Frustrations (part 2): halo-halo, hysteria and Hayden Kho

Finally, I got my long-awaited Chowking halo-halo: a big blue glass full of ingredients that make the Halo-Halo Fiesta of the veritable Chinese fastfood chain. I actually wanted to blog while eating it, but since it started dripping all over the place, I decided not to instead. As they say: "Onli in da Pilipins" (SkyscraperCity spelling makes me laugh).

Anyway, the three H's have struck again. The first one made me full, the second one crazy and the third one irate. But when you jumble that all together, it all seems like good, clean fun! Or does it?

I was on my way home from the Rockwell Club from a fairly intense workout (treadmill, stationary bike, elliptical and weight machines) when I overheard on the radio that Hayden Kho (yes, the doctor in those sex videos who happens to also be from my home province, Marinduque, and whose name is more properly pronounced "HEY-den" than "HAI-den") was declared persona non grata in Bohol. Given the big field day the media had been given over the scandal, I tried to forsee what could be the headline in the Bohol Chronicle.

This is what I came up with: "KHO DECLARED PERSONA NON GRATA". Then again, the doctor was also declared persona non grata in Palawan. I wonder what the headline will be there too.

(Everything after the previous statement was written not yesterday, but today)

Anyway, Hayden Kho admitted his guilt to making the said sex videos. It seems that Bong Revilla finally had his field day. The problem here though is that does it count as a proper field day?

What seems to escape my mind is why everyone is focusing on the video being produced, when the issue at hand is the video being distributed. Although the doctor admitted to producing the video, he didn't even know that it was released into the hands of the Philippine viewing public. The media frenzy over the video's contents seems to have everyone in arms: Ramon Tulfo seems to want his head on a silver platter. Everyone from the congressional zoo to Malacañang to the Catholic Church wants in on the take, so much so that Aquilino Pimentel himself declared the Senate inquiry a "distraction". I, for one, think its pointless.

I used to think that Katrina Halili consented to making those videos, which still sounds like she did. In that case, she is equally culpable as Hayden in sharing the blame. If you are aware that you are being videotaped, you should be equally aware of the ramifications of your actions. I don't see blaming the other person when you are equally as liable as he is.

However, that's no longer the case. He did admit, but that still does not justify the media field day over the issue. Plenty of sex scandals, it seems, are made in the Philippines every single day, and although it is supposedly illegal to produce sex videos and distribute them, why do we not prosecute all those other voyeurs? I don't think we have a successful deterrent here for future violations just by crucifying him in front of the Philippine viewing public. I, for one, will continue to forsee numerous other sex videos being filmed in inconspicuous places: in houses, condos, apartments, dark places, secluded places, faraway places, you name it. If I were to be a fair barometer of what this brouhaha is about: it's all about Katrina Halili being shamed rather than the issue of a sex video being made. It's all about salvaging one without any consideration for everyone else.

It is safe to assume that had the brouhaha between Halili and Kho had been between two regular people, the media and everyone else who ended up going on the bandwagon because of it would probably care less. This is not an issue about sex videos per se. This, sadly, became an issue over a celebrity playing tattle-tale with an influential political figure who happens to do nothing but sit on his pretty little chair, model his barong and do nothing. I'm sorry, but I've begun to lose even more respect for the Senate (especially for one of my most adored senators, Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago) than before. What a shame indeed.

Sometimes, I wish the media can just take a breather and shut up. I pity everyone who has to suffer through this media madness: a highlight that the most powerful institutions our country has at its disposal, which so happen to be the media and the legislature, have nothing better to do.