“We shouldn’t judge people through the prism of our own stereotypes.”—Queen Rania of Jordan
Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte, the next president of the Philippines, comes from Davao City. Leni Robredo, the incoming vice president, comes from Naga City.
Duterte’s Cabinet choices are mostly from the provinces. And some people from Imperial Manila refer to them as promdi—a word of disparagement coined from the phrase “from the province.”
If the Bisaya and the Mindanaoan are promdi, so how should we call people from Imperial Manila? “Urbasites” (short for urban parasites)? They are called urbanites because they live in an urban area and modern amenities are within their reach, yet parasites because they practically rely on the natural manna from the provinces.
Shame on people who disparage the promdi. With their discriminatory frame of mind, they encourage discord and disunity in this country, among our very own people.
In their eyes, Mindanao is just a second-class, or even third-class, far-flung corner of the Philippines and, therefore, deserves only the backseat. But not anymore this time. The seat of power is now in Davao, literally, at least for the next six years.
“Urbasites” also call people from the Visayas and Mindanao “bisdak” for “bisayang dako” (a genuine Bisaya) which suggests of the latter’s being manifestly “very provincial.” Forgetting altogether—even as they proclaim as their own—that the reigning Miss Universe is a bisayang dako, a promdi, a home-grown beauty from Cagayan de Oro.
And now we will soon have two promdi occupying the two highest positions of government in our land—Duterte and Robredo.
And, of course, not to forget one of the world’s greatest boxing icons of all time, who will also be sitting as a senator-elect, Manny Pacquiao, a purebred promdi and bisdak from Sarangani province.
The promdi are as Pinoys as the people from Imperial Manila, and they deserve to be called such.
—RUFFY MAGBANUA, ruffy44_ph2000@yahoo.com