Ruffy Magbanua
“We shouldn’t judge people through the prism of our own stereotypes.” —Queen Rania of Jordan
RODY “Digong’ Duterte, the next president of this Republic, comes from Mindanao. Leni Robredo, the incoming vice president, comes from Naga.
Duterte’s choice of his cabinet secretaries are basically from the provinces. And we call them “promdis”?
If the Bisaya and the Mindanaoan are called “promdis,” then what do we call the people from Imperial Manila? Perhaps, they deserve to be called “urbasites” as well, short for urban and parasite.
They are the so-called urbanites, yes, but parasites to the bones. Urbanites because they always think all the modern amenities are within their reach, yet parasites because they practically rely on the natural manna from the provinces.
To label people from the provinces as “promdis” is basically stereotyping at the highest order.
Skeptics and the intellectual morons consider themselves “superior” to people outside of Metro Manila mainly because of that regional thinking–that negative attitude of “divide and rule” mantra, which is basically a twisted cultural norm not even acceptable by ordinary folks in the streets.
Shame on people who carelessly (read: deliberately) call us “promdis.” You are the source of discord and disunity which have been tightly embedded, perhaps permanently, at the very core of our national pride.
In the eyes of Imperial Manila, Mindanao is second-class (or even third-class) and therefore deserves the back seat. But not anymore, this time. The seat of power is now in Davao, literally, at least in the next six years.
You often call people from Visayas and Mindanao as bisdak or Bisayang Dako, very provincial–yet it was Cagayan de Oro homegrown beauty in the person of Miss Universe Pia Alonzo Wurtsbach who stunned the world by her clear-cut Bisaya accent.
And now we have two upcoming leaders of this country who hail from the provinces, all Bisdaks–Duterte from Davao and Robredo from Naga.
And of course, we have Senator-elect Manny Pacquaio from Sarangani province, one of the world’s boxing greats. Manny is a blue-blooded Bisdak, too.
Who else? Ahh, so many others out there, all of them deserve to be called Pinoys, not “promdis.”
As I see it, people from Metro Manila or even from Luzon for that matter, always think of Mindanao as a laid-back, dangerous island filled with terrorists and rebels.
And because of this wrong notion, there is this continuing bias reporting from some Manila-based mainstream media.
Case in point, when Basilan was stormed by more than 5,000 soldiers and marines last week, a national broadsheet bannered “War in Mindanao.”
The next day, another paper had its headline: “Martial Law in Mindanao?” The geographic ignorance may apply here. Now, if the Cordillera region is at war with the communists, are we going to say “War in Luzon?”
Again, there is this lingering ignorance about the people in Mindanao. This gives way to stereotyping by people who pretend to know about the island’s heartbeat.
With all these hullabaloos about Mindanao, a longunning misconception ought to be corrected.
Lastly, some people had this mindset of regional prejudices. And the island of Mindanao is no exception to that. They always think Mindanao as a region of “second-class citizens,” hence the branding “Promdi.”
Well, think again folks. You may be calling from the wrong side of the fence.
E-mail: ruffy44_ph2000@yahoo.com
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