These pinoys better move somewhere else

June 7, 2007

The US government just gave out a $10 million reward to four Filipino informants for information that helped US and Filipino forces find and kill two top Abu Sayyaf terrorists.  Which is a good thing, but those four lucky pinoys better take the money and leave the Philippines for their own safety.

Lets face it, we Filipinos are just natural gossips.  I was surprised back in college when the US gave me a Top Secret clearance–don’t they know that the national sport of the Philippines is gossip?  There’s no way we can keep a secret.  If there’s something you want everybody to know, then just tell a couple of your Filipino friends and it will be broadcast everywhere in short order.

Every Filipino party I went to growing up was really just an excuse for people to gossip about everybody who wasn’t at the party.  And even about some of the people who were at the party.

I’ve inherited that gossip gene.  When I worked at CNET in San Francisco I kept a little candy jar at my desk as a lure.  I knew there were key people who loved chocolates and were veritable fonts of useful gossip.  Who is dating whom, why did so-and-so quit so suddenly, what was the identify of the infamous food thief?  Good times.