Duterte’s Spectacle in Seoul: What Media should do about the Gimmick

 

THE PRESIDENT’S sexist remarks and off-color jokes have drawn flak from many quarters since he launched his candidacy. Officials of his administration have tried their best to mollify critics with all kinds of banal explanations, trying to give a positive spin to what the president said, reinterpreting what he meant.

Some of these officials have taken a different tack, suggesting that Filipinos should simply accept the man for what he is, given that he won the presidency despite this obvious and most disturbing defect. And so President Rodrigo Duterte continues to stir controversy after controversy as he persists to offend on this level.

Most recently, the president, while on an official visit to South Korea and meeting with Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) in an auditorium in Seoul, asked a female well-wisher who already greeted him onstage, to return to his side, asking her questions about her personal life,  leading up to his request to kiss her on the lips.

The woman looked stunned, somewhat flustered, and as the crowd called out their encouragement, she nervously assented to the kiss, lips to lips. It was a quick enough peck, but enough to titillate the crowd. By any standard, it was scandalous conduct for any public official, much more, for the country’s highest official. He was not at a private party. It was an official event on his calendar while on a state visit in a foreign country.

As there is little consciousness of these niceties in this administration, it is important to point out that what the president did was inappropriate and distasteful, an insult to Filipinos to have to witness one’s president play to the galleries with  his brand of “showbusiness” in its cheapest form. This was the president’s term. He also used the word “gimmick.”  Whatever, Duterte clearly did this not to satisfy the urge to kiss a particular woman; he was doing this, following his logic, to entertain his fans out there, and what better way to do this than to resort to a stunt fit only for coverage on the tabloids.

Alas, the kiss became fodder for the chart of trending topics in social media.

Thousands of netizens blew up a storm of reactions on Facebook and Twitter. The lady involved spoke up and said that it was done without malice. Other Duterte allies came to his defense. But critics never presumed malice, they called out the president on what was plain and simple bad behavior.

With all that, should newspapers and TV news programs have given it much attention?

CMFR reviewed three broadsheets Philippine Daily Inquirer, The Philippine Star and Manila Bulletin and primetime news program ABS-CBN 2’s TV Patrol, GMA 7’s 24 Oras, TV5’s Aksyon and CNN Philippines’ News Night from June 3 to 7. The incident got more air time than space in print, the visual being readily available.

Reports took note of Duterte’s blatant display of indecency towards women since he ran for President in 2016. Reports also interviewed leaders of women groups, and individual champions of gender equality, among them, Gabriela and Senator Risa Hontiveros. Reports explained why Duterte’s action was wrong.

But media hardly mentioned official policies on gender and development which have been in place for some time and which Mr. Duterte has routinely violated since he assumed the presidency.

There was little reference to the work of organized women’s groups to establish policies and standards to promote gender sensitivity and public awareness of gender issues, including equality at work; as well as the need to protect women from sexual harassment and intimidation, from violence against women at work and at home. There have been significant gains in this field but still much more to be done. President Duterte has caused grave retrogression on these issues by his obvious sexism as well as his flaunting of common standards of decency and good taste.

News accounts that gave this incident any time or space, should have provided the above context, citing for background the laws and government programs to set policy for gender equality, to address the persistent challenge of sexism and misogyny in PH society.

Explaining Power Play, Sexual Harassment

In TV5’s Aksyon’s segment “Word of the Lourd” aired on June 5, a man-on-street interview showed how people casually received the president’s action. Most of the subjects said they were fine with it, with some respondents saying that Duterte can do whatever he wants because he is the President. The host, Lourd de Veyra, does not usually comment on these responses but could have on the problem reflected by these answers. These views illustrate how easily an official in power can get his way.

CMFR cheers the online news site Interaksyon for explaining how power plays into sexual harassment and other unwelcome sexual behavior.

The Interaksyon story published on June 4, went into the psychology that drives this kind of power play, the use of authority, position, wealth, influence and  social status to get what they want from someone with less of the above, leading to sexual harassment.  The same report quoted a piece from Huffington Post, which stressed that  that sexual harassment is not about the act itself, but the whole dynamics of power between the assaulter and the one being assaulted (“Why the kiss between Duterte, woman in Korea is controversial as it is lopsided“).

The story was accompanied with a video of the President’s taking liberty during his campaign period, turning his candidacy into a kissing spree.

Given the deep roots of patriarchy and machismo in Philippine society, media should be urged to open up the treatment of news as a corrective, framing the issue of the president’s misconduct as a failure of both law and policy, providing information that can help educate the public about women’s rights, and the role of sexism that perpetuates women’s vulnerability to harassment and worse.

More Airtime for Mocha-Kris Exchange One could say that Mocha Uson’s function as Assistant Secretary for Social Media is to create distraction when necessary. She promptly criticized the critics of the president’s kissing the OFW in Seoul, and pointing to two women who kissed opposition leader Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino as he made his way out of the plane, moments before his assassination in 1983. An outrageously silly and ridiculous comparison, as the two situations were completely different, but Uson does not care. She succeeded in distracting the public from the president’s kiss in Seoul, as well as other even more serious issues in the news. Uson asked her followers their opinions of the video. Ninoy’s daughter, Kris reacted to Uson’s post which started an exchange between the two social media celebrities, and the exchange between them captured even more media attention than Duterte’s controversial kiss. 24 Oras, Aksyon and News Night on June 6 gave some airtime to the exchange. It was the opening story in both the News Night and 24 Oras dedicating 16:39 minutes and 8:20 minutes of airtime for the issue respectively. News Night even had a sit down interview with their reporter who is covering this brouhaha. This is social media driving the mainstream media’s news agenda; an abdication by trained journalists of their obligation to determine what the public needs to know. Bong Go also took advantage of the twin issues to get himself some spotlight. He actually held a press conference on June 6 where he defended Duterte’s action. Go also reacted to Uson and Aquino’s squabble. He extended his and the President’s apology to Aquino and had asked Uson to apologize. The latter refused. The press conference was covered live by different news channels. CMFR jeers the attention given to Bong Go as his call for media attention is clearly designed to prime public attention to his face and name, having just been included in the list of senatorial candidates for 2019 under Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban). Really, media?