AS SEEN ON TV
A dysfunctional pieta
What makes news media gravitate towards Jason Ivler?
Ordinarily, road rage ending in bloodshed would have been treated as just another police story of usefulness mostly to tabloids and AM radio. But take exception on Jason Ivler who seems mandatorily carried by major broadsheets and giant networks for days on end. ABS-CBN Reporter Maan Macapagal’s exclusive, action-packed footage of the NBI raid at Jason Ivler’s house in Blue Ridge may have sparked demand for replays but there is more to this story than just award-nominating video and fearless, live reportage.
Jason is a developing story which opens up to complex sub stories or sidebars that people just talk endlessly about it. His crime, his life, his loves, his warped advocacy (versus bad drivers) and his weapon of choice (to change his world) are conversation pieces substantial enough to fill one too many chats, blogs, or social network posts.
For one his collection of sophisticated weapons stashed in his bedroom is an unlikely arsenal of urbane guys his age whose closets contain nothing but “porma” paraphernalia and maybe FHM. He drives around town bent on teaching discourteous drivers a lesson they can only impart in the afterlife. As a Metro Manila driver myself, the likelihood of having some Jason Ivler in a car next to mine on the road just gives me the creeps. I can’t make a traffic mistake and pay for it with my life.
Two very prominent people were killed, all in a fit of road rage. It is every bad driver’s nightmare to be sentenced by worst (self proclaimed) traffic law prosecutor ever. In his own rap CD, Jason expressed extreme hatred towards uneducated drivers infesting Metro Manila’s streets.
But his victims are anything but uneducated. In fact they’re all people with high profile lives—much higher than your average street homicide victim whose only association with fame (or notoriety) is the “sigue sigue sputnik” or “batang city jail” insignia tattooed on their bodies.
The victims either held a respectable role in society, or striving towards one. They were “at the peak” of their careers or are living very propitious personal lives before they were brusquely extinguished by a wayward terminator. Hence their families are also running a highly emotional campaign on TV resulting in an outpouring of public sympathy for those killed and mostly anger and hatred for Jason.
But this is not to say that Jason is not running a stunning public defense himself courtesy of the only family that understands him—his own. His mother Marlene Aguilar rallies by his side all this time. Her defense for Jason elicited various reactions depending on where one stands—the victim’s side, Jason’s side, Marlene’s side or the side of anyone who has a basic concept of what is right and wrong.
Marlene exemplifies “blood is thicker than water” with her blind patronage of her son’s unpopular undertakings and her sweeping condemnation of those who are judging him, including the victims’ families whom she says she “will not apologize to”. Marlene is one for the books with her case of unconventional parenting.
For the most part, she is quite clear in justifying her intentions why she coddled her son-at-large. Blame it on unfathomable mother’s love.
And she expressed this with matching soap opera eloquence giving news media a field day of sound bites, including a surreal opinion on Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. whom she defends as a “kind and decent man” almost absolving him of the gruesome murders of 57 people, who like Jason’s victims— are awaiting vindication.
In Marlene’s heart Andal is as innocent as Jason and she got that vibe merely from Andal’s close up smile when their paths crossed at the NBI? In the twisted theatrics of it all, Marlene showed her knack at judging character and the public may score her on that as well.
And Marlene is a stand alone celebrity, a perfect subject for small or big talk. She is a Malate crooner with cult following, an Asian Development Bank official’s wife and sister to Folk Song writer and performer Freddie Aguilar whose claim to fame is “Anak”—- a song about a son gone astray despite a parent’s good intentions and unfaltering love.
The Marlene and Jason dynamics is clearly immortalizing this song so aptly—- as both mother and son live it to the last note.
