Of Imelda Marcos and “Sangako Payo”

Pinoy ako! And I am darn proud to be one.

Wherever I am, I can say that I have tried my best to be the exemplary model of what a Filipino should be. In hotels outside the country, I try to tidy up the room, especially the bathroom, such that Filipinos would not be branded as slobs. I always try to be courteous, especially to people of different culture such that they would not think of us as ill-mannered. I have always carried with me this pride of being a Filipino in whatever place I go to.

I believe that Filipinos have what it takes to excel in whatever field they choose – information technology, medical profession, domestic services, sales, development work, arts, you name it.

But if you ask me what is most promising and emerging Filipino asset now, it would certainly be our television industry, particularly the tele-novelas.

It is not surprising that ABS CBN telenovelas have been a hit here in Asia, particularly in Malaysia and Indonesia. It came as a surprise when I first got here in Penang that Jericho Rosales was very popular, and was all over the Malaysian boob tube. But then I realized, Malaysia not really that far. It’s just a stone’s throw away from the Philippines. Actually, just a boat ride away, if you’re traveling from Sulu to Sabah.

But what is surprising is our telenovelas traveled across the globe and became a hit in Africa!

I went to Nairobi in Kenya for the World Social Forum, a gathering of thousands of NGOs and other civil society organizations. The Kenyans seem to be fascinated with Asians. I was often called “Chinese girl” or “China girl”. I think for them, all Southeast Asians came from China.

During one of the decompression nights (after a long hard day’s work), my Kenyan friend started telling me about a Filipino telenovela which was apparently very popular in Kenya, “Sangako Payo”. It took me a while to realize that he was actually talking about Pangako Sa Iyo, which I think stars Jericho Rosales and Cristine Hermosa. They have difficulty pronouncing the title, and they say that some refer to the telenovela as “Sangako Payo”, interchanging the first letters of the two words. I only got to watch a few episodes of this telenovela, but I am aware of all the fuss that it caused all around the Philippines. I therefore tried my best to answer their questions about “Ina” (Cristine’s role) and other curious questions about the telenovela.

I learned that the telenovela was dubbed in English, and that there is another telenovela also being shown, “Kay Tagal”. I didn’t even know that there is a telenovela with this title. This goes to show that yes, Philippine television industry has gone a long way, from dubbing Spanish, Mexican and Korean telenovelas. At least now, we have a Filipino version of the ever famous Marimar, San Chai and Dao Ming Zei (I hope I got the names right).

Another very interesting phenomenon is Kenya’s fascination for Philippine politics, particularly the Marcoses. They are well aware of the event which took place during the People’s Power revolution, the unseating of Marcos, and the quest to sequester the Marcos wealth. They were so fascinated with Imelda and her shoes that they called ‘second hand shoes’ as “Imeldas”. Imelda would have been really proud! Imagine, a whole nation including her name in their dictionary! This is really something! If you ask me, she should open a branch of her newly launched fashion line in East Africa. It’ll be a hit for sure!

I’ve been to many beautiful places, but as I always say, I keep coming back to the Philippines. Life is so colorful and pleasantly different there. I hope to come home soon. And when I’m back, let’s go to the ukay-ukay shops and find ourselves a really great pair of ‘Imeldas’.

Note:
for some safari pics, please click:
http://new.photos.yahoo.com/norlygrace/album/576460762388349937


12:24am
04 February 2007
Sunday
Penang