— simply copied from elsewhere.

And you have the sosyal types (e.g Lucy Torres, Mikee Cojuangco, etc) marrying pop culture idols Richard Gomez, Jaworski Jr., etc.

And besides, the elite culture in the Philippines is so copied.

Same as Blackshama, I entered UP as coming from so-called laboratory public schools and a member of the true middle class and promdi-bred at that — but truth be told, I didn’t feel to a significant degree that there was a great divide between the likes of me and the private schools crowd when I was there. It was the opposite in my experience, the scions of powerful families who were primarily bred in expensive private schools had to kowtow a certain unspoken rule: thou shalt not be an asshole regarding your wealth/influence. OR if you do, you shall be cast into a pit of being declasse or a violator of the egalitarian UP ethos — an outsider. It’s simply déclassé to brag, whether directly or indirectly in UP. Survival in UP means accepting the fact that there will always be people who may be smarter, or more popular, or more attractive than you are and still maintain that equanimity you have a place there as an Iskolar ng Bayan (that is, as long as you pass your courses).

It was different when you come down to orgs and fraternities and sororities when closer relationships between students arise — there things such family background/influence do play a role and the more egalitarian aspects of the UP ethos gets diluted.

“I was well into my early 20’s when I met for the very first time a person with a Bisaya accent who was in a career that did not involve manual labour (it did not even occur to me to think of the non-Manila students in U.P. as possibly being children of such people).”

Find this hard to believe. As a freshie in UP, you will be assaulted by a cacophony of voices – coming from Appari to Jolo. In my experience, the Bisayans and Cebuanos were some of the wealthiest, most garrulous (most outgoing) and most attractive students who tend to talk in broken Tagalog and would swiftly talk in English instead when stumped. Say, Benigs, early socialization does kick in and tends to be prolonged, and if you grew up insulated, you tend not to see what are those right in front of your eyes.

In reference to your enclavement article, this insulated socialization develop into a sort of literally seeing, but inwardly noting that what doesn’t belong or is different from your own social milieu does not simply exist or have to be purged from existing in your mind. That is the great disease that afflicts us Pinoys – all of becoming mini-Imeldas, concern only with the “good, the beautiful “. Ngek, how could you see the true-blue good and the beautiful if you can’t deal with the simple truth that other people who are different from you and your crowd exist. Some don’t demean “jologs“ but become reverse-snobs instead. In any case, Imelda Marcos should be the patron saint of the true jologs. Kris Aquino is in the same league.

Blackshama, your cum laudes are working as customer representatives in call centers. A U.P. Diliman degree don’t help much.

And after five years, not only has U.P. failed its original purpose, as you inform us, it also never evolved while other universities have changed much for the better.

ganun pala nung 1980s? buti na lang di ko panahon yun…