User:Nino Gonzales/jologs

THE JOLOGS PHENOMENON

Origins, Reactions and Future

By Nino Gonzales

Abstract

This paper examines the Jologs Phenomenon. By way of comparative analysis of two specimen cities, origins of the phenomenon are gleaned. Various attempts to overcome the phenomenon are then examined. Lastly, the future is predicted for the two specimen cities, in relation to the Jologs Phenomenon.

Scope: Jologs, the poor urban youth of Manila

The earliest recorded usage of the term "jologs" is from pop music lyrics of the late 80's to the early 90's. The late 90's saw the rise of blogging, which provided a more accessible media for storing sub-cultural linguistic formations like "jologs" that reflect emerging social phenomena. "Jologs," as a term, has evolved and has had various usages, all of which denote tackiness or bad taste, as can be seen in several web-based dictionaries. This study tackles one of the usages of Jologs--Jologs as a derogatory term for a social class in Manila: the poor urban youth. Manila, as in all cities, has its own terms for the poor. Yet jologs stands out since it does not refer to one’s poverty, as with mahirap; or with bad taste, as with baduy. We could get an idea of its meaning from the Palanca Award winner, Paolo Manalo, in his summary of the generally accepted theories of its etymology:

“ The True: Jolog came from Jolina. It's what a fan of hers is called. "Jol" from Jolina + "og" like the suffix -ite or -ian. "But we've never heard of a suffix -og to mean 'follower,'" complained one of my more inquisitive students. Besides, the word was in existence before Jolina became a star. "Besides," my student added, "Jolina's not jolog. At most, she's baduy."

The Good: The word originally referred to the Pinoy hip-hop, or hiffhaffers, especially those seen walking as a group in malls. Hiphop fashion includes those very loose and wide pants that were huhulog-hulog (kept falling). "Hulog" later was spelled "Julog" until it was pronounced "ju-log", then its final form: "jo-log". Many students were shaking their heads. "That sounds too easy, too obvious."

The Beautiful: The etymology I'm familiar with (and that makes the most sense to me) is geographically specific. The term was coined by high school students in Quezon City, specifically those familiar with Quezon Avenue in the 80's. Back then, across National Bookstore, Quezon Avenue, was a disco that was rumored to be owned or co-owned by Edu Manzano. This disco was cheap compared to the popular discos of the time that were in Makati. In fact, the place was called "the squatter of discos". This establishment had a pretentious name: Jaloux. The disco played really baduy disco music, and people who frequented the place were young fashion victims who were quite feeling and baduy themselves.

High school students from private schools would tease each other: "Hey pare, I saw you at Jaloux last night." This was such an insult. Eventually other schools picked this up. "Si John, pumupuntang Jaloux." "Wow, John, Jaloux ka pala." Eventually it became an adjective too. "Kadiri, Melanie's Jaloux." […]

The Definitive: "Sorry, sir," said one of my students, "but I think you're mistaken. We discussed this in our philosophy class by accident and it seems that the "jolog" word's origin comes from food." "What?"

"You don't recognize it now because the spelling's changed, but it was actually originally spelled as 'diyolog' which stands for dilis (anchovies), tuyo (dried fish) and itlog (egg)--the food of the poor. And it was used like this: 'Oh, look she eats diyolog.' Later it became 'Look, diyolog, o.' Until the 'diy' got changed to 'j', hence 'jolog. […]'”

”

It may take years of research for the experts to agree on the etymology of Jologs. However, it is clear that the word is an invention of the middle or upper class; specifically, the middle or upper class of Manila. This knowledge of the originators of the word would be the starting point of our study of the origins of jologs—not of the word, but of the social phenomenon. We know that the birthplace of the phenomenon, the concept, the word, is Manila. We also know that its growth and full maturity took place in the same city. However, there is nothing which shows us that this phenomenon is happening in other cities.

