Lessons learned from Bong Suntay’s fiasco

Politics and show business are indeed no strange bedfellows.

It has again surfaced when Jesus “Bong” Suntay, Quezon City Fourth District Representative said in his partisan privilege speech at the recent impeachment hearing of Vice President Sara Duterte that the charges of sedition, insurrection and political stabilization against her are just products of one’s imagination.

Here, Suntay presented an analogy that the same imagination worked when he saw actress Anne Curtis in Shangri-La Hotel as he fantasized on her beauty and sexual prowess as provocation in man’s carnal desires.

No stones are left unturned when not a few show people expressed their aversion over Suntay’s pronouncements.

This early, Bong shouldn’t feel victorious about the heaps and leaps of publicity being hurled on him.

He isn’t a superstar.

He is just like anyone, like you and me, vulnerable.

It shouldn’t be an excuse for his weaknesses, though.

The belief that publicity, however negative, is still publicity should not play “positive” at all.

That blinded, distorted and self-serving slogan or catchline must end.

Suntay must be punished.

He shouldn’t stay scot-free even until he is proven guilty.

It’s good that Congresswoman Ysabel Maria Zamora of San Juan City has called the attention of the House Committee on Justice to strike off Suntay’s remarks.

An ethics complaint must be in order.

I hope Shiela Guevarra Suntay, Bong’s wife’s atonement on his behalf isn’t just a show.

They’re family, after all.

In Filipino culture, no matter how bad a member is, no matter how grave a commission of sin is, one is absolved in private.

I hope Shiela isn’t shielding or just deodorizing her husband just to please the public.

I hope her sentiments are really for the aggrieved.

It must be shown not only in words but in deeds as well.

If Shiela is indeed for truth and justice, she must also sign a petition requiring her husband to face a legal battle to weigh things for the betterment of society.

It’s painful, though, Guevarra-Suntay should also file a complaint against him.

She should be the first to testify against her man, specifically in court.

It’s hard and arduous to do but a sacrifice should suffice to let the truth out not only about the political partisanship of Suntay that ruins the nation but also in the pursuit of gender equality.

The issue must crystalize gray matters that matter for the good of the majority.

It should be for the liberation of man, of the Filipinos, of the nation.

Enough of cajoling criminals or scourges in sheep’s skin.

This isn’t just a case of male chauvinism.

It is also a question of trespassing and murder of a person symbolically.

We must not take this case as just a simple or dismissive case of juicy showbiz tidbits just because it involves an actress, a “kikay” star in Anne.

Let’s refrain or completely stop treating showbiz issues as nuisance because they say a lot about our national foibles.

Showbiz news is also hard news because they reflect the quotidian.

The issue is a complex one that involves national import because it says so much about the power structure and preservation of power relations for the benefit of only a few.

The dragging of Anne’s name in an impeachment trial says loads of realities in the political game to maintain the abominable status quo of corrupt and bad leaders.

Entertainment analyst and character actor Joel Saracho is right, after all.

He says that Bong’s lasciviousness is a repeat of the misogynistic pattern of behavior of the past regime.

“Mambabatas ka, ser. taga-gawa ng batas. dapat pinag-iisipan mo bawat salita na lumalabas sa bunganga mo (You are a lawmaker, Sir. You should have watched out the words that come out from your mouth).

“Pwera na lang kung ganyan talaga ang kalakaran ngayon. ipangalandakan ang kalibugan at kabastusan. misogynist culture na itinampok ng nakaraang rehimen (Except if that is the lifestyle at the moment. Show publicly lasciviousness and uncouthness that exemplified the past regime)”.