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Now since my sensationalist title actually worked, I would like to announce my strong suspicion that the Senate’s involvement in this scandal courtesy of Bong Revilla Jr. has siphoned our attention from the creeping in of the arbitrary constituent assembly (ConAss, for short – it being a charming pun intended) to the general public.  Sadly, I have been aware of this sneaky consortium for more than a year now but have rarely caught it on the local news.  How everyone managed to sit on the fence on ConAss until now remains a mystery even to its long time opponents.  I figure that it must have been all the side-shows that took place over the last two years that have kept people entertained but abysmally uninformed.

Speaking of side-shows, since the Kho-Halili sex scandal broke out I held myself back to comment on the issue because firstly, I would have to illegally obtain a copy of the video from a sidewalk banketa in order to observe its implications to either party.  I, as a student of the social sciences could not liberally incur analysis whether social, criminal, psychological or otherwise without having a full observation of the party’s behaviour and circumstance down to its naked facts.  However, to admit that I have the materials in aid of analysis would be held against me presumably under anti-pornography laws and anti-piracy laws. Incidentally these are the two contentious issues being discussed in lieu of this so-called scandal, apart from Kho Jr.’s small but legendary wang.

What we could discuss without having to comment about small male appendages is that on the street, there is a somewhat peculiar status to the media crimes involving the sex scandal.  Although the Optical Media Board’s (OMB) crusade was to obliterate all forms of illegal media distribution, it has come to a point that piracy has become a huge counter-culture it is virtually impossible to stop even on Edu Manzano’s watch.  Hence, the DVD kiosks remain and raids are not as habitual and effective: from a policy standpoint, crackdowns turn out to be a lousy way to stop piracy per se.  Even when you pull out the roots, you have a full plantation to dispense.  What would be more reasonable than targeting the source is to stop the raids altogether and start investing money on promoting and protecting independent media.  Such is the case in India where people pay to see the movies and prefer it over the DVD.  That’s a different story but the point is since piracy is so popular and the public is more sympathetic to their friendly suki it is futile to spend taxpayer’s money on raids, when our police force ought to be out there fighting more worrisome crimes like rape, corruption and theft. One philosophy professor from Ateneo de Manila supports piracy because it makes media more accessible to people. Media is one way of educating people and piracy has made one kind of education cheap.  In the Philippines, if any harm is done because of piracy, it’s the loss of profit by our local movie industry especially independents and then there’s the proliferation of child pornography.

When it comes to pornography, I have a very specific stand on this issue and that is that any pornography ought not to exploit children and ought not to involve any man or woman who was forced or trafficked.  The latter is harder to distinguish from the numerous role-play sex videos readily available through the internet or the DVD stands.  And so what the OMB does is it confiscates ALL pornographic materials and puts the blame on the piracy culture.  They summon international anti-trafficking statutes to justify their confiscation.  These allegations are partly true.  Although pornography is legal in the country for people ages 18 and above, the proper charge against the confiscation of pirated pornography ought to be piracy alone, if the OMB has no evidence that the materials they’ve accumulated in the raids do not include child pornography.  They are revisited by the same legal gray area that questions the efficiency of piracy crackdowns in the first place.  I once asked a vendor how they managed to survive all the raids and that person told me that the “mayor” was okay with them selling pirated movies but pirated pornography was a complete contraband.

My advice to wankers out there is to stick to the internet because I would rather not have any of you get your grubby paws on any of the real contraband which is child pornography (that means screen starlets aged below 18: remember Barely Legal? Aha!  Then you are guilty as charged!)

Going back to the real topic of this post, the Kho-Halili sex scandal sprung so many questions that easily put limelight-seeking actors-turned-public-servants to the media fray perhaps because of vested interests.  Is it because of the elections that people are begging to be noticed on TV?  None of these fools have even made a lucid comment in aid of legislation.  This whole scandal is fuelled by VANITY so you be true to yourselves you vain shits. Stop talking and make your own movie!

And by the way, this scandal is really about invasion of privacy.  Can the media roll over and stop the frenzy?  Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of this trial’s exercise altogether?