Methodology: Comparative Analysis

If jologs is a result of social, cultural and historical circumstances, a comparative study on Manila with another specimen city that does not exhibit this phenomenon could reveal important insights to its origin. If we have two similar dishes, one a bit saltier than the other, we would naturally look at the ingredients and cooking method, and look for differences to see what made one saltier than the other. Let’s say we find out that the only differences are that one was cooked half an hour longer, that one contained twice the amount of salt as the other, and that one had lemon grass and the other didn’t. The most logical deduction would be that one is saltier because it contained twice the amount of salt as the other. This method has been successfully used by leading scholars like Benedict Anderson (to analyze nations) and Arnold J. Toynbee (to analyze civilizations).

Two requirements must therefore be met by our specimen city: it must be very similar to Manila and it must not exhibit the jologs phenomenon. After a long and thorough search for a specimen city, I have arrived at the conclusion that the city that fits the bill is Cebu. The historical recipe of Cebu and Manila are very similar. Both came from fresh Malay stock with a sprinkling of Chinese and a dash of Spanish, both were marinated with three centuries of hispanization, and after being cooked golden brown in the hearth of history, both were covered with a glazing of American institutions and served with a side-dish of Hollywood culture.

And to fulfill the second requirement, there is no sign of the jologs phenomenon in Cebu. There are of course poor people in Cebu, and the words that come with it: kabus, pobre, pordoy. But none of them imply inferiority; they simply mean one does not have money. Moreover, a simple Google search of “jologs” would give us strong proof that the jologs phenomenon is unique to Manila; a quick scan of the results would show us that all the authors are Manilenyos. Another proof is the scarce usage of the word in Cebu even with the word’s exploitation by nationally distributed movies and songs. A web-based survey shows that Cebuanos not directly exposed to Manila culture do not understand the word.

The Jologs Factors

Now that we have our specimen cities, we could examine what the jologs factors are. Again, these factors would have to exist in our specimen cities in different degrees, or would be present in one and absent in the other. They must also be in some way connected to the jologs phenomenon.

Concentration of People

The most obvious difference between Cebu and Manila would be the density of populations. The strongest development in the Philippines has been concentrated in Manila. Thus, for many Filipinos, the only chance of landing well-paying jobs is to migrate to Manila. Throughout the years, millions have been pouring into the big city. What may seem as overpopulation may just be an inordinate concentration of wealth and consequently of people in Manila. As we could see in Table 1, there is a wide gap between the population density and the per capita income of Manila and the Philippines as a whole.

Table 1: Per Capita Income and Population Density of Manila and the Philippines

Area	2000 Per Capita Income (in pesos)	2000 Population Density (in ppsk*)
Metro Manila	66,173	15,617
Philippines	28,751	255

• ppsk = persons per square kilometer

This inordinate concentration of people may be a factor in the incidence of prejudice to which the word jologs is a manifestation of. According to www.understandingprejudice.org, one cause of prejudice and discrimination is the outgroup homogeneity bias.

“ In the language of social psychology, an "ingroup" is a group to which someone belongs, and an “outgroup” is a group to which the person does not belong (hence, one person's ingroup may be another person's outgroup, and vice versa). Research on the outgroup homogeneity effect has found that when it comes to attitudes, values, personality traits, and other characteristics, people tend to see outgroup members as more alike than ingroup members. As a result, outgroup members are at risk of being seen as interchangeable or expendable, and they are more likely to be stereotyped. This perception of sameness holds true regardless of whether the outgroup is another race, religion, nationality, college major, or other naturally occurring group (Linville, 1998). ”

Jologs is clearly an outgroup as well as a stereotype, and the size of the population in Manila may be a contributing factor to this. If we take the exclusiveness of musical groups as analogous to the exclusiveness of social groups, we would see that the density of the population is a factor in inducing an outgroup homogeneity effect. One Cebuano musician responds when asked to compare the Cebuano music scene to the one of Manila:

“ “Some people there would say that the reggae/punk/ska scene here is more "solid". Unlike Manila [where] there's a group for ska, there's another one for reggae, and for punk. It's not bad though since Manila is a big place.” ”

If the size of the population is a contributing factor to the division between groups defined by genres of music, it would also be a contributing factor to the division between jologs and non-jologs.

