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Saturday, September 27, 2003
Roperos: The Kris-Joey affair
By Godofredo M. Roperos
THERE is something in the entertainment industry that makes those in it become permissive, innovative in a daring sort of way, and less morally disciplined in a manner that makes one appear to explore “uncharted” moral grounds.
I have witnessed how it was in the ‘50s when showing on the so-called silver screen a man and a woman lying together in bed was considered an intrusion into the moral sensibilities of our people. Kissing was unthinkable, and so Tagalog movie stars would hug and buss the cheeks.
Contemporary observers would consider those days ultra-conservative, a throwback to the backward era of the Spanish friars and ancient forebears.
In a way, this is the how our young generation would counter their elders imposition of strict rules of conduct in public for their progenies.
It is modern times, they would say. It might be the ways of the people in their elders’ time, but this is a different era. Things must change, and we must go with the changing times. What was true before may no longer be true today.
And so it is, that if my mother were alive today, she would be ranting derisive expletives against the “shameful scandal” that the Kris-Joey affair has unduly raised to both dismay and enjoyment of their public.
I am sure many of the present generation think that those who believe the Kris-Joey affair is an affront to our contemporary moral sensibilities are being more prudish than what our parents may have been. I cannot say, though, that it is okay for Kris and Joey to live together without benefit of marriage for almost two years.
Truth to tell, the revelation, which was not admitted until a few days ago, that Kris and Joey were living together was quite a disappointment to many a parent who looked up to Kris as an icon of the successful Filipina—a woman worthy of emulation having attained the level of prestige that no other daughter of a national hero and a former president has ever attained before and a wonderful role model for our young girls throughout the width and breadth of the republic.
Unfortunately, most of our heroines in the entertainment industry have feet made of clay. Which should really not surprise anyone, based on the way many of them have behaved.
Stories of their morally questionable exploits have filled the media with tales of distorted outlook and wasted lives gathered from relentless rumor mills. I hate to admit it, but the lives of people in the entertainment industry have become examples of what our young should never be, if we must prevent the decay of the moral fiber of this nation.
It is sad to note that Kris, who became the idol of thousands of our young women for her capacity to earn a decent living and for her diligence and drive as a working woman, should fall in one swift blow from the pedestal.
Such a wasted opportunity to become a hero like her father, or a staid example of probity and honor like her mother, should make the Filipina shed tears of loss. But, in her ordeal, Kris has shown how to protect her integrity and self-respect.
I cannot recall of any other incident in our entertainment industry that has so disturbed our people from various levels of national society as the Kris-Joey affair has.
Perhaps, the only possible parallel was the murder of movie star and singer Lilian Velez by movie actor Narding Anzures in the late ‘40s or early ‘50s, I cannot now recall the date exactly. But it was a scandal” that hit us Cebuano in the solar plexus because Lilian and husband/composer Joe Climaco were Cebuanos, living lives of sobriety and goodness.
It was a celebrated case of the time, but I think it could not equal the Kris-Joey case. For the admission of Kris on tv of her having contracted sexually transmitted disease because of Joey demands not only courage and a deep sense of commitment to truth, but also a determination to put things a-right about her life.
His having pointed a gun at her, along with her confession of having been beaten by the mayor, should be mitigating circumstance in the public mind on her part. She is, after all, an Aquino who has become as famous as her father.
(September 27, 2003 issue)
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