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Heresies
Kris Aquino and the demise of the Filipino aristocracy
by P.N.
Abinales
One
of last year’s most unfortunate stories was of the Filipino public
going after the love story not the beheadings. Despite attempts
by government supporters and critics to draw the public attention
into the debates over the handling of the kidnappings in southern
Mindanao, Manilenos preferred to read about Kris and Joey.
Understandably so - for apart from being movie and television idols,
already the most desirable and admired profession (compare, for
example, the number of people aspiring to become movie stars as
against those who want to become communists), l’affaire d’Kris et
Joey had also the makings of a dream come true.
For here is the daughter of one of the country’s oldest, politically-powerful,
well-educated, and elegant families, falling in love with her antipode,
the offspring of a famous womanizing director, a bad actor with
hardly a formal education, and a politician who won office not on
the basis of his intellect, but on simply being funny.
And more. For they were a couple who had decided to fight the odds,
lovers willing to brave the censure of family, friends and public
and continue with their tryst.
The gallant Joey was standing fast against the public irritation
over the callousness with which he left the ailing Alma and their
four kids and then justifying this in public by invoking the most
macho explanations: unhappiness and dissatisfaction with the wife.
Kris was also resolved to do the same, confronting public opprobrium
that she was breaking up a family, and cashing in on the publicity,
simply because she is...well, Kris.
What wonderful tales a scriptwriter like Ricky Lee can do with this
affair, especially after the August 9 hospital scene where the hysterical
Alma confronted the cool mistress in front of her bed-ridden, ailing
middle aged, balding husband Joey who seemed to look anguished because
being tied to the gurney, he could do very little to stop the “girl
fight.”.
The public clearly savored the nitty-gritty details of this libidinal
affair (no love here, I strongly argue, since the two immediately
broke off the relations once pressure came from the morally right
and more powerful parties).
But of all those who complained about hos this affair is just another
example of loose morals in the movie world, one group was clearly
most discomfited but preferred to keep quiet about its feelings.
I refer here to Kris’s class, the country’s aristocracy has dominated
this country for over a hundred years.
It is, of course, a source of immense embarrassment for the aristocracy
to lean that one its own has crossed the class and cultural divide
and commingled with the cruder classes. But while such affairs are
hardly new - history is replete with stories and gossips of inter-class
sexual and amoral intimacies - what makes the Kris-and-Joey show
a bit more disconcerting is the way in which Kris had flaunted her
feelings.
For in baring her emotions to yet another middle-age man, Kris has
shown the public that Filipino aristocrats are pretty much like
everyone else - mushy, capable of vulgarity, flawed. These are features
that are supposed to be “hidden” behind the walls of golden ghettoes
like Forbes Park and Magallanes Village. They are also traits that
legatees like Kris, are supposed to discard as they go through an
English or American boarding school or Ivy League university, or,
closer to home, “classy” (sic) Ateneo de Manila University. Apparently
years of schooling and retooling had failed to do that for Kris,
and thus the latest of her Lady Diana-ish escapades.
But this aristocratic discomfort is not simply due to the public
shame the affair had brought on our elite. It has also something
to do with the social significance behind Kris’ decision to hit
the sack with someone below her rank.
I would venture to suggest that this anxiety has also something
to do with a growing self-realization that they - the traditional
oligarchy - are in decline. They may still be wealthy, but the foundation
of their affluence - land - is not the same valuable asset that
made them preeminent in the colonial and early post-war periods.
Beginning in the 1960s, industrialization, the monetization of the
economy and the exploitation of the state for patrimonial plunder
created new sources of wealth allowing ambitious “middle class”
social climbers to rise up the social ladder. Under Marcos, the
aristocracy (classified appropriately by the dictator and - quite
surprisingly - his revolutionary opponents as “oligarchs”) was forced
to share its exclusive homes, vacation resorts, shopping favorites,
and even matrimonial beds with this parvenu elite. These were the
new rich who lacked the history, tradition and high culture of their
older counterparts, who were brazen and vulgar in their acquisitions
and who flaunted their wealth in bad taste.
While the aristocrats may have control over a congressional or senatorial
seat or two, these political positions were not enough to stem the
tide. Marcos, a probinsyano whose initial prominence was based on
his UP (not Ateneo!) education and his alleged prowess at hitting
the bull’s eye, had a better strategic sense, aiming at the highest
position of the land and then using the presidency’s enormous powers
to expand his own as well as that of the central state.
Economic remission and political emasculation inevitably took their
toll on social relations. Without the power to contain the flow
of information in and out of the golden ghettoes, without allies
and sponsors inside the state, and stigmatized for their “oligarchic
behavior,” the aristocracy would also lose control over its own.
The discipline that once kept them at an unreachable pinnacle and
admired from afar by the rest of the populace, had broken down.
The parvenus, seeking high culture, had not only begun to invade
their premises, but had also sought to capture their children. Suddenly,
a new face of unknown family background, or someone with dubious
family origins, would come to grace the stately weekend family dinners,
eating like a pig and talking with their mouths full, while being
admired by one’s Ivy League- or Ateneo-educated daughters. The latter,
perhaps bored with aristocratic life, had also become quite adventurous
in their quest for their Mandingos. This time oblivious to what
the rest of the family, especially the old folks, think about it.
The nadir would, of course, be the intrusion into the vulgar world
of filmdom. And from there, it was only a matter of time before
something controversial like l’affair d’Kris et Joey would unfold.
(
An earlier version of this piece appeared in the Philippine Free
Press)
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REBYU
DISKUSYON
TAMPOK