Immigration

Another factor to the jologs phenomenon may be the immigrant roots of the jologs. Although immigration could potentially provide healthy diversity, there is also the danger of creating outgoups like jologs. According to Ornonez, the counterpart of the jologs back in his days (probably the 40’s or 50’s) were the bakya, who “came in droves, their wooden shoes clacking on the wooden footbridge connecting the slummy Bagong Tanque.” Wooden clogs, bakya in Tagalog, characterized the immigrants from the provinces and thus gave them this moniker laden with provinciano connotations. The jologs of today are very likely the sons and daughters of the bakya. They are the next stage of the evolution of bakya—stripped of rural undertones yet treated still as outsiders.

The Jologs Phenomenon research team made an exploratory study of an authentic jologs hang-out: the Baywalk of Manila Bay. During the expedition, it was observed that there were several restaurants that flaunted their immigrant origins (e.g., Lami, Panay Kalipay). Bisaya, the largest immigrant group, has in fact taken on a very jologs connotation that Diether Ocampo, in his thespian genius, decided to take on a thick Bisaya accent in his portrayal of a jologs security guard in a movie called Jologs.

Hierarchical Society

An aggravating factor to the immigrant experience might be what seems to be the much more hierarchical structure of Manila society. The lingua franca of Manila, Tagalog, gives us clues to this. As long as you are speaking Tagalog, you would always know whether the fellow you are talking to is your subordinate, equal or superior, since the subordinate would need to insert the word “po” at specific parts of his sentences whenever talking to a superior. The more profuse the usage of “po” is, the greater the power difference. And contrary to what is taught in Filipino class, this does not only apply to age differences (e.g., kids need to use “po” with their parents); jologs tend to say po to conyos. It is theorized that “po” came from “poon,” which literally means lord or master, and is used exclusively to refer to Jesus Christ in modern Tagalog. In contrast, you’d have to say palihug (please) whether you are talking to your maid or to your mayor when talking in Cebuano.

The thesis that Manila society is more hierarchical than Cebu is further supported by a word in the Cebuano language which doesn’t seem to have an exact translation in Tagalog. The word is hilas. I ran an experiment with a Manilenyo friend to try to plumb the translation of hilas from the depths of Tagalog de Manila. I said that Linkin Park, one of his favorite bands, was jologs. He said I was an “elitist.” This word, along with the way he was pointing his fingers at me and the disgusted look of his face, would probably be the nearest translation to hilas. But it still doesn’t have the same venom. Calling people jologs in Cebu (if they understood what it meant) would immediately earn one this shameful title. In Manila, people carelessly use jologs; even my friend who likes Linkin Park. Another possible translation is matapobre. Matapobre however implies someone in a superior position in society looking down (mata) at an inferior (pobre) while hilas implies someone acting as if he is in a superior position which he has no right to. Matapobre criticizes the condescension but acknowledges the hierarchy. Hilas criticizes the existence of a hierarchy.

This is not to say that one society is better than the other, the same way that we do not say a less hierarchical society is a better society. It is true that pointing out differences in societies risks this misinterpretation. Yet this difference may hold the key to our understanding the deepest roots of the jologs phenomenon. Let us hazard to speculate on the roots of the cultures of both cities. From this, we might understand better the roots of the jologs phenomenon.

Three studies of three different bents all agree that Philippine society at its roots is a feudal society:

“ Communist: “Philippine society today is semicolonial and semifeudal.” – Guerrero (1970) ”

“ Feminist: “The root causes of Filipino migration lie in the semi-colonial and semi-feudal character of Philippine society.” – FREDA (1997) ”

“ Nationalist: “The social environment of the Filipino is characterized by a feudal structure with great gaps between the rich minority and the poor majority.” – Licuanan ”

Given the general tendency to equate the culture of Manila and its surrounding areas to the culture of the Philippines, it seems safe for us to say that Manila culture at its root is feudal. On the other hand, according to Resil Mojares, arguably the foremost commentator on Cebuano history and culture, Cebu society at its root is a merchantman society. Feudal societies are clearly hierarchical, and if Manila is indeed a feudal society, then it is not surprising that the jologs phenomenon took root there. One analysis of the 2004 Philippine elections even proposes that the sharper class difference of Manila as compared to Cebu’s is the root cause of FPJ’s landslide victory in Manila and his landslide defeat in Cebu.

