Sex Scandal Craze Hits Bacolod

While people in other Philippine cities are debating whether to teach sex education to their children or not, Bacolod City is currently grappling with a far more serious problem of children engaging and videotaping their sexual encounters. Carla Gomez of the Visayan Daily Star has written about the "Sex Scandal" craze presently gripping Bacolod City. And mind you, the videos proliferating in Bacolod do not just involve two high school sweethearts having sex. One parent who found a sex video in her daughter's cellular phone was scandalized to see 8 to 9 high school girls (aged 14 to 16 years old) performing sexual acts together.

This is not the first time Bacolod City was wracked by sex scandal videos. At any given month, there are "new" amateur sex videos being "released" through text messaging and as any "Pinay Sex Scandal" voyeur would attest, a lot of the sex videos circulating in the Philippines today come from Bacolod City.

City government and local church officials are hard put to explain why some of their children engage in scandalous and exhibitionist sexual behaviour. Moralists blame media and the internet for giving our youth the wrong messages. They cite for instance the case of American heiress Paris Hilton who was able to parlay her sex video notoriety into a lucrative showbiz career. Without any thespic talent or notable achievement whatsoever, Paris Hilton has become a much sought-after star in Hollywood. Observers say she symbolizes a new breed of celebrity: someone who is famous simply for being famous. Some impressionable teenagers might have made their own "sex scandal" videos as a way to achieve fame and notoriety in their circles.

All of us have our own stories of the stupid and goofy things we did in high school. But videotaping intimate sexual encounters goes way beyond mere "kapilyuhan" (naughtiness) and seems to point to the distorted morals of today's youth. I myself cannot figure out what goes on in the minds of young people who put their sexcapades on videotape.

Mexico Election Stand-Off

Mexico held its presidential elections last Sunday, July 2. TIME Magazine reports that with 96% of the votes cast already counted, presidential candidate Felipe Calderon (isn't he one of the minor heroes of the Philippine Revolution?) leads Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador by a slim margin of 400,000 votes (which represents 1% of the total Mexican voting population). This early, both candidates have already proclaimed victory. Pundits predict that the slim margin between the two contenders could lead to a protracted legal battle and a long period of uncertainty for Mexico. Some Mexicans are already expecting widespread political unrest once a winner is declared. (Read the entire TIME Magazine report here. Interestingly, the old TIME Article "Voting With Their Feet" about Mexico could also refer to the Philippines.)

If this all sounds familiar, it may be because the Philippines has faced a similar scenario in the last 2004 elections. You may have heard the coffeeshop gossip and the various arguments propounded by supporters of President Arroyo justifying her need to cheat in the last elections. I myself have heard the argument which goes something like this: "GMA really won over FPJ in the last elections but only by a slim margin. She needed to cheat and show the people she overwhelmingly won to solidify her mandate and to prevent a protracted 'crisis of leadership'." Or words to that effect..

With the brewing "crisis of leadership" soon to hit Mexico, trust the Malacañang spin-masters to use this to their own advantage. Any time soon, expect Palace operators to go around town selling and pointing this out to people -- "See what's happening in Mexico? We also would have experienced a 'crisis in leadership' if GMA did not 'exert' all efforts to win. Do you also want that to happen here? Let us all move on." Or something to that effect...

Whether GMA won (or lost) by 10,000, 100,000 or 1 million votes we probably will never know. But the fact is, she is using the specter of a 'leadership vacuum' (which she claims would be devastating to the economy) as a means to garner support from the people.

Presidential elections in this country have always been marred by allegations of cheating. In the 1986 Snap Elections, Marcos cheated Cory Aquino, and the walk-out of Comelec computer personnel at Greenhills was then seen by the people as proof of the massive cheating that went on. In the 1992 elections, Ramos also was accused of cheating and Miriam Santiago's allegations hounded him until the end of his term. In 2001, operators of Joe de Venecia supposedly tried to cheat Erap but soon gave up when they saw the huge lead Erap had over de Venecia.

Filipinos have always suspected that candidates cheat during elections. Sadly, people nowadays seem to accept cheating and dagdag-bawas as part of the "hazards" of the trade. For example the late Raul Roco, who was seen by many as the most intelligent and qualified of the 2004 presidential candidates, lost his campaign mainly because Filipinos saw their votes "wasted" on him because he was seen as not having the machinery and money to prevent his being cheated. As Ping Lacson aptly said, "anyone who cannot protect his votes has no business being president." Sad but true.

So I guess the real question facing Filipinos nowadays is this: How do we change people's attitudes towards choosing their leaders?