Sense of humor

BY FORMER SENATE PRESIDENT MANNY VILLAR

Nov 27, 2024 00:11 AM 

OF TREES AND FOREST

 

Filipinos are world famous for the longest celebration of the Christmas season. We usher in the holidays beginning with the so-called “Ber” months. And so on Sept. 1 when the clock strikes 12:01, Filipinos, who are also world famous for their fun-loving character as well as their presence on social media begin creating and sharing what has become the symbol of the start of the season: Jose Mari Chan.

I am not exactly sure when this tradition started but it was most probably because of the fact that Jose Mari Chan, an accomplished businessman and singer, has been known for his Christmas songs. In particular, his song “Christmas in our hearts” has become a staple as far as Christmas carols are concerned that people have referred to him as “King of Philippine Christmas Carols.”

I really enjoy this yearly ritual among Filipinos. For one, some of the memes are downright hilarious and really showcase the creative minds of Filipinos. It also shows that unmistakable character of Filipinos of not taking everything too seriously. This is something I have noticed over decades of interaction with people when I was in politics and even now in business as I go around visiting most parts of the country: Filipinos will find humor in everything. 
Filipinos are known for cracking jokes at every occasion. Filipinos love to laugh. Whenever I went on a palengke tour during my electoral campaigns, people were so welcoming, shaking my hands, talking to me, and, perhaps more importantly, as a marker of intimacy, joking with me. 

I am sure we all know this as Filipinos. There are certain indicators that show the level of intimacy among people. When people feel comfortable enough to go near you, touch you (shake your hands, kiss you on the cheeks, give you a hug), that means the awkward barrier has been pierced. More importantly, when people begin telling you jokes, or when Filipinos start making jokes about you, then that is a clear sign that they are very, very comfortable around you.   

Sometimes, we do take it too far. Filipinos have been known to come up with insensitive jokes or have humor that offend other people. There have been too many brawls on the street or in restaurants started by offensive jokes. And in a world that insists on political correctness, sometimes this propensity for humor is taken the wrong way.

But Filipinos, in general, are very respectful. Those who have studied the Filipino psyche point to the Filipino sense of humor as a coping mechanism. This theory states that humor serves as our coping mechanism that we have developed over centuries of challenges and hardships. Some might find it perverse but this is how we deal with disasters, hardships and obstacles that come our way — humor.

I can certainly understand the logic in this theory. I think most people use humor as a release. When you are in the middle of a crisis and people around you are very serious and tense, there will always be someone who will find a way to crack a joke not for the purpose of trivializing the moment but to give everyone an opportunity to release the tension, to step back and then go back to dealing with the crisis with a fresh perspective.

There are some who criticize the Filipinos’ propensity for “toilet humor” or “slapstick comedy” but I think it is important to understand the important role of humor in the way we deal with one another and with what is going on around us. For instance, the Covid-19 pandemic did not deter Filipinos from showing their sense of humor — some of them offensive but some were so funny they gave people the perfect reprieve from being locked inside their own homes for weeks and months.

Our sense of humor is one of the things that I love about our people. In a country where millions of people are still mired in poverty, where people go on about their daily struggles, it is a joy to see them bursting into uncontrollable laughter. Is it escapism? Perhaps, for that moment. It does not mean we are ignoring the problem. That is, in fact, one of the many ways we deal with the problem. Besides, what is wrong with escapism? When you have all this political noise surrounding you, it is probably a good thing. 

(mbv_secretariat@vistaland.com.ph and/or http://www.mannyvillar.com)

Pacquiao returns to boxing for charity

FOR A CAUSE Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao (left) and popular Korean YouTuber DK Yoo pose after signing the contract for their exhibition bout slated in December in Seoul, South Korea. The contract signing and press conference was held at the Bonifacio Hall in Shangri-La The Fort in Bonifacio Global City on Wednesday night, July 20, 2022. PHOTO BY J. GERARD SEGUIA

By Niel Victor C. Masoy, Manila Times

FILIPINO boxing legend Manny Pacquiao will fight in the boxing ring once more.

Pacquiao, however, is not fighting because he wants to fill his personal bank account but rather said he is returning to the sport he loves for a "charitable cause."

Aside from raising funds to rehabilitate the devastated areas in Ukraine and help the people affected in the Ukraine-Russia war, the 42-year-old Pacquiao said he is fighting martial artist and Korean YouTuber DK Yoo so he can continue his charitable mission of building houses to homeless Filipinos.

"This exhibition fight is a charitable event to continue my mission of giving houses to our homeless compatriots," said the former senator during the press conference for his exhibition fight against Yoo at the Bonifacio Hall in Shangri-La The Fort in Bonifacio Global City on Wednesday.

"Actually, I have a lot of 'Pacman village' left to be finished so the proceeds of the event will be used to continue our mission to help," added the only 8-division world boxing champion, who retired from professional boxing with a 62-8-2 win-loss-draw record.

The Pacquiao-Yoo exhibition match dubbed as "The Champ and The Master" is set in December in Seoul, South Korea. It will be a six-round bout and each round lasting for two minutes instead of the regular three minutes.

