MikeLigalig.com

Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 21:14:00 08/11/2009

Filed Under: Television, Cory Aquino

Close this MANILA, Philippines—Willie Revillame has reportedly taken time off to reflect on the fallout caused by his cutting remarks on national TV, in which he ordered stricken from his ABS-CBN noontime show “Wowowee” onscreen inserts of ex-President Cory Aquino’s funeral cortege.



On Saturday, it was announced on the program that its beleaguered, controversial host was on an “indefinite” leave.

Though not an indication that he’s bowing to an online demand for his head by “concerned” televiewers (33,000 as of Monday), this seems to show that Willie is being very careful about this latest fiasco.

Meanwhile, Inquirer Entertainment was flooded with reactions from readers via e-mail, many of them indignant as expected, but quite a few offering sober assessments.

Wow, pare!

[email protected]
My family and I watch your show here in San Francisco (USA). But that Monday show, I think is the last [time] … Pare ang yabang mo. I have lost all respect for you.

[email protected]:
Willie is a very sarcastic and rude person. He should be banned as an entertainer [for] conduct unbecoming. No amount of explanation could excuse that [remark].

Bernard ([email protected])
Willie [displaying] his infamous temper on national TV, is the most obnoxious behavior.

[email protected]
His comment on Cory’s funeral was not good, especially coming from the host of a popular show seen all over the world.

[email protected]
Despite previous controversies and suspensions, Willie Revillame still acts like he’s the boss ... I think it’s time for ABS-CBN to gamble on a new noontime host, if only to protect the network’s integrity.

Cesar Yap ([email protected])
Hindi lang isang beses nangyari ang kabastusan ni Willie Revillame … Dapat [na siyang] ipag-bawal sa show biz.

[email protected]
Bwisit.

Misunderstood lang

Willie Monroyo ([email protected])
I don’t get to watch the show daily here in the US. But I wholeheartedly agree with Willie that it was inappropriate to insert the Aquino funeral footage in the middle of a sexy dance portion.

Janette H. Malata ([email protected])
I am a UP Los Baños English instructor, not a fan of Willie’s. My mother, who is not a Willie fan, either, found his behavior reasonable. Too bad, he was misunderstood for voicing out a very reasonable objection. This is the only Willie controversy where I sympathize with him. I hope people would be more objective in looking at this issue.

[email protected]
A lot of [viewers] here in America love “Wowowee” the show, but not everyone loves Willie the host, because of the way he talks to his staff … and how he insults contestants. But in fairness, Willie has done a lot of good for many people … I believe he deserves another chance [though I also] wish he would be more sensitive and careful with his words from now on. That has always been his problem.

Atty. George Dee
Willie Revillame’s controversial remarks on the showing of the Cory funeral cortege, while not quite pleasant to our ears, is not enough to justify bashing and haranguing him publicly. His only fault, perhaps, was that he was too emotional and he came on too strongly with [when] articulating his feelings. His remarks were neither vituperative, malicious nor defamatory to President Cory. It is those who assail him who really desecrate Cory’s memory. She stood for freedom, and that includes freedom of expression. I am certain that she would have stood up in his defense.

[email protected]
Perhaps it’s asking too much of personalities used to basking in the limelight to be discriminating in their choices of what [to show or say to] the public that adores them. It seems they are just not capable of such refinement. Many of them are not conscious of the responsibility that comes with fame. So fans end up idolizing people who are bereft of character and a sense of values that could bring out the best in Filipinos. Until such values become a primary concern, those who patronize these idols are doomed to be unrefined as well.


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Oust Willie!
By Rodel Rodis
INQUIRER.net
 
The death of Corazon Aquino produced an unprecedented outpouring of collective sorrow, with hundreds of thousands lining up at the Manila Cathedral to personally bid her farewell, from marginalized squatters to high society matrons, from leftist revolutionaries to rightist coup plotters.

The one discordant note in the otherwise unified sea of harmony came from Wowowee host Willie Revillame, who complained on the air that showing the Cory funeral cortege was sucking the fun out of his hugely popular ABS-CBN variety show.

The petty complaint was made during the noontime telecast of Wowowee on August 3, 2009, when—while a contestant was dancing in the “Willie of Fortune” segment of the show—a window screen showed a live feed of the coffin of Cory Aquino being transported from La Salle Green Hills to the Manila Cathedral. The unwelcome distraction irritated Willie Revillame, the highest paid entertainer in the Philippines (reportedly one million pesos a day), and he just could not contain himself. He blurted out on air in Tagalog:

“If that’s what you want, let’s just show it! Because we're trying to have fun here and then…This hurts me, please. I hope you understand. We’re having fun here and then you’re going to show… It’s not right, OK? It’s ugly! It’s not pretty to me. We’re talking and then you show the coffin of Tita Cory, what? How can we have fun? It’s difficult for us. I’m sorry but for me, it’s true. Don’t get upset because it’s true…After my show, you can show whatever you want to show. Because this (is) Wowowee, what I want (goes)…Right? And Tita Cory knows this because my show also made her happy, OK?”

