I researched first before making any reaction to this post.
I also like to say before elaborating by comments that I have been following the Sinulog since its birth during Boy Odilao's time because my father was an MYSD coordinator before the Sinulog was passed on to the Sinulog Foundation. Since I became a columnist, I did not miss commenting on the Sinulog in my columns. What am trying to say is, I understand the cultural context.
And I learned that:
1. This post was copy-pasted from the Cebufinest.com blog. And from his Facebook and Twitter, the admin actively promoted this himself.
2. The blog post described the girl in costume as the festival queen who was asked by the 2GO models to take their picture. She was embarrassed but obliged to do so. Because of this, we were led to believe (and many are saying that she is the festival queen winner from Tuburan) that she actually danced in a contingent and these bastos models asked her to take their picture.
3. The truth: a. She is an employee at the 2GO Cebu office who was on the float the whole time together with their guests.b. The guests included two members of the Philippine rugby team Volcanoes, the Mr. Philippines-Universe winnner, and PBB housemate/Miss Earth runner up Princess Manzon.c. They were taking each other's photos on the float without malice and took care to have the image of Senyor Santo Nino as the center of attention. The girl in festival costume was not asked nor was made to feel embarrassed. We can actually browse the rest of their photos (posted in the 2GO Facebook and this link h
ttp://prworksph.com/volcanoes-princess-manzon-join-sinulog-revelry-with-2go/
4. I agree the girl should not have taken the photo considering sensibilities especially at the grandstand but that was one photo of an eventful day that resulted in Cebu visitors so happy with their Sinulog experience.
5. I would respect the sentiments expressed by those who saw the incident that includes friends who said they did not notice any boos while another said "dunay namadlong sa ubos." However, it is different when you Photoshop a picture and spreading this altered photo all over the Net. Responsible media ethics tell us this is a no-no.
6. The blog post is also trying to influence our reaction and succeeding most of the time using his fictionalized account about the festival queen embarrassingly asked by models.
7. We should also balance our reaction and comments with Cebuano hospitality. These visitors had a good time and were not disrespectful. Perhaps there was a lapse as they took pictures of each other but this is a whole lot different to the fictionalized account of the original poster.
I hope we will temper our comments to this photo that was taken out of context, and worse, packaged in such a way as to create contempt (and page views -- for the ads, of course).