There is no agreed weight limit for the bout.

The 42-year-old Yoo is a popular YouTuber, a master of 15 disciplines of martial arts and the founder of Warfare Combat System.

He said he respects Pacquiao so much that he is facing him first in a series of exhibition matches he has planned for himself.

"Manny Pacquiao is my most respected player. After Manny, I'm taking on other opponents but he's the first," said Yoo.

"I'm not saying that I'm going to win. Actually, I know that I'm not going to win but I will do my best to pull off a surprise against him."

Pacquiao wants Duterte at ringside

President Rodrigo Duterte raises the hand of Sen. Manny Pacquiao during a courtesy call at Malacañan in December 2016.

The STAR, File

Pacquiao wants Duterte at ringside for Matthysse fight

18SHARES101

Abac Cordero (philstar.com) - April 18, 2018 - 8:02pm

MANILA, Philippines – Manny Pacquiao wants President Duterte to be at ringside when the Filipino boxing icon challenges Argentina’s Lucas Matthysse on July 15 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

“If the President is not busy,” said Pacquiao in Wednesday’s press conference at the City of Dreams.

No sitting President has ever come to watch Pacquiao fight overseas, and Duterte, his close friend, could be the first.

“I want to invite him,” said Pacquiao.

The line was drawn heading to the July 15 title clash in Malaysia when Matthysse, who’s in the biggest fight of his career, said Pacquiao’s “time is over.”

But Pacquiao is not to be carried away, and in his business suit accorded the champion from Argentina a warm welcome.

During the customary staredown, in front of all the cameras, Pacquiao smiled at Matthysse.

Face to face, they sized each other up, with the WBA belt in between them. They shook hands afterwards.

On Thursday night, they will board the same plane that will take them to Kuala Lumpur for another press conference scheduled on Friday.

Then on Saturday, they fly back to Manila, and go separate ways. The next time they meet again will be on fight week.

Matthysse arrived in Manila Wednesday morning, joined by his manager and promoter, Mario Arano, Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez and PR director Ramiro Gonzalez.

“It was good. It was nice. It was a long trip obviously but it was nice. It’s the normal. I’m a little tired. But we were comfortable,” said Matthysse of the journey that took over 30 hours.

Matthysse said he knows little about the Philippines but came to the press conference in Barong.

“Out of respect,” he said.

“I don’t know too much about the Philippines. I know it’s a beautiful country. And the people have been so nice to me since I got here,” added Matthysse.

It was the first time, too, that he met Pacquiao face to face.

“I’ve seen many of his fights on TV. But I’ve never met him in person,” he said.

They're just getting to know each other.

Read more at https://www.philstar.com/sports/2018/04/18/1807206/pacquiao-wants-duterte-ringside-matthysse-fight#By6DoGUTokj7SVcx.99

New Job for Boxer-Solon

Pacquiao is new face of PH tourism

Ivy Jean Vibar, ABS-CBN News

Posted at Dec 01 2016 06:23 PM

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MANILA – It's more fun in the Philippines—and it will soon be up to boxing icon and lawmaker Manny Pacquiao to prove it to foreign tourists.

The House Committee on Tourism on Thursday approved a proposal to designate the boxer-senator as spokesperson for the Department of Tourism's (DOT) upcoming campaign to promote Philippine attractions here and abroad.

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"Senator Pacquiao's international stature is a big boost to the tourism industry of the country. His endorsement would create a lot of impact, especially in the social media," said 1-PACMAN Representative Enrico Pineda in a statement.

Pineda earlier suggested Pacquiao as tourism ambassador, citing his international popularity, and the possibility that Pacquiao might lend his services to the DOT for free.

The decision to designate Pacquiao as the country's endorser was one of several issues discussed regarding the plans and programs of DOT, Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA), and Tourism Promotions Board (TPB).

In November, the DOT said it will spend P650 million to revise and "upscale" in 2017 the "It's More Fun in the Philippines" campaign, which started in 2012, as it allegedly failed to generate enough visitor arrivals.

Advertising and marketing firm McCann Worldgroup, which won the bidding for the project, will handle the conceptualization and implementation of the new campaign Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo said.

"The P650 million is not only for the tag line itself; that includes all the media placements all over the world," DOT Undersecretary Kat de Castro said.

According to the ABS-CBN Investigative and Research Group, data from DOT showed that the number of visitors to the country consistently increased from January 2012 to December 2015, reaching 5,360,682 visitors in 2015.

In 2016, the DOT's latest data from January to August showed that the country welcomed at least 4.04 million tourists, 12.59 percent (452,011) higher than the number of tourists received in the same period in 2015.

Same sex, same challenges

THE GAME OF MY LIFE By Bill Velasco (The Philippine Star) 

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You can disagree without being disagreeable. Attack the deed, not the doer.

This was, in mildest terms, the feedback to Manny Pacquiao after his incendiary comments on same-sex marriage, which is a sensitive issue in many parts of the world. The level of disagreement has several levels, among them acceptance, tolerance and outright defiance and condemnation. As for the Bible-quoting boxing champion, there is no compromise. He believes in Scripture, particularly on what is unacceptable in the eyes of the God of his beliefs.

