Angel Locsin, humanitarian

“She has worked with women’s group Gabriela for over a decade now, promoting women’s and children’s rights, an association which some narrow-minded aberrant ignoramuses feebly deprecate as politically suspect.

With many celebrating actress Angel Locsin’s unselfish acts of bringing aid and relief to survivors of the Mindanao earthquakes, it is time now to distinguish the famous from the celebrity.

Doing this isn’t at all facetious. The public mind instinctively knows the distinction between fame and celebrity — famous people are credible while celebrities are not.

In fact, in a bygone era, as writer Umberto Eco crisply noted, there was a rigid distinction between being famous and being talked about. Everyone wanted to become famous, as in being a famous painter or physicist. No one then wanted to be talked about, as in someone rumored of having an affair with a married gambling man.

But we are now in an era where fame sulks in the shadows, unceremoniously pushed back by garish celebrities, fearing unbearable anonymity, doing everything to be “seen” and “talked about” to the extent of exposing their sordid private lives.

It is, therefore, refreshing to see a celebrity, or, more accurately, a credible famous figure liberating us from the nihilism of today’s celebrity-culture. A culture where even TV newscasters embarrass themselves swooning over fatuities of the Baretto sisters’ style of celebrityhood. It’s a welcome change we’ve been waiting for.

I am on safe ground here when I claim the familiar Ms. Locsin belongs more to the category of the famous rather than the celebrity. It’s not a dreary wad of babble.

Even before the tragic series of earthquakes in troubled Mindanao, the 34-year-old actress often showed she had her head and heart in the right places, that in her own little way she was making our corner of the world a better place.

It is no small matter that this particular highly photogenic actress is caring for the needy in times of disaster. For better or worse, the most celebrated among us are given the unique opportunity to have a big impact on society — a power. Obviously, Ms. Locsin chose to wield that power with more grace and humility than others.

Her latest efforts in shaken Mindanao can’t be dismissed as brazen conceit, no matter how one tries to be cynical. Photos surfacing on social media showing the 34-year-old Locsin, wearing a baseball cap to hide her identity, buying and distributing, with her fiancée in tow, a truckload of relief goods for quake victims in Davao del Sur with Red Cross Mindanao didn’t look at all staged.

After Ms. Locsin handed out help to some 300 stricken families, the Philippine Red Cross office in Davao del Sur gushed with high praises for the actress, calling her “a true humanitarian indeed!” Others quickly christened her “a real-life angel.”

“It’s a big help for those who are affected especially now na ang dami nating dapat tulungan (that there are a lot of people in need of help), and Angel Locsin is a volunteer of Red Cross. Every time may disaster even in other areas, Angel Locsin is always there. The ‘Darna’ is always there,” says Helen Caberto, the province’s Red Cross chapter administrator.

The obvious reference here is to Ms. Locsin’s television role of the Filipina superhero comic-book heroine “Darna.” But the notable nod here is Ms. Locsin’s off-camera heroism isn’t a one-off on-camera role-playing.

Her heroism is real then. In her latest effort to help, she did so without any prior tip-offs to media, just as she did in the past. If ever her humanitarian acts were publicized these were captured by those who witnessed her visits, posting videos and photos online.

She also came immediately, a day after last Thursday’s 6.4 temblor while other actresses and other showbiz denizens were busy attending Halloween parties.

In fact, the outspoken activist actress often goes on disaster relief efforts. In June 2017, she went to Lanao del Norte to visit evacuation centers housing scarred victims of the destruction of Marawi City, distributing food packs and school supplies while observing Ramadan with them.

She also skipped the vulgarities of the 2019 ABS-CBN Ball last September, directly donating the money she would have spent for a ball gown to the Bantay Bata Foundation.

Previous to all these, she held an online auction for her prized vintage Chevrolet car for the victims of typhoon “Ondoy,” which had inflicted $1 billion in damages and more than 700 fatalities.

Ms. Locsin’s strong willingness to help in times of disaster isn’t her only admirable trait. She has worked with women’s group Gabriela for over a decade now, promoting women’s and children’s rights, an association which some narrow-minded aberrant ignoramuses feebly deprecate as politically suspect.

One memorable incident of her activism was her an on-air tiff two years ago with avid Duterte supporter Robin Padilla over female TV contestants performing a car-wash dance routine wearing only skimpy underwear.

Lambasting the way the contestants were being objectified on national TV, she asserted Filipinas needed to be more aware of the exploitative practices done on them.

“Kaya nga, ‘di ba, may mga pinapasarang mga bar yung Gabriela. Ganyan, kasi akala nila ito yung way, ito yung way para makakuha ng pera, para sumikat,” she had memorably said then.

She spoke truth to power, rare in the entertainment industry. And in the incident with Padilla, against our society’s prevalent misogynies.

Indeed, we do need more Angel Locsins, not only in showbiz, to speak truth to power and even to stand firmly against it. These are the only ways if advocacies are to lead to meaningful socioeconomic change, this speaking out and questioning powerful forces producing poverty or degradation in our midst.

We also do need more Angel Locsins quickly aiding the luckless of our present moment where unnerved quake victims are on the highways desperately begging for food, water, tents and medicine, while howling unanswerable existential plaints as one nameless earthquake victim in Makilala, Cotabato did: “When will this end? When will our misery stop? We are poor. Why are we being punished with this calamity?”