The picture was the inauguration of a three-storey, 27-classroom building of the Zamboanga City High School. The guest of honor was Education Secretary Bro. Armin Luistro. The host was Zamboanga City Mayor Celso Lobregat.
Julie said officials of the Department of Education-Western Mindanao were present. So were the city councilors and barangay officials.
The picture showed the Master of Ceremonies, who was later identified as Joseph Wee, standing behind the podium. Behind him was a student holding a desk electric fan. He was made a stand of the electric fan!
The photo reminded us of scenes in movies based on Biblical stories showing the Pharaoh or the Queen always followed by Nubian slaves holding a giant fan made of ostrich feathers.
Closer to home, it reminded me of señoras being fanned by a uniformed maid.
What happened in Zamboanga City High School last Sunday was sort of a modern version because instead of an ostrich or anahaw fan, they were using an electric fan. But it was still a master-slave setup.
Two of those who served as human stand for the desk fan were Boys Scouts, proudly wearing their uniform.
Julie said she found out later that the not- so- bright idea to make the young boys hold the electric fan to cool the guests was that of a teacher, Jesus Francisco.
Didn’t Mr. Francisco or any of the guests think of getting a small table or a chair to put that electric fan?
Didn’t Bro. Armin, Mayor Lobregat and other officials notice the disturbing assignment of the boys in that event? The boys were just a few feet away from them on the same stage.
Surely, they saw the boys fanning them. Was it normal to them?
Part of Wee’s note to Julie:
“It was Mr. Jesus Francisco who only requested the boy to hold d fan temporarily not for me but for the guest because that was a hot afternoon. The sun was toward the podium.
“The comments were hitting me below the belt. Some were calling me ‘child abuser’. My job there that afternoon was just to emcee the program, and I didn’t request a fan from anyone to keep me fresh. It was intended for the guest. It so happened that I immediately came in after the guest’s message to call on the next speaker. Please be fair to me because I am not guilty of your accusation and much more of the damaging comments of the judgmental people.”
Julie apologized to Wee for not getting his name and reaction before posting the photo in her Facebook page.
While some of the commenters in Julie’s post also apologized to Wee for being too harsh on him, Jaymee Gamil remarked: “Was the boy holding the electric fan invisible? The question remains: Why didn’t Mr. Wee or any of the teachers, or the guests, notice his plight and attempt to fix it? Is it so normal for them? I would think it would be so easy to find a resourceful solution to the problem, bring in a table and place the fan there, for instance. It never occurred to him, or anyone in the school?”
Julie said the same thing: “I was wondering why no one from the teachers called the attention and suggested to place the fan on a table or chair. Teachers are respected individuals. They are our children’s second parents in schools and are expected to protect the children’s welfare and dignity.”
Julie has a personal stake in this issue. She has a son who, in the future, might enroll at the ZCHS Main.
“ I don’t want him to experience what those boys experienced,” Julie,speaking as a mother, said.
Nag palusot pa si M. Wee eh nakinabang din naman sya sa hangin mula sa bintilador na hawak ng bata. 😛
What extraordinary stupidity on the part of the “educators!”
Julie is right to expose this odious practice and the stupidity of the teachers/adults in the school. As you rightly say, Ellen, the could have just pulled a small table or even a bleeding chair.
Correct, Anne.
Julie said the same thing: “I was wondering why no one from the teachers called the attention and suggested to place the fan on a table or chair. Teachers are respected individuals. They are our children’s second parents in schools and are expected to protect the children’s welfare and dignity.”
Malayo ang pinagka-iba ng utak ng mga guro noon sa mga utak ng mga guro ngayon.
Sanay ako sa ugaling probinsiya at ganito ang aking pananaw dyan. Present si DepEd Secretary Luistro at siempre, gusto nilang maging comfortable ang panauhing pandangal at mga opisyales na nandoon kaya spur of the moment, may nag idea na naglaan ng electric fan. Nagkataon sigurong walang stand fan kaya portable ang nahagilap. Sa oras na yun, kahit isang teacher ang utusang humawak ng electric, gagawin yun without any hesitation. Tiyak walang kokontra o aangal dahil nasa gitna sila ng pagdiriwang sa kanilang magandang kapalaran na magkaroon ng makabagong 3 storey school building.
Sorry na lang at nakunan ng piktyur ang pangyayari at dahil sa Facebook, naikalat ito at kara-karaka’y umani ng mga pagpuna.
Little thing means a lot…”Ang alikabuk daw maliit na bagay, di nakikita, ngunit nakaka-puwing at nakakasira ng mata”…Dapat, mas-malawak o advance palagi ang isip-utak ng mga tetsirs-“teachers” kaysa sa mga studyante-students… Elitism, kasi ang laging naghahari sa isipan ng nakaka-rami, kaya ganyan ang nagyari, na “flash tuloy sa FB-picture” …Kahit na ang “power” na nagdadala ng cyberspace, di nakikita, ngunit sobra ang kapangyarihan, at lumi-liit ang mundo…A food for thought.