The pervasiveness in Filipino history of this feudal character, this yin and yang of manila society, is discussed in a paper by Camacho. She draws parallels between the pre-colonial maginoo/alipin structure to the colonial principalia/plebeyo structure. She then hacks deep into the Filipino psyche to expose the roots of this dichotomy:

“ “The boundaries between the upper and lower tiers of pre-Hispanic society were drawn from their respective functions, with the corresponding negative perceptions of work. The differentiation of services indicates the status attached to each social level: the alipin did the menial tasks while the timawa and maginoo undertook the nobler, acclaimed endeavors, which, strictly speaking, were not considered work or labor. Needless to say, the datu served no one. […]

“By and large, the Spanish advent did not introduce radical changes in that structure: the two tiers were conveniently allowed to perform their traditional functions. Dependents continued to work for their former masters, and others began to work for new ones like parish convents (the so-called reserves) and the crown (polos of the annual forty days of service rendered for public works). The maginoo became the principalia or elite, and the freemen and alipin, the anonymous mass of plebeyos. […]

“The categories of work corresponding to social status remained much the same—manual labor still occupying the lowest rank while service in local administration, landholding and commercial activities conferred as well as enjoyed prestige. Dovetailing with and reinforcing this situation was the Mediterranean cultural conception brought by the colonizers that manual labor did not befit the elite”

”

If we are to stretch this parallelism to our present society, it seems that the maginoo or principalia is now the conyo and what was before alipin or plebeyo is now jologs. And the roots of the dichotomy between jologs and conyo is the negative perception of work by both the elite non-workers and the laborers.

There is however a third actor that has entered the stage at the third act of the Manila’s history. According to Kimura, “the emergence of the Philippine middle classes began with the Filipinization of the government organizations under the American colonial rule and industrialization that started during the 1930s.” It is interesting to note that after seven decades it seems that the middle-class of Manila is yet to really find its own identity. One study states that “the newness of the middle classes gives rise to homines novi in search of a format and a culture.” This lack of self-awareness could be seen in the indecision of certain APL, a student of UP, in his choice of pronouns in his article on the jologs. The author starts the article by using “we” to refer to the jologs, taking on the traditional role of UP students as defender of the masses, and then shifting to using “they” at the latter section of the article. This vacillation is understandable if we take into account the principalia/plebyo framework in which Filipino society has been hung for three centuries and the maginoo/alipin structure in which the society of its Austronesian-speaking forefathers has been based on since time immemorial. Not yet having a strong identity, the middle-class seems to be torn between its admiration of the old rich—caricatured as conyos—and its loyalty to the lower-class—represented by the jologs—with whom they share pinoy pop culture with; thus producing the dual effect of pseudo-conyoism and pseudo-jologism. This evolution of Manila society is shown graphically in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Evolution of Manila Society

Movements that Could Influence the Jologs Phenomenon

Jologs is certainly much more benign than other forms of prejudice and discrimination. In fact, it is rather inclusive; it transcends race, color and religion. Whether you are of Malay, Chinese, Hispanic or of whatever origin, whether you are Christian or Muslim, you could be jologs. Nevertheless, it is form of discrimination; and as APL has pointed out in his article, it shows a certain apathy the upper classes have to the gnawing poverty and human suffering plaguing the Philippines. There would therefore be interest in movements in different segments of society that show some signs of overcoming this prejudice. Among the many movements that could affect the jologs phenomenon, we will examine three: Glorification in the Arts, Transcendence through Rock n’ Roll and Self-identification of the Masa.

