IT comes as no surprise that many showbiz personalities are again running for political office in the 2019 midterm elections, given their successful campaigns in past polls. Indeed, many of those who are running are incumbent officials seeking reelection.
Candidates for local posts kicked off their campaigns on Friday, adding more showbiz personalities into the mix. A top-rating TV series had to kill four of its main characters because the actors playing them, being candidates, are banned from such TV appearances during the campaign period.
Eyeing a return to the Senate are Bong Revilla, Jinggoy Estrada and Lito Lapid, all multi-term senators in past Congresses. We won’t call them actors-turned politicians because they have been dual-citizens and veterans of both politics and showbiz for some time now, like the current Senate president, Vicente “Tito” Sotto III.
Among other showbiz personalities running in May are singer Freddie Aguilar, also seeking a Senate seat; singer-dancer and former Presidential Communications Operations Office Assistant Secretary Mocha Uson, running as a party-list representative; Vilma Santos running for reelection as representative of the Sixth District of Batangas; Richard Yap running for congressman in Cebu; Richard Gomez, seeking reelection as mayor of Ormoc City; Isko Moreno, running for Manila City’s mayoral post; Jolo Revilla, son of Bong, running for his last term as vice governor of Cavite; his mom, Lani Mercado, seeking a second term as mayor of Bacoor City; and Edu Manzano, running for congressman in San Juan.
There are more on the list, too many to enumerate in this space, but you get the picture.
We shouldn’t blame actors and celebrities for running for political posts any more than we should blame politicians for using showbiz or posing like actors during their campaigns in an effort to win.
We have no doubt that there are actors-turned-politicians who take public service seriously and have done well. They’ve given up showbiz, at least during their stay in office, choosing to devote their time and energy to their government posts, making an effort to constantly improve themselves in the practice of public service.
Of course, there are also others miserably failing at it.
Our campaign season has always been very “showbiz” anyway. Celebrity endorsements and song and dance routines have always been part of Philippine political campaigns. Charisma, celebrity and cash tend to trump character and competence.
In ancient Rome, where the Senate originated, to be a celebrity and to be famous is to be known for one’s virtue, merit, accomplishments and exemplary deeds. They made portraits of famous individuals and coupled them with glowing testimonials that justified their right to good reputation and fame.
Nowadays, a celebrity is known merely for being well-known. Your being a celebrity does not depend on virtue or accomplishment. Indeed, somebody who has a million followers on social-media platforms like YouTube and Instagram can be a cyberspace celebrity.
Athletes and movie stars today are more popular than politicians, which is perhaps why politicians want to be in showbiz, so they could vie for the undiscriminating adulation of the public, and which is also why more actors and athletes want to run for public posts. They run because they can win.
Perhaps, we have a debased concept of celebrity. Our society has dissolved the tenuous bond between fame and merit. You look at the campaign season and see marketing gimmicks, an endless string of empty publicity. Campaign sorties are judged based on their “box-office draw.”
We are missing the essential revelation of critical issues and candidates’ characters. We are presented with a parade of hollow candidates whose entire reason for running seems confined to their glossy public personas.
And when the glow of the campaign wears off, and it is time to turn vague promises into reality, the real characters surface, and we often find that the winners fail to meet the benchmarks needed for good leaders.
As voters, we can only point our fingers at ourselves if we have come to confuse celebrity with competence and personality with performance.
Image credits: Jimbo Albano
