On AMALAYER scandal and why we should keep calm and consider the two sides of an issue

 

This caught my attention while browsing my Facebook newsfeed, and this girl, Paula Jamie Salvosa, unfortunately became the internet sensation simply because of her alleged ‘rudeness’ towards the lady guard and became the running joke due to her ‘feeling konyo’ accent as she yells at the lady guard.

I can’t help laughing at my seat when I see the memes about her on Facebook. I even raised one of my eyebrows at how she pronounced ‘I’m a liar?’ as ‘Am A LAH-yer’. I was like, did the teachers of La Consolacion College taught her on proper pronunciation of a word, or even taught her to read dictionary for list of pronunciations of alphabets in English language? After thorough searching on Google, I’ve finally realized why she was so irate at the ladyguard.

I am not siding with Paula. However, when you experience rudeness from a guard, I don’t think y’all be calm and polite. I even bear the level of irateness worse than Paula whenever I faced inconvenience from a guard, police, government employee or a traffic volunteer when I got slapped with jaywalking penalty this morning. I even raise my voice higher than her, and throwing tantrums then. If it’s true that Paula was bitched by a ladyguard then I understand where she is coming from.

I think one of the problems in the Philippines are the guards in train stations, business establishments, and malls. I am not generalizing all the guards, it’s just that there are guards who could not distinguish between having strong personality and being a dick. Even some policemen and army soldiers also suffer being a ‘dick’ to civilians because they feel they have the authority towards everyone. I even yelled one of the guards in P.U.P. on my 4th year in college because bakit registration card lang ang pinepresenta ko instead of a valid ID (while in Polytechnic University of the Philippines, REGISTRATION CARDS are also ACCEPTABLE in lieu of an ID. I don’t know nowadays if PUP is still on the same system), and one of my classmates suffered the dickness from one of the guards there nung hinablot niya biglaan ang pouch ng kaklase ko and binalik pahampas. Parang ayaw lang ako papasukin, ‘di ba?

I understand where they are coming from, whether they feel demotivated in their job whatsover, but being ‘maangas‘ towards civilians is like NOT doing your job well. If you cannot do your job well, then eff off your post. Easy as that.

When I was still working at IBM, I couldn’t help being mataray at some of the guards because she thinks my wristlet is a pouch. However, pouch is different from a wristlet. A wristlet can be a storage for your money, ATM, mobile phone, compact powder, lighter, cigarette etc…etc… The same thing with pouch. Pouch is just bigger than wristlet. They allow bringing pouch inside the floor, as long as it is transparent, and you have to make sure it does not contains food, cellphones and other electronic gadgets, which I deem to be more lenient than Transcom (where I currently work at for past 6 months now). The only difference is, in IBM, before you could enter the operations floor, there is a guard standing in front of its door to inspect your stuff. There is no guard standing in front of operations floor in Transcom, but when a guard catches your pouch in a very visible area of your workstation, he/she will get your name. Pouches are not allowed inside Transom ops floor, so to speak.

Back to the guards. They don’t need to be too humble or too polite, but they don’t need to go so far as grabbing your arm or your stuff, or raising their voices when they see something ‘anomalous’. They should be the mediator between the establishment and the people, not being the Nazi one.

Despite the ‘feeling conyo’ accent by Paula, I can’t help feeling bad towards her as she is being misjudged by the netizens. She was even called names, she was even perceived as the matapobre or maldita one without knowing her truly. I do not even know her.

When I saw the two videos above, it appears na parang nagbabaligtaran lang ang dawalang kampo. I do not want to misjudge the ladyguard Sharon Mae Casinas is not answering the question whether she violently grabbed Paula’s arm or not. Yeah, she did not raise her voice, but NOT raising her voice DOESN’T MEAN POLITENESS. I think she feels she is old for her to humble herself for a youngster like Paula, and since she is a guard and old at the same time, it’s a high time to be a bitch towards a young lady. Unfortunately, the young lady eventually yelled back at her. Another thing, it appears that LRT authority did not confirm with Ms. Casinas if she grabbed Paula’s arm or not. Mas pinaboran pa ang guard kahit mali na. It should be noted na may tendency ang mga gwardiya na magtakipan sila ng mali ng kapwa nila. Minsan, kahit sa ibang business establishments, ganun din, depensa muna sa katrabahong nagkamali sa halip na apology sa nagawa ng kapwa nila. It is frustrating because you were inconvenieced and yet you are still wrong.

Mindfucking, isn’t it?

And the latest? Some netizens tweeted her expulsion from her alma mater La Consolacion College due to the scandal. I think what I felt is they are in rejoiced manner while she was sanctioned by the school due to such petty scandal on cyberspace. I don’t think Paula’s so-called rudeness should be equated to the sex scandals that spread like a wildfire on cyberspace and bangketasphere (read: sidewalk businesses). If it’s true that the school administration managed to kick her out due to that yelling scandal, then they should be detectives in spotting their students and their activities after school. I hate bringing this judgement up but La Consolacion, alongside Centro Escolar University and Holy Spirit University in Manila are notorious for some of its students prostituting themselves as their after-school activities. If they want their images to be protected, they should produce a hell-load of hawk-eyed spies to spot the pokpok and kick her out. I have nothing against prostitution, it’s just that prostitution has been the continued option for students simply to sustain their maluho lifestyle, and I fucking hate it. Not only that, some of their students are notorious for being ohhh-soo-maarte kapag magpapa-picture sa mga tulad ng Tronix Imaging Center in Isetann and Ever-Recto, and ang tatagal nila sa studio mag-ayos bago ang photoshoot. Kwento iyan ng dati kong kasamahan nung trainee ako.

I think some Catholic, All-women’s schools should inculcate into the minds of their students on being simple and level-headed rather than being irritatingly maarte. Not to generalize the students there, though.

If you guys happened to experienced blatant rudeness from a guard or a police, I don’t think you will be polite. You must be crazy if you did. Kung ako ang ginanun nung guard lalakasan ko lalo boses ko.