Glorification by the Arts

One strategy of overcoming discrimination is to take its weapon, the slur, as ones own and revise it to have a more acceptable and even laudatory meaning though various means of influencing public opinion (e.g., music, literature, mass media). Black Americans have been successful in taking the racial slur “nigger” and transforming its meaning and its spelling to become “nigga”. “Many believe it draws a line between blacks as victims of racism and blacks as empowered, street-wise individuals.” According to Tupac Shakur, a modern icon of black empowerment,

“ “Niggers was the ones on the rope, hanging off the thing; Niggas is the ones with gold ropes, hanging out at clubs." ”

There has been a similar effort from Philippine cinema to revise the meaning of jologs. In 2002, Star Cinema released a movie called Jologs. Its director, Gilbert Perez, explains:

“ “Pero sa movie, we try to erase that negative impression on the word pero hindi naman namin ipinu-push na, ‘Oy, hindi masama ang jologs!’ Anybody can be jolog but it doesn’t mean na kung ako jologs masama na akong tao.

“Sa akin ang jologs are people who don’t care for what people say. Kunwari, ako, nagtsinelas ako, I don’t care tungkol sa sasabihin nila, kasi doon ako kumportable. Halimbawa, may isang tao gusto si Joey Marquez pero sosyal siya, pinaninindigan niya ‘yong sarili niya: jologs siya, totoong tao siya.”

”

[In the movie, we try to erase that negative impression of the word but we are not pushing that “Hey, jologs isn’t bad!” Anybody can be jolog but it doesn’t mean that if I’m jologs I’m a bad person.

For me, the jologs are people who don’t care for what people say. For instance, me: I’m wearing slippers. I don’t care about what they say, since it is with slippers that I am comfortable in. For example, there’s a person who likes Joey Marquez although he’s posh. He’s standing up for himself: he’s jologs, he’s a real person.]

(The director probably means that liking Joey Marquez, a comedy actor turned politician, is jologs, and a sophisticated person admitting that he likes Joey Marquez is an act of sincerity. Therefore, being jologs is being a person without pretensions.)

Poetry may be another potential liberator of the jologs. The various theories on the etymology of jologs quoted above come from Paolo Manalo, the author of the award winning Jolography. One review on this book says that,

“ “We want historians to tell us that the present is the result of "profound intentions and immutable necessities." But what we need is (what Foucault calls) a "true historical sense that confirms our existence among countless lost events without a landmark or point of reference."

This is where the poet comes in. We need someone to write a reverse history of those lost events.

In Jolography, we are introduced to a voice emulating that of the jologs. It is the voice of the underdog we are presented with. It is the representation of a voice like that of Yoyoy, of Dolphy, of Aegis, of April Boy Regino. It is the voice like that of the Sexbomb Girls: Get get awww!”

”

It remains to be seen whether the poet’s emulation of the voice of the jologs or the revisionism by Philippine cinema will enable Manilenyo society to see the jologs in a new light. During the release of the movie Jologs, it seems that its revisionism still had little effect. This was demonstrated in the 2002 NU107 Rock Awards. Diether Ocampo, one of the stars of the movie Jologs, said to the audience that he, like them, was jologs. “The crowd booed, gave him the finger, and pelted him with water bottles.” Commenting on the incident, a blogger explained that the “term still carries a derogatory connotation despite the mainstream, self-depracating usage.”

Three years after the incident, there are some occurrences of positive usages of jologs. Table 2 lists down samples of these occurrences:

Table 2: Some Positive Uses of Jologs

URL	Usage
http://jologs.ca	Name of a Filipino American’s Website
http://taraskye.blogspot.com/	The title of this blog is “Jologs with Style”
http://tabulas.com/community/Jologs/	Username is “Jologs”

However, the term still seems to carry its negative payload. Caffeinerush’s Journal, a blog which does a parody of a conyo student lambasting jologs, continues to elicit impassioned reactions from many people who don’t get the spoof. One entry got more than 250 comments where the F word appeared approximately 70 times.

Transcendence through Rock n’ Roll

One segment of Manila society seems to have transcended the social barriers to which the jologs phenomenon is a symptom of. The division between jologs and conyo seems to be absent in the world of Rock n’ Roll. If we look at a sampling of NU107 band of the year winners we would se a diversity of social backgrounds (Table 3). This is not surprising; Blues music, echoes of the cries of the black slave of America, has always been the music of the downtrodden; and her bastard son, Rock n’ Roll, has always been the music of the outcast. Pinoy Rock, faithful to its roots, seems to be more open to the downtrodden and the outcast than the rest of Manilenyo society. Not only does there seem to be transcendence to internal societal barriers like the jologs phenomenon, there seems to be transcendence in traditional cultural and political barriers as well. In national media, you could scarcely hear any Philippine language other than Tagalog. Yet last April 2005, Jr. Kilat’s song M16 got the top spot in NU107’s midnight countdown. This song is sung in 100% Cebuano. Pinoy Rock may be the leading edge in the journey towards a Manila more open to other languages and cultures, similar to how Black Americans were accepted in the world of music long before this acceptance was reflected in legislature and popular customs.

