So-Yeung: The PBB Dreams

HAS there been an epidemic? One day, all of the sudden, nearly a dozen students from the third year batch were absent. What happened?

The classmates grinned in response. “Nag-audition for PBB Ma’am.” PBB of course is Pinoy Big Brother, the monster reality TV hit that places ordinary people in one residence, forces them to undergo unrealistic stunts, and allows the whole Philippines to watch their every move. I don’t follow PBB but I know many who hound each episode like a starving dog chasing a bone.

And based on their stories, I was apprehensive upon knowing plenty of my students wanted to be in the show. A former student had already appeared on the show once, and she ended up being betrayed by a friend and looking mean and petty on TV. She was voted off, leaving the PBB house in an air of unpopularity.

Rabid watchers also tell me that the show’s God-like kuya make housemates do uncomfortable things, from dancing with not a stitch of clothing on except a fan to downing liquor until they’re drunk, just to stir up controversies and improve ratings.

Moreover, though Dabawenyo Ruben Gonzaga won the Celebrity Edition way back when, most participants from Davao seem to end up cast in a contrabida role, hated by housemates or by voters.

I shuddered to think of what would happen to my students if Direk Dyogi would cast them in the show. What would they do or say under the conditions of the Big Brother House? Would they enjoy being the pawn of a money-churning TV machine? Would they do anything kuya says, even if it is against their principles? How would people perceive them and how would that affect them? Would they be able to hold themselves with dignity and integrity under the glare of 24-hour public scrutiny? Would they end up ok after such an experience? It’s scary!

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