Xian, Derek and the Net

Albay Gov. Joey Salceda was fuming, hopping mad. From what we could piece together from the information that popped up and bubbled over the Internet, it seems that actor Xian Lim who was Abay’s special guest for their Fiesta Tsinoy – the local celebration of the Chinese New Year – had given them the air.

As narrated by Salceda in his Instagram and Facebook posts, Lim supposedly “rudely rejected” the gifts they gave him, a “Warm Albay” T-shirt and a coffee table book with a curt and cold, “I am not here to promote Albay.”

Salceda fired a barrage of angry posts in both Instagram and Facebook, proclaiming Lim’s action unforgivable, and throwing a few bitter punches himself.

Said the guv about Lim: “It’s either 1. His parents did not raise him well. 2. He had bad education. 3. He is not managed well. 4. His character is inversely proportional to his looks. 5. He is on something,” the governor said in his official Facebook page.

Lim was quick to apologize, saying he couldn’t wear the shirt until he cleared it with his management to make sure it did not conflict with his endorsements. But the harm, to Albay and  to Lim, was already done with the issue exploding in the Net. Albayanons from all over the world weighed in on the issue and kept it alive there, even as it had also bubbled over and spread to the mainstream media. ABS-CBN under whose management is Lim, stepped in and tried to immediately address the matter  by airing Lim’s apologies, but that also helped stoke the flames.

If you have any doubt about the viciousness and relentlessness of the Internet, here was another example: something as simple as a conversation  in faraway Albay could, in a matter of minutes spark worldwide reaction and put reputations and characters on the dock, if not slay them outright.

But how far this cyber controversy can go and impact on Lim’s and Salceda’s careers, it remains to be seen. I recall that last year, another actor, Derek Ramsey had a beating on cyberspace with the issue with his first wife who kept filing for child support.

Now, that also drew plenty of negative reactions from netizens and  for a while there, Ramsey’s leading man status was threatened, in fact some people already wrote him off. This cyberspace crisis, plus the ban on him by ABS-CBN would have ensured the end of his career. 

By the end of the year, however, it was apparent he has not only survived cyber-hell and the ABS ban,  Ramsey’s star had proved even stronger. His movie, “English Only Please” became the surprise hit of the Metro Manila Film Festival and he was making  what, five product endorsements?  Now he is all over the media, in billboards, TV, movies.

Ramsey’s case is curious. It could be that the public – the “markets” according to advertising people – have already become inured to the bad and the negative that they see in the Net and don’t make decisions based on them. Or maybe the Net is simply fast and furious but not effective as  a form of media: we can send messages through it, people will get them right away but won’t necessarily act  the way we hope they will.*

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