ABS-CBN management agreed and ceased showing any further live feeds of the funeral until after Willie’s show.

The outrage was immediate and fierce even as ABS-CBN execs sought to downplay the incident. One “avid viewer of ABS-CBN,” Roel C. Saguisag, was so enraged that he drafted an online petition where he wrote:

“Some may argue that Willie's intention was good, but I rather find these statements rude and arrogant. Wowowee and Revillame are known by millions of Filipino viewers and the show is even watched across several countries through TFC. To react in such (a) way is downright arrogant and disrespectful to former President Corazon Aquino. I know that it was bad taste for ABS-CBN to show a snippet of the funeral on Wowowee, but it was worse for Revillame to react that way."

"Was it really hard for him to be humble and human? I believe that this is not the first time that he aired his views and rather arrogant comments on air. He embarrasses his staff, makes fun of the contestants, and arrogantly acts on TV almost every day. Pres. Aquino taught us humility, and Revillame is showing us the exact opposite: arrogance.”

Saguisag called on the management of ABS-CBN to “stop the arrogant acts of Willie Revillame…and reprimand him because of his actions.” His online “petition to oust Willie” on www.petitiononline.com has already drawn the signatures of over 45,000 people from all over the world.

Afima, an alliance of Filipino journalists, criticized Willie for his on-air remarks. "For him to demand the removal of the little window screen showing the funeral march of the woman who got ABS-CBN back from Marcos is a blasphemy of democracy…He expressed his angst against the Corazon Aquino funeral being shown side by side his Wowowee right before dumbstruck millions of Filipino viewers around the globe.”

This was not Willie Revillame's first brush with controversy.

After starting out in showbiz as a drummer and singer, he starred in a few movies like “Bobocop,” which landed him a job as host of a noontime variety show in 1998 that was later called “Magandang Tanghali Bayan” (“Good Noon, Nation”). In the “Calendar Girl” segment of the show, Willie continuously made lewd, crude, and boorish remarks to the contestants causing him to be suspended by the Movie and Television R eview Classification Board (MTRCB). When he returned after his suspension, Willie continued making the same crass offensive remarks which pushed his TV network to finally replace him.

After his termination, Willie went to the US for several months. Through the intercession of his showbiz buddies like Dolphy and Sharon Cuneta, he was given another chance by ABS-CBN, this time to host a public service TV show called “Willingly Yours” which led to another stint as host of “Masayang Tanghali, Bayan (Happy Noon, Nation).” But Willie just couldn't stop being Willie. In one segment, he told a birthday celebrator on the air, “Sana ma-devirginize ka na (I hope you get devirginized already).” The remark caused the MTRCB to order ABS-CBN to terminate Willie. Before it could do so, Willie resigned.

After resuming his career as a singer, Willie was asked by ABS-CBN management to return to the network as host of his own noontime game show, one which he helped conceptualize called “Wowowee”. The show, which made its debut on February 4, 2005, was an instant hit in the Philippines and worldwide on The Filipino Channel.

To celebrate its first year, Wowowee offered a chance to win one million pesos to the first 500 entrants at its anniversary show which was set to be held at the 5,000-seat capacity Ultra Sports Arena in Pasig, Rizal. For three days, people camped out by the arena's entrance hoping to be among the first 500 to get in. On February 4, 2006, the gates were opened and a wholly predictable stampede occurred, which resulted in the deaths of 73 people and serious injury to hundreds more.

According to network insiders, Willie Revillame urged the management “to go on with the show” despite the tragedy. Fortunately, ABS-CBN execs had to ignore his plea. Dean Jorge Bocobo (“Rizalist”) commented: “Normally this would be considered a virtue in an entertainer… But NOT after over seventy people were just crushed to death and practically still lying around dead. Maybe he thought he could save the situation with his usual boyish inanity.”

“It comes at a heavy price of human lives lost, but I think noontime shows are going to have to change for the better, if they are to survive at all. These shows seem designed by salacious minds with a genius for commercializing the lowest common denominator in people—lewdness, stupidity, mendacity, opportunism, and anything that titillates the seamy underside…I do hope that Willie Revillame is finished for good. And all his ilk. They’re the ones that ought to be stampeded off the face of the earth.”

Wowowee and Willie Revillame appeal to the worst in Pinoys—racism, chauvinism, disdain towards the feeble, the poor, the mentally inferior, all in the guise of making people laugh. Particularly offensive is the part of his show where balikbayans from all over the world are allowed to wave their dollars at the cameras while the local folks thank them profusely for their generosity. The indigent recipients are too poor, too God-forsaken, too humbled by the endemic poverty around them to even recognize that they're being maligned and stripped of any form of human decency.

Willie Revillame may be suspended or may voluntarily take some time off as a result of this latest controversy but he will surely be back because cockroaches live forever.

Send comments to Rodel50.aol.com or mail them to the Law Offices of Rodel Rodis at 2429 Ocean Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94127 or call (415) 334-7800. For past columns, log on to Rodel50.blogspot.com.

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