What’s Wrong with Willie Revillame?

In late September of last year, comedian and entertainer Willie Revillame promised to launch the newest television network in the Philippines– ALLTV with all the glamour and the pomp. Six months later, we saw Revillame spilling his guts out, defeated, and even blaming us, the audiences, for making things worse despite him doing good things for poor people. His show WOWOWIN got canceled along with other performances by big-name celebrities, such as Toni Gonzaga, Ruffa Gutierrez, and even Mariel Rodriguez-Padilla.

Fast review several years ago, we see Revillame making a mockery of the misery of thousands of ABS-CBN employees who lost their jobs when the Philippine Congress decided not to extend the franchise of their company. Former Duterte spox Hairy Roque even identified him as the one behind the loss of the franchise. Revillame was quick to defend himself by saying that he came from ABS and had nothing to do with the loss of the franchise.

Mr. Revillame has lost it. He has this habit of ascribing blame to others when the one responsible is he. Yep, Revillame is a relic of Philippine entertainment. He thinks he knows how to entertain people. The thing is, Revillame’s style is very similar to that of a local town peryahan owner who lures people in with his color games and bingos. The problem with Mr. Revillame is he thinks he still got the game when the apparent fact is he has lost it.

Mr. Revillame wants to style himself as a German Moreno, who, for decades, entertained the people with his unique style. Revillame has no style. He thinks entertainment is giving monies to poor people. There’s a term for this, and it’s called–poverty porn. Even Moreno, at the height of his career as an entertainer, did not tolerate or even let himself be fooled by people who whispered to him to give monies to people as a form of entertainment. That’s not entertainment– it’s bribery.

Worse, Revillame is, wittingly or unwittingly, doing the most despicable thing he accuses politicians of– patronage politics. Through Revillame’s antics, he has contributed to the diminution and deterioration of people’s moral perceptions. His recent tirades show his insincerity in that he expects to get back every cent he once showered poor people with. Revillame thinks that he’s the Robinhood next-door type when all he is, is a poor entertainer.