Of course, the magnitude of this issue has been fanned and blown up by our penchant for hysterics and drama. There seems to be little room for sober discussion when it comes to matters of personal preference. Our moral outrage seems to need the requisite raised voices, counter-attacks, name-calling and ganging up on people. To a certain extent, we enjoy it, and it’s not funny. Personally, I understand those who were offended. I would not pretend to know their experience firsthand. But I look forward to the day when Filipinos can learn to discuss our differences with as little hysteria as possible, and conduct the disagreement at a higher level. But that’s just my opinion.

On the surface, the Bible specifically mentions homosexuality in the most negative terms, from Leviticus in the Old Testament to the first book of Corinthians and the book of Romans in the New Testament, for a few assumed reasons. One of the reasons is the desire for procreation, which is considered a major component of marriage. In fact, sex was not really considered something you would do for pleasure, and the male bodily secretions associated with it were meant to be used for the sole purpose of making children. Though I am not an expert on Scripture, from my limited understanding, the oft-repeated chapters and verses wherein homosexuality is considered foul have rape (Sodom and Gomorrah), prostitution, slavery and infidelity as their context, all considered undesirable circumstances. As far as I am aware, the Bible does not mention anything about committed relationships between persons of the same sex. Lastly, in its various translations, Hebrews 8:13 speaks of “a new covenant” or new law with the arrival of Jesus Christ. Does this, by default, make the old ones obsolete? It’s a question I find myself asking.

A counselor for a private Roman Catholic group once mentioned to this writer that Christianity was superimposed by the Spanish onto Filipinos’ pre-existing spiritual beliefs, many of which are still very much alive in more remote parts of the country and  our tribal communities. He called it “split-level” Christianity, and said that it explains why many people attend weekly church service with one foot outside the door, and why some are devout inside the church, and start fighting in the parking lot over minor things like getting out first. These examples are probably just bad eggs, but it illustrates the point that having a default setting may not be enough. One has to actively seek out his or her beliefs, and own them. 

The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) community is a small but vocal, high-profile and often well-connected minority fighting for its place and recognition in Philippine society. They have experienced all sorts of oppression and abuse and, in some cases, even use its shock value for their economic benefit, as comedians and entertainers. Like everybody else, they have their own problems, personal and otherwise, and work hard to overcome them. Some even hide their true selves for fear of any reprisal or negative impact it may have on them personally or professionally. That is a sad fact that cannot be denied. The question is, as in anything else, do we let one disagreeable aspect of someone’s personhood define them in our eyes? How we answer would be most telling for us as a people.

Sportshub ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1

San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich once said that “The measure of who we are is how we react to something that doesn’t go our way.”  So what does it say about us when we respond with similar violence and bile when someone of stature disagrees with our belief system? Aren’t we as guilty, even when we use our past hurts as the justification for striking back?

For many years, this writer was part of a small but valiant group that worked for the welfare of Amerasian children, those sired then left behind by irresponsible or even deceiving American servicemen. I saw firsthand the discrimination against these abandoned children, mostly based on their skin color. The Caucasian kids were considered beautiful, and the luckier ones were able to have productive careers, some as entertainers here and in other countries. The children of African-American GI’s, however, were treated very badly, called names as kids, made to suffer terrible indignities, and were often considered useless burdens. You wanted to have paler skin, an aspiration that fuels a billion-peso beauty industry in the Philippines alone. That double standard persists today, in how we treat children, women, the sick or elderly, persons with disabilities and the LGBT. That is the true tragedy, that it exists at all. When you think about it, the great majority of the people in those various sectors argue that they did not choose to be that way, but neither do they shrink from it.

In any democracy, we are free to have opinions, no matter how strong. But we are not free to tell others how to live their lives, until those choices infringe upon the rights of others. We tell our children that they are free to love whomever they want to, but when that person walks into our lives, are we prepared to live with that choice? In past times, arranged marriages, same-race marriages and even child marriages were more accepted. Today, they are much less so. If we believe people are heading down the wrong path, we have the responsibility to tell them so, based on our beliefs. But nowhere do we have the right to call them names or condemn them. That is a line that democracy is not supposed to cross. Again, if their choices hurt others or curtail others’ rights, then we have a moral obligation to intervene. If you agree or disagree with Manny Pacquiao, that is your right. Choosing to vote him or not is, too. Reflect your approval or displeasure there if you wish.

In the end, if we truly believe in an all-knowing, all-powerful and loving God, then we know two things in the scope of our faith. One, each of us will face the Almighty personally and individually come judgement; nobody will be there to speak on our behalf. That is the nature of things: you live alone, you die alone. Everyone wants to look out for his neighbor, but none of us should impose our choices on others, that’s up to them., Secondly, if we believe that God can forgive all things, then any choice we make that does not define how kind we are towards other people won’t really matter. Does the God we believe in even need gender for anything?

He's Back! Ja, er ist wieder da!

 

Congratulations Manny!

Crying Pacquiao ‘let Philippine fans down’

Crying Pacquiao ‘let Philippine fans down’