Table 3: Winner of the Band of the Year Award in the NU107 Rock Awards

Year	Band of the year
1994	Afterimage
1995	Eraserheads
1996	Wolfgang
1997	Eraserheads
1998	Wolfgang
1999	Parokya ni Edgar
2000	Parokya ni Edgar
2001	Slapshock

Unfortunately, we could not say this of all the descendants of Blues music. Rock n’ Roll’s estranged cousin, Hip-hop, seems to foster rather than discourage the jologs phenomenon. The gangsta theme of many rap groups could be a symptom of a deep-seated tribalism in hip-hop culture. A manifestation of this is the East-coast vs. West-coast rivalry in the hip-hop of the United States. In the local Hip-hop scene, this inherent factionalism is compounded with the polarization between post-Andrew E. Hif-haf and post-Mastaplan Fil-am hip-hop. The former is generally sung in street-Tagalog and the latter in California English. The rift between these two groups roughly follow jologs and conyo boundaries.

The transcendence of Rock n’ Roll, however, may only be an apparent transcendence. Equal to its openness to punks, losers and outcasts, Rock n’ Roll is fiercely prejudiced against boy bands, disco music and anything pop. In Manila, the non-jologs is “in” and the jologs is “out”. Pinoy Rock has simply selected another criterion: the cool dude who listens to NU107 is “in” and the dork who listens to boy bands is “out.”

The Self-identification of the Masa

One reaction by the butt of this classist joke, the masses, is to totally disregard the coinage of the middle and upper classes—jologs—and attempt at establishing their own definition of their identity. They call themselves “masa.” The word’s leftish origins date back to those times when being a Marxist was considered cool. The original intent of its inventors probably wasn’t to attempt the healing of the rift in society but to turn the table on the conyos and impose a dictatorship of the proletariat. Even after the fall of communism “there are still some militant factions fighting for communism in […] the Philippines.” The lefties might have not gotten no where near the goal of a communist state, and their ideology might seem impotent compared to the macho padrino leadership of Erap and the plainfolk charm of FPJ, but their propaganda has, to a certain degree, been successful in providing the masses with a sense of identity. This could be seen by their adoption of the title “masa”, a word which they seem to wear like a badge of honor. This is evidenced by the usage of the word by businesses aimed at this large consumer group. For instance, several tabloids use the tag-line “para sa masa” (for the masses) to sell to their target audience. Likewise, two presidential candidates, Erap and FPJ, have taken on “para sa masa” as their campaign slogan and both won in Manila.

The Future of Jologs

Historians are generally wary of discussing and analyzing anything less than a century old and they are allergic to any talk about the future. Since we’re already trespassing in the treacherous land of recent past, we might as well do it all the way and trespass the forbidden land of the future. This is out of humility. Our audacity will show that we do not have any pretensions of being historians.

The Jologs Future of Cebu

The main concern from Cebu’s point of view would be whether the jologs phenomenon will someday appear there. If it does, there will be two possible causes: the influence of Manila culture and replication of the jologs factors in Cebu.

To get an idea how Manila could infect Cebu with the jologs phenomenon, we could take a look at a similar attempt in the past. A perfect example would be the national language. In 1937, the Philippine government invented a national language for the purpose of promoting nationalism. At first it was called Pilipino and was envisioned to be a purified and enhanced version of Tagalog. In 1973, it mutated into Filipino and was supposed to be an enhanced version of Pilipino. Filipino has made great strides and is now recognized by the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) as a dialect of Tagalog. It is the dialect used by virtually all locally produced TV shows and movies, and all everyone who gets educated up to college level in the Philippines will undergo at least 14 years of formal training in Filipino. How the Cebuano language has fared against the powerful national language may be an indicator of how Cebuano culture will fare against an infection of the jologs phenomenon.