When I was a new arrival in the Philippines, I attended a fiesta luncheon hosted by my wife’s grandmother. The grandmother had two young people standing with hand fans in the dining room shooing the flies away from the food. I thought I was in Egypt dining with the Pharaoh. It was a tad unsettling. But I think the young people thought they were just doing their job, honoring the guests with attention. They weren’t humiliated. I don’t think the fan was a big deal, and personally think the young man deserves thanks for bestowing honor upon the guests.
# 8
Agreed. Much ado again.
Look on the bright side. The boy doing what he thought was his duty, helping his teachers honor the guest; no matter how tacky.
It is the guests, not Mr. Wee, who incur my ire. They should have declined, thanked the boy, and told him to sit down with his buddies. Graciously thank the teachers, and say no thanks.
The slaves fan the Pharaoh because the Pharaoh thinks he deserves it. Ditto for the mayor and that (oh no) man of the cloth/secretary of education.
You never know. Brother Luistro may have descended from Padre Damaso.
#5. joeseg, ginawang portable fan ang pupil. Very resourceful na mga guro. 🙂
Snv, you mean #7?
I don;t think this is “Much ado.”
You have educators, no less than the education secretary tolerating this slave-master setup?
I don’t know how to judge what’s in this picture. Ellen says its a master-slave setup. I go along the same lines of Joe and Sax. The kid was, after all, just honoring the scout pledge. He was doing his share in making their honored guests most convenient in that situation. Together with his teachers, they made sure Sec. Luistro and Mayor Lobregat saw how thankful they were for giving them a new building.
They could have just let it stand on the elevated stage and tilted upwards in the podium’s direction. Or they could have used the vacant chair, but of course they won’t, for crying out loud.
What I personally deplore is the absence of common sense on the part of the adults/teachers/educators in that gathering. It would have been extraordinarily more sensible to pull a small table or a chair to put the ventilator on. The fact of ordering or requesting a boy to hold the ventilator is neither here nor there. I thought inculcating common sense in the young should be part of educating our kids. 🙂
# 10
Agreed. I meant much ado as far as Mr. Wee, and the name-calling (child abuser). You know it is in our culture to jump through hoops just to honor the guests; and usually the adults ask the young ones to do this.
My siblings and I were mopping floors in our flooded house, at 12 years of age, when a downpour rained on my father’s party, which included the Swiss bosses of his multinational company. All the while, they were enjoying their drinks.
We thought it was fun. And we did it to help my Dad.
Mr. Wee gets a pass from me here. The man of the cloth, he should be defrocked, like Padre Damaso.
Anne, There was in fact a vacant chair. Look at the second picture. There was also a bigger stand fan (white) facing the other guests on stage.
So was there really a need for a second fan? No.
They were just spoiling their guests as a way of thanking them. The eagerness to show gratitude was just OA. That’s all. Let’s not lose sleep over that.
I saw that. In fact my first reaction was why did they not pull a chair instead.
Am no longer in the loop about this cultural quirks in Pinas (I don’t think we did that or was made to do something so blatantly lacking in common sense by the teachers when I was a kid hahaha)
And no, I won’t lose sleep over it Tongue hahahah… But Julie will. Just read that they are going to file a case against her? The school will be going OA if they make good their threat — and now, that will be much ado over this bit … 😉 hala, ayan, making a mountain out of something ang labas nila
There are a lot of disturbing things happening around us whining over a human stand fan for now is the least of my concerns.
There’s the shooting in the Batman premiere in CO where 12 are dead including a 3-month old girl. (What’s she doing in a midnight premiere?)
A freak hailstorm in the middle of summer heat in NY.
The bombing/assassination of Assad’s bro-in-law Assef Shawkat, the defence minister, the deputy VP, et al in Syria. (I have a morgue picture of Shawkat from a Turkish friend he says it’s exclusive).
And of course, the failure to issue a communique in ASEAN headed by the Chinese-reliant Cambodians.
Life is a waterbed, eh? You squeeze here, it pops up there. The cries of “humiliation” are harder on the boy than the assignment of holding the fan. It would have been better if he had just been thanked. Are we concerned about the boy or the values of servitude in the Philippines? If we are concerned about the values of servitude, maybe we ought to direct our attention to culprits other than the kid, or whoever instructed him, in good intent, to hold the fan. Why beat up on the kid’s feelings?
Julie Alipala’s update:
According to ABSCBN Zamboanga, Mr Jesus Francisco of ZCHS Main is going to file charges against me for the facebook photo where a boy holds an electric fan.
He said it was voluntary and it didnt take a minute (for a human stand fan incident). He also said such activity is part of the boyscout training. He also said there is a need to hold the fan because its head no longer turns in short defective.
As usual, PNoy sense of humor lightens the mood. Some of the comments in Yahoo (where this article is also posted):
This one came from Beryong27 in Yahoo:
mga palusot nga, eh.
mga sinalibad ng pitong kuwagong pagong!
