VARIUOS factors conspired - chiefly the movie censors' board and the cheap DVD skin flicks - to kill the "bomba film" industry in the country.

My movie theatre buddy, Tony Brown, mourns the demise of the ST films accusing suspect sectors that put a stop to the genre, of blood crimes against the people for depriving the "masa" of their humble amusement.

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Those were the times when my friend Tony Brown, a privately religious fellow, would go to mass at the big church daily, and spend Sunday at local movie houses showing "bomba" films.

Frequently we watched Joyce Jimenez starrers together until over-indulgence or the law of gravity took their toll on the fading sex siren who once induced the male audience to involuntary shaking during intimate scenes.

The single person who dramatically swept the "bombas" out from public view was Ms. Teresita Sy-Coson, empress of the SM empire, daughter of Mr. Henry Sy, the country's richest man.

Tessie Coson, on cue from the Philippine clergy and Catholic lay organizations, had put a stop to the bomba films by banning their booking at SM Mall theatres nationwide.

Considering that most cineastes these days patronize the SM Mall cinemas, the forbidden films died a natural death. It also ended the movie days of the shakers among us.

It is within this spirit, I can surmise, why a Mountain Province school group was barred from its scheduled performance at the SM City-Clark. I am sure it was not out of fears of partial nudity, but for the reason that the Igorot fashion of the dancers was not in the line of clothes being sold inside SM malls.

Local lanterns are not also hot items inside the SM Pampanga, the reason SM management also gave a hard time to the City Government of San Fernando in its Parol Festival.

I understand why SCADC Chairman Ed Pamintuan went ballistic in defense of the Baguio dancers as he castigated the SM management for its "insensitivity and ignorance" in preventing a cultural event in its commercial area.

Secretary Pamintuan has a point in questioning live shows inside SM City with girls dancing hip-hop numbers in scanty habiliments vis-a-vis the Igorot girls' failure to perform.

The difference, sir, is that management prefers white over dark meat.

The local Aeta communities, most of them in the first district, have found a new "hero" in the Super Boy as the stood up for the cause of indigenous and cultural tribes.

Our local Aestas, who cannot be mistaken for any other ethnic group despite their oversized denims jeans from Clark factory overruns, or their USAF camouflage outfit from Mabalacat "ukay-ukays" have major a resemblance and share a similar birthrights, with the Baguio visitors.

I am sure Secretary Ed's umbrage of the SM people who view nudity -- partial, eclipsed, or au naturelle -- was justifiable. I will not impute any motive, political or ethical on the future congressman, except that he upholds the right and respectability of cultural minorities to demonstrate bare torsos, even improvised adult diapers, in their maiden appearance at SM City.

There is nothing pornographic about indigenous people's attire or dance numbers. Aesthetic sense, however, precludes the promotion of primitive culture in this modern age.

I respect Ms. Tessie Sy Coson's policy of wholesome entertainment. This includes cultural presentations and participants in proper or modest attire.

Anything outside of that standard would demean the beautiful image of the Filipino. Our own President wears a lovely tenor abroad, why should we take pride in our countrymen in "bahag" whose photos tourists take and display overseas?

Why would the Tourism officials, indeed, plan and implement a program to exhibit a tribal group that does not truly depict or represent the admirable and outstanding attractive features of the new Filipino in the concept of Ms. Coson?

Foreigners often delight in the "exotic." We thus indulge their thrill by the public exhibition of Aetas cavorting in their "bahag," along with Igorots, Ibaloi, Kankanaey or whatever mountain tribe, with sunburned unsightly asses on parade.

In the early 1900s, Filipino tribesmen, the ancestors of our Aetas (Balugas) were shipped to the United States and were exhibited as live specimens of Philippine natives in a world exposition.

When American soldiers later fought our own freedom fighters, they wrote home about shooting down our own as "monkeys without tails."

Tourists and visitors to the US are not treated by special public shows featuring Indian tribes. Visitors who want to appreciate or observe ethnic culture are bussed to a reservation/ settlement.

The Indians are not paraded in malls or parks under the guise of any cultural program.

Local organizers of tribal participation even encouraged our concerned natives to highlight their primitive ways and don special costumes designed to emphasize ethnicity despite scaly unsightly skin with traces of ringworm or "buni."

One tribal leader, who would be wearing signature clothes back home on Sundays, took lawmakers and guests in the Congress by storm during the State of the Nation Address (Sona) as he strutted about in his costume of G-String outfit and feathered head gear.

At times Mountain Province or Ifugao lawmakers, one of them a Representative Domogan, would attend public gatherings in their tacky "bahag."

A single-false move would show a glimpse of native balls or a heavy duty ass which world discourage even US Ambassador Kristine Kenny, a known admirer of local culture, to socialize with the natives.

Whenever I see such grotesque spectacle in the name of ethnic pride, I share the uneasy discomfiture of the powdered ladies whose own sensibilities and modesty are assailed by this innocent but insolent fashion flaunting of our benighted tribes.

There is nothing objectionable if people, our children and tourists included, could visit the ethnic brethren in their native villages to discover their actual lifestyle plus the realism of sniffing residual odor of overused "bahag" and similar accessories.

They do not have to display such accoutrement at the SM malls on the guise of cultural presentation. Ms. Coson does not sell them in her malls, and Pampanga lanterns, too.

Gets n'yo?

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(December 1, 2008 issue)
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