Using state-of-the-art technology, an estimate was made on the level of knowledge Cebuano and Tagalog speakers have of their respective native tongues. Empirical data show that Cebuano speakers only know 54.28% of Cebuano. Tagalog speakers, on the other hand, know 84.7% of Tagalog. The weak showing of the Cebuanos is partly explained by the complete absence of formal education in Cebuano and the high marks of the Tagalogs could be explained by the dominance of Tagalog/Filipino in the educational system, television, cinema and popular music in the Philippines. Although Cebuano has not flourished as much as Tagalog has, this does not mean that Cebuano is being replaced by Tagalog. Cebuano is still spoken by more than 20 million people; several newspapers are published in Cebuano; liturgy in Cebuano speaking areas are still in Cebuano; a few local TV programs in Cebu are in Cebuano; and as Jr. Kilat has shown, Cebuano is gaining acceptance in the world of music. If our prediction on the infection of the jologs phenomenon in Cebu is to be based on the state of Cebuano language, we could say that Cebu has a fighting chance in resisting the jologs influence of Manila. Other areas might not be as fortunate; small minorities might not be able to resist the jologs phenomenon of Manila, similar to how their languages might not be able to resist the domination of the national language. In the 2005 edition of Ethnologue, SIL’s listing of the languages of the world, one more Philippine language was hacked-off the living languages list and laid to rest in the list of extinct languages. Farewell, Agta, Villa Viciosa.

Even if the jologs influence of Manila could be resisted by Cebu, the jologs factors may still creep into the city and breed division and misunderstanding until eventually the rich people become hilas and the poor people be seen merely as a homogenous stinking mass. If the disproportionate development that benefited Manila were to again happen with Cebu as the beneficiary, a swarming of bakyas may also invade Cebu. However, if we base the level development on the per capita income, we would see that Cebu is more or less at the same level as other major cities around its area (Table 4). As long as this balance is maintained, the deluge of promdis in Manila is not likely to be repeated in Cebu. But even if throngs of immigrants do enter Cebu, it is probable that the native and the immigrant would mesh better than they did in Manila. The ethnic composition of Cebu is mostly of Bisaya origin, and if it is the Bisaya that will compose majority of the immigrants, similar to Manila, then it is likely that the creation of a bakya outgroup will be avoided and the benefits of immigration could be gotten without its negative side effects. Moreover, if Cebuano culture is indeed egalitarian (i.e., not hilas), there might be hope that it would be more open to diversity.

Table 4: Per Capita Income for Manila, Cebu, Davao and Cagayan de Oro

City	2000 Per Capita Income (in pesos)
Metro Manila	66,173
Cebu City	32,291
Davao City	30,989
Cagayan de Oro	37,819

The Future of Jologs in Manila

To get an idea of the situation of the jologs and their relationship with the rest of Manila, let us take a look at two recent upheavals that recently shook the big city: EDSA 2 and EDSA Tres. We are quite lucky that we have these upheavals to examine; they lay bare the social fabric of Manila, exposing the rifts and divisions, showing us the palm marks from which we could divine the future.

In January 2001, the presidency of Erap was ended after a string of cataclysmic events: the revelation of his several mistresses living in swanky mansions; the unintended disclosure of his alternative management style inspired by the theories of Professor Jack Daniels and Dr. Johnnie Walker; the squealing of Chavit Singson, his partner in a sideline which happened to be illegal; the nationally televised impeachment trial which piqued the sensibilities of the viewers due to bad script writing: the secret diary was not revealed and the final dance number wasn’t bongga enough; and finally the death stroke of EDSA 2—the 2 million strong demonstration composed almost entirely of Manila’s educated middle-class which replaced Erap with GMA and brought him behind bars.