From Nonoy Ativo:
Dear Ms. Tordesillas,
I am writing regarding your article at http://ph.news.yahoo.com/blogs/the-inbox/students-used-human-stand-electric-fan-160907427.html
Since you were writing about a picture that Julie Alipala of PDI posted on her FB page maybe you can enlighten me on some issues:
We all have the right to post anything in our own FB pages but if you are a public figure or a journalist what you post carries that additional trait of being true. As a journalist your opinion carries more weight and people may form their opinions based on yours. It is in this context that I feel Ms. Julie may have abused this freedom.
You mentioned in your article, “Julie said she found out later that the not- so- bright idea to make the young boys hold the electric fan to cool the guests was that of a teacher, Jesus Francisco.”
And I am curious to know how she found this out. Did she interview the kids? Did she ask around? Who did she ask? Did she actually talk to Mr. Jesus Francisco? It is possible that we may have missed something from their side. It is also possible that electric fan needed to be held at that level to properly reach an esteemed guest. I think until we get the whole story the rest of the world should reserve their opinions. But since it was posted by a journalist it becomes a statement. And for what purpose? We can only guess. I would like to believe Ms. Julie can be altruistic at every moment of the day and maybe she meant well when she posted this picture. But I believe that our advocacies cannot advance, not at the expense of the truth or the whole picture of the incident.
People in media hold so much power. People who are perceived to be credible, like journalists and celebrities, hold even greater power. Shouldn’t they endeavour to teach those they touch about the importance of objectivity, of truth? This may seem like a small issue but a lot of us wield the power of our virtual pen as if we owed the world or our profession nothing.
Thank you for your time.
Noy,Mr. Wee in his letter to Julie identified Mr. Francisco as the one who made the boys hold the desk fan.
That portion of his letter to Julie:
“It was Mr. Jesus Francisco who only requested the boy to hold d fan temporarily not for me but for the guest because that was a hot afternoon. The sun was toward the podium.”
Noy check out #18.
Julie said in Mr. Francisco interview with ABS-CBN Zamboanga,”He said it was voluntary and it didnt take a minute (for a human stand fan incident). He also said such activity is part of the boyscout training. He also said there is a need to hold the fan because its head no longer turns in short defective.”
Ellen,
Susmaryosep! I’m irate, foaming at the mouth, homicidal, suicidal, humiliated, debased, degraded! And not only that, I feel like throwing up to be living my middle years in a country of this nature. I am nauseated! Napaka-sipsip nung bata, Boy Scout pa naman!
Tignan mo na lang yung titig ng mga taong nakapaligid sa kanya. Galit sila na sinosolo niya ang pagsipsip kay Mayor.
This has some kind of Parallel with the Military Officer who did not want to get wet and Piggy Back to one of the Enlisted men or some errant man while a Caucasian (a US officer?) was walking in a shallow water…The very simple thingy these “educators” (use their brains a little bit) if there was no floor Fan available is to find a stool or small table to hold the Fan.
And Also there is a safety warning not to hold or touch the Electric Fan while it is running..it is a SAFETY ISSUE and that is enough to negate the lawsuit..and instead the trouble is on their side.
#25. MB,hahahaha. It’s good to start the day laughing.
“Wee, the master of ceremonies, said it was not he that the electric fan being held by a student was trying to make comfortable” – Wee
what the ???? Good Lord, the wooden podium must be heating up, needs to cool off.
“He also said there is a need to hold the fan because its head no longer turns in short defective.”
If that’s the case, it’s a good boy scout training for the boy to oscillate, make those vip’s nearby to be comfortable. Haaay lord almighty, Only in da Pilipins.
Hahahahaha. #30.
ay, kulang pa nga iyan, eh. dapat sana’y pinag-ige na ng batang iyon ang pagsisipsep para napreskuhan ang mga kagalanggalang na punog abala at panauhing pandangal.
ay, dapat nga ay dumipa siya’t nagpaikot ikot na parang balakatak para lalong naging maginhawa ang pakiramdam ng lahat at hindi nagreklamo ‘yung ibang nagkaagihap ang singet at kuyukot dahil sa natuyong pawis.
Ang akala ko masamang pahanginan ang likod. Wrong orientation sa positioning ng human electric fan, pero pag sa harapan naman pumuwesto matatakpan sa camera ang resource person. Next time ha maglagay na lang ng pamaypay sa ibabaw ng rostrum hehe!
An abundance of great ideas here. Mr. Francisco and everybody present in that affair should read this post.
Sumasakit ang tiyan ko sa kakatawa.
My, oh my…what kind of “leaders?|” do we have…
Mag apologized nalang ang lahat ng andoon. Higit lalo si Secretary ng DepEd. Mangangakong di na mauulit. TAPOS ang kaso
Ang saya saya ng mga comments. Salamat tru blue.. galing ng comments mo, ha ha ha ha