon me. But it seems you’re fine with guys who speaks sweet words w/ no profanity yet they were just all talk and no bite. I’m laughing my ass off if you call someone like Noynoy Aquino having a bearing or demeanor of someone befitting the stature of a president, dignified and confident yet it was all PR since he’s an incompetent nutjob.
Oh yeah, everything you’ve said screams leftist. Perhaps next you’re gonna say that multiculturalism and mass migration are the best ideas ever.
DUTERTE DOES NOT HAVE A SICK MIND … Duterte is a reflection of the minds of the Filipinos, therefore, DUTERTE IS NOT SICK ….
But to foreigners Duterte is not sick he is just being a Filipino whose norms is denigrate house maids.
My Pinay GF said, here, I will let her type her thoughts in Tagalog because according to her the comment should be written in Tagalog so it will not be lost in translation and in context, here is what she said, “hetong mga Filipinos magpa-bilib. Nandito sila sa America magpayabang na, “Hay naku buhay America buti pa sa Pilipinas maraming maid. Wala na ako gawin. Dito atin lahat trabahao” ”
HOW ARROGANT FILIPINOS CAN GET. I WILL TELL THOSE FILIPINOS …. GO BACK WHERE YOU CAME FROM ….. GO BACK … WE DO NOT NEED YOU …. THERE ARE MORE IMMIGRANTS THAT ARE DESERVING ……
OUT! OUT! OUT!
What can you say! He just never knows when to keep quiet – and we still allow it to continue. Is it a form of tourette syndrome? How will we ever have a decent country with decent citizens when our leaders only show us it’s OK to blabber out uneducated nonsense to the entire World…. So embarrassing…
Spoken like a true Yellowtard, or worse, being an elitist, left-leaning liberal SJW cuck. You actually embarrass yourselves when you guys chose a crook like Hillary Clinton and it backfires at you when the ballot says “Donald Trump”. And the rest is history.
Left-leaning liberals like you are an embarrassment. They love to shut people down or even silence them when they have a different view than yours and love to push their own political agenda. In case you don’t notice, the European Union are an embarrassment with their enforcement of mass migration policies and multicultural BS just for the sake of their own globalist agenda. I tip my hat on countries like Italy, Poland, Hungary who chose to bring back their own countries. Or your chose to ignore that.
Please take your left-leaning globalist BS to somewhere else. And I’m going to laugh my ass off if you call someone like Noynoy Aquino is better yet he’s a much more bigger embarrassment since he’s an incompetent nutjob whose just got lucky since he had good PR. Go figure.
Wow. I’m not supporting anyone – no one here’s worth supporting. It’s simple, what he did is very wrong, and it’s most certainly wrong to brag to the world about it. End of! I’m not yellow, green, violet or red. Take a couple of breaths, count to ten and engage your brain before launching yet another of your aggressive tirades…
You’re missing the point. Because as far as I’ve known “Actions speak louder than words.”
I don’t get the Pinoy’s thorough obsession of words. That’s why they were easily swayed by typical politicians by sweet words yet they were just all talk.
If you’re very critical about Duterte, including his ‘dirty mouth’, then you never met Matteo Salvini of Italy.
I do agree that Duterte needs to desist from making statements like this. It only makes his job harder and puts unnecessary stress and division amongst his supporters.
Being president is tough enough. Avoiding circuses like this is within his own power to effect. He just needs to exercise more restraint and be more circumspect with what he says in public.
@Felipe, if you are embarrassed feel free to leave the country!! Would you rather want someone kneeling and praying to high heavens for facade, than be frank. I would rather choose the frank but effective leader. So get the fuck out of pinas if you are embarrassed!
Is it true POEA slave traders have schools for maid-for-export? POEA trains them have to vacuum …. how to serve their masters … you know that kind of thing?
JESUS MARY MOTHER OF GOD …. HELP THE PHILIPPINES !!!!!
Unless we learn to do our duty to those whom we employ, they will never learn to do their duty to us.