Give me Jollibee or give me death!

For a change, I am telling my jaded and cynical self to shut up and let me rant on something not entirely negative about President Aquino. It almost brought a smile on my face to chance upon a newspaper article about P-Noy visiting a Jollibee store in Singapore, to chat and shoot a surprise selfie photo-op with overseas Filipino workers there. Perhaps it has more to do with my fondness for Jollibee than anything else as I have no love lost for this President whose recent actuations have routinely irritated me, particularly his and Malacañang’s unabashed and stupid response to suggestions that he go to the wake of Jennifer Laude.

But whoever made the suggestion for P-Noy, who just got a beating in public opinion after missing a funeral, to take an unscheduled detour to Jollibee showed there are still thinking members of the presidential entourage, who know the pulse of the masses and have not, unlike their master, completely lost touch with the rest of the world. Which unfortunately would make the presidential visit to Jollibee Singapore another carefully-orchestrated, if subtle, damage-control stunt that, to be sure, is not at all original.

When under heavy artillery fire, or trying to survive aerial political bombardment, politicians retreat to the protective embrace of the sympathetic masses by doing something cute. During the height of the Lewinsky scandal and after the ignominy of his impeachment, Bill Clinton brought home a dog to the White House, taking the pooch to solitary, if well-calculated long walks at the White House lawn. The seemingly innocent ploy to earn the sympathy of ordinary Americans had very profound implications because political strategists know that millions of Americans love their dogs like crazy and they will gladly embrace dog-lovers like them. That dog licked Mr. Clinton’s political wounds until they healed and his approval rating dramatically recovered.

P-Noy was doing the same thing with a visit to Jollibee. After all, the story of the small family business that made it big may well be the story that all Filipinos would like to be able to narrate when telling the story of their own lives. How Jollibee emerged from obscure beginnings to become an industry giant and world-beater, besting the No. 1 hamburger fast-food chain in the world, McDonald’s, in various fronts and in various territorial hamburger battlegrounds, immortalizes the underdog role to which Filipinos are hopelessly gullible. Meantime, the Jollibee Chickenjoy has recently been proclaimed the best fried chicken by respected US fast-food experts, making KFC yet another victim after Ronald McDonald.

Jollibee had been doing the conquering of foreign territories and the taking of “Pinoy” pride to greater heights long before Manny Pacquiao started his own dramatic rise to global stardom in the world of sports.

Here at home, Jollibee is the unifying force in the middle of otherwise divided social classes and alienated generations. Admit it. When you were young, Jollibee was the hamburger heaven that you pester your parents to bring you to, except that when you slowly matured and your tastes became more sophisticated, you sneered at Jollibee being “baduy” or “bakya” but, oh yes, admit it. Your happy grown-up life today does not remotely come close to your happiest childhood memories . . . when Tatay and Nanay were taking your entire family to Jollibee.

Jollibee captures the heart of the everyday Filipino like nothing else can. The beloved Jollibee in your community is the political neutral ground and permanent peace zone, where feuding neighbors and the most bitter of rivals for barangay chair can find themselves sitting side by side with each other, munching on a full order of Jollibee Amazing Aloha Champ in the spirit of complete tolerance and mutual respect. That small, ubiquitous store right around the corner may well be the last frontier of the family’s many happy meals, of boisterous children’s parties and barkada gimmicks on a tight teen budget and, you know what(?), it will stay that way for as long as Filipinos with a taste for the good, honest and simple life dwell among us.

Adel Abillar is a private practitioner with a small law office in Quezon City where, he says, “I alternate between being boss and messenger.” He obtained his law and pre-law degrees from Manuel L. Quezon University and University of Santo Tomas, respectively.