In May 2001, half a million bakya, jologs, squatters, and other representatives of what mainstream media endearingly called “The Great Unwashed” also gathered in EDSA. They called it EDSA Tres. The EDSA 2 folks quipped that while the battle cries of EDSA 1 and EDSA 2 were “free the country from a dictator!” and “free the country from a thief!” the mantra of EDSA Tres was “free sandwiches, free juice and free shabu…” EDSA Tres eventually degenerated into wanton violence involving smashing of windows, overturning of cars and whacking of reporters, reminiscent of English soccer hooligans after an exciting game. Amidst the senselessness and brutality of the event, the leading pundits of the country saw in the violent jologs a genuine sentiment of being had by the conyos. Being called bakya and jologs might be bearable, but depriving their idol the throne they won for him was not.

From these last two EDSA’s, we could surmise a few things. First, two distinct groups have emerged and have mustered some influence. One is the educated middle-class who practically monopolize public opinion in the country. The other is the jologs and company who, although less educated and less articulate, practically rule Manila in terms of votes. Second, we see that the middle-class, probably owning to its better education, sees itself as the big brother who knows best what little brother jologs needs. Little brother jologs however does not seem to want the handholding. This sentiment of the educated middle-class is expressed by the quintessential middle-class Filipino band, the Eraserheads, in their song “Para sa Masa”:

“ pinilit kong iahon ka

ngunit ayaw mo namang sumama

”

[Oh, how I endeavored to uplift thee,
Yet thou desirest not, to join me!]

The masa’s mistrust probably stems from a feeling of disappointment of their hopes of a better future, and a sentiment of being excluded from the fruits of progress, if ever there was any. Remember, most of them came to Manila with hopes of freeing themselves from poverty, only to end up being part of the faceless masses, 2nd rate citizens, bakyas and jologs. EDSA Tres was one of the few times that were able to voice out their thoughts and feelings, however incoherent these were. To many, their mere existence was a surprise. One commentator writes “Isn’t it amazing that in this day and age there still exist undiscovered islands in our archipelago? In early May we discovered one such island: a colony of smelly, boisterous and angry people. They are the poor among us.”

The masa’s loss of trust of the middle-class and the values that they hold could be seen in their choice of Erap for president. Erap, a college-drop-out-womanizer-movie-star, epitomized the anti-thesis of middle-class values. But this did not matter to his voters. They reason out that the brilliant Marcos only messed up the country. Therefore, someone not so brilliant but who genuinely cares for the people should be the president.

And it doesn’t seem that this mistrust will be mitigated by the trend of development of the Philippines. It seems very likely that the wide gap between the income per capita between Manila and the rest of the Philippines is likely to remain. This would mean more promdis will flock Manila, producing more bakyas, who in turn will generate more jologs. And there doesn’t seem to be a major change in how Manila would treat these folks; they’ll still continue to be seen as the great unwashed.

Could the empathy of poetry, the open-mindedness of Rock n’ Roll, and the newfound identity of the masa bridge the rifts of Manilenyo society? We could only hope. One thing is certain: whether or not the conyos will be reconciled to the jologs, whether or not they will shift their frames of mind, whether or not another movie star runs for president, Jologs is the future of Manila.

Summary

Through a comparative analysis of Manila and Cebu, we can trace the roots of the Jologs Phenomenon. They are: concentration of people, immigration and a hierarchical culture. If we analyze further the hierarchical society of Manila, we will see that it stems from pre-Hispanic and colonial negative attitudes towards work. There are three major reactions to the Jologs Phenomenon in Manila: Glorification by the Arts, Transcendence through Rock n’ Roll and Self-identification of the Masa. Basing on the absence of the Jologs factors in Cebu and on the Cebuano language’s resistance to the national language, Cebuano culture has a good chance of resisting the influence of the Jologs Phenomenon. The growth of the Jologs Phenomenon in Manila is likely to continue.

Disclaimer

This is NOT a Wikipedia article. This is an original research parody by me, Wikipedia User:Nino Gonzales. All the citations however are genuine.

Some Wikipedia Users like Userboxes to express their POV's. Others may write essays or poems about their opinions, thoughts or feelings. I'm pretty bad at poetry, and I'm not into Userboxes. So I hope this "study" will serve the same purpose. This does not mean, however, that self-expression is the objective of this paper.