Showbiz news buzzing around lately includes the photos of Richard Gutierrez and Barbie Imperial sharing a wonderful time in Italy, as well as trending posts from AJ Raval sharing proudly how loyal Aljur Abrenica is to her that she confidently said that Aljur will never leave her. And I was like, what the hell? Do these ladies actually think they'd be an exception to the womanizing of these men who already left their wives for other women?
As they say, "Once a cheater, always a cheater."
As they say, "He cheated his wife with you, and so do you expect him not to do it again sooner or later?"
I remember writing a column before about mistresses and homewreckers, and that men will always have that tendency and will to cheat on their wives and girlfriends. It happens when they encounter an enabling person willing to commit adultery or unfaithfulness with them.
And because I abhor mistresses, "kabits" in our dialect, I will always hold it firm that there is no such thing as etiquette for mistresses as a popular Filipino movie would put it.
In the first place, when these women decided to have an affair with married men, they had already broken the social etiquette and, more importantly, our moral etiquette. This movie, which relates the lives of mistresses and attempts to lay down the so-called rules of being a “Number Two” should not be patronized as it perpetrates mischievous and intolerable acts. There is no such thing as etiquette for mistresses as these people are the reasons why a family and a home will be broken, and children will have miserable lives of having unfaithful parents and a shattered family.
And so this is my message to Barbie Imperial and AJ Raval: do not expect these men to stay faithful to you.
Infidelity would raise serious concerns and deserves no tolerance whatsoever. Cheating partners, in effect, negate the trust and emotional security that are a prerequisite for any safe or normal relationship. Infidelity can lead to extreme psychological effects, including trauma and heartache, not only for the hurt partner but also for the dynamics of the relationship in general. For the emotional consequence from such offenses often leads to and proves pretty hard to repair, breakdown of communication and intimacy is therefore what it's usually caused by.
These answers evince the sharp pain of betrayal and strengthen the argument for zero tolerance; adultery cheapens respect for the self and generates dynamics of distrust. Where some evidence seems to suggest that an affair need not be a guarantee of the death knell for a relationship, this perspective might be argued to legitimize destructive behavior and, by extension, encourage cheating. Ultimately, only a clear imperative towards a zero-tolerance policy for cheating partners can sustain self-respect.
This is why Sarah Lahbati and Kylie Padilla walked away, and I salute these women for having the courage to stand up for themselves and their children.