Real ‘kabayan’

THE NETWORK war has reached the point of hypocrisy. Imagine, I am only an ordinary and faceless viewer in the TV crowd, and here comes an anchor addressing me “Kapamilya,” “Kapatid,” or “Kapuso”? Kapuso does not even have an English synonym.

Me a what? Since when did I become a family member of giant ABS-CBN? How did GMA7 get to know of my personal character, attitude and feeling? “Kapatid”? I have only two surviving brothers, so why is that broadcaster calling me his brother? Unless TV5 is a network owned by a religious denomination.

Whatever happened to the old reliable “Mga Kaibigan, Kababayan, or Kapwa Kong Pilipino” that 99 percent of TV hosts have stopped using? Talk of kaplastikan (insincerity). That’s why I feel good when Noli de Castro addresses me simply as “kabayan” because I am really his kabayan.

—POMPEYO PEDROCHE,
[email protected]