Like - Unlike Davao

Unlike: Cebu Pacific and Airport Personnel

After two years, I finally had a chance to visit Davao again – the city of exotic fruits, feisty but friendly people and very strict no smoking ordinances.

I arrived in Davao via Cebu Pacific which was not delayed – hooray! But what’s with the selling of snacks on their flights? I thought receiving Bravo cookies and juice that tasted like sweetened boiled plastic aboard PAL and AirPhil was annoying but this one borders on the absurd. 3-in-1 coffee for 50 pesos? WTF! And then there’s the onboard game when I wished that there was some button to eject the attendant because she was lamer than the game she hosted. And to top it off, there was the hawking of Cebu Pacific souvenirs. When I looked out of the window, I half expected someone sitting on the wings waiting for his chance to sell peanuts, mineral water and newspapers.

I brought a large box with me on my flight (no, there were no bodies of flight crews in there) but I don’t think airport personnel are allowed to help any of their passengers with their baggage. Not one offered or attempted to ask if I needed help lugging the box from the carrousel to my cart. And when I brought it out of the airport in Davao, no one checked my bag or my box if they really belonged to me. Maybe the non-helpful personnel were the deterrent to checking out more baggage than you really own. Okay, so that’s smart - not. On my way home, I hand carried 8 kilos of pomelo, mangosteen and pastel across both the tarmacs of DIA and NAIA and no one offered me a cart, a hand or even a paper towel to wipe the sweat off my forehead and my armpits. I wished I had baktol then so I could make the airport personnel feel my wrath every time I raised my arms. Take that, you miserable vermins!

Like: MTV Exit in Davao

On my second day in Davao, I was able to catch MTV Exit at SM Davao. MTV EXIT is MTV’s advocacy to end exploitation and human trafficking around the world. It’s a brilliant and worthwhile advocacy but MTV? Let’s see.

They had three bands: Imago, Moymoy Palaboy and Itchyworms. This line-up of course pales in comparison to MTV Exit in SM Mall of Asia where I heard that they had 12 bands performing until way past midnight, including Gary Valenciano and Bamboo. I missed the whole thing though. I had to work, okay? The EXIT event in Davao was over by 8PM but I had fun. Imago was Imago – ear candy but does not offer much to entertain visually. I never saw Moymoy Palaboy live but they can actually carry a show. They knew how to have fun onstage and they can even sing outside of their lip-synching act on YouTube and Bubble Gang. Itchyworms was fun, too but I’ve seen too much of them so there’s not much to say there.

MTV is one of the most influential media outfits in this century and taking on human trafficking and exploitation as an advocacy is a sign of corporate maturity. However, like a teenybopper taking on more mature roles, MTV has a lot of misses rather than hits with this one. For one, when showing video clips on exploitation, it’s ridiculous to put Paris Hilton in between, egging on her “bitches” to join her reality show. It just doesn’t jive. And how about the representative from the NGO called Visayan Forum who was unable to speak a single Visayan word to the Cebuano-speaking crowd? And her speech – what was that about? Exploitation does not only happen when you want to go abroad, you know. A lot of our brothers and sisters from the South get exploited right here in the country, right in our own very households. Having popular bands to help raise awareness is a good one but I hope the bands also know what they’re talking about. We can all take a cue from Bono and U2. So, how about U2 in the Philippines for next year’s MTV EXIT tour?

Note: Thanks to Moymoy Palaboy and Road Fill (did I spell this right?) for taking the time to chat and have their picture with me at the NAIA. Unfortunately, I can’t post it here because it did not get saved in my phone. Wala akong ibidinsiya! A hiss and a boo and an “unlike and a half” for my booboo.