THE Twitter feed of the young actress Janine Gutierrez has been an amalgam of satire and understated fury. Her reaction “Oh God” to the announcement of a TV network that a new series was being readied for Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr., who was jailed for four years for plunder and has been ordered by the court to pay back the government P124 million in stolen money, was a classic. A construct that stated both disbelief and “where is justice in this world.”
If that show, indeed, gets off the production room and onto the screens of your boob tube, “Ang Probinsyano” will probably compete with “Agimat” in that coveted primetime slot. The main cultural fare of Filipinos during primetime will thus transform into shallow, fake takes on the uncommon valor of two reel heroes in a context of a world begging for more solidarity and collective action. The truth is that when the world is gripped by a terrible crisis, like the pandemic we have today, the heroes are the low-key doctors and medical workers, who neither strut around or swagger but make the hospital rounds in their rubber-soled shoes to attract the least attention. The tired boob-tube scripts vest life everlasting on the fictional characters like Agimat and Probinsyano. But, in the real world and during a crunch, there is no heroism without the inherent vulnerabilities. The real heroes heal and save lives quietly and without fuss — even at the expense of their own.
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