For several weeks already, mauled star Vhong Navarro has become the epicenter of all scandals and controversies. The popularity of his epic condo episode has perhaps eclipsed previous records of noise and pandemonium. Media giants' decision to cover every angle of Navarro's incident shows the intellectual bankruptcy of Filipinos. TV and radio giants spend so much time on a non-essential issue, disregarding the need for high quality programming. It's been over a decade that there has been an apparent draught of quality television programming in the country. The perfect illustration of this national tragedy is the scarcity of time allotted for national and local news while so much boring hours are devoted to junk programs such as tearjerker dramas, flashy noontime shows, sordid showbiz gossip, and shallow game shows.

What about programs that would promote culture, heritage, arts, history, or national identity? Programs that have a real meaning and value to the Filipinos. Television programs that would create an impact on the mental and emotional well-being of the audience. This scarcity, or its non-existence, of truly valuable TV programming in the Philippines reached its most decadent state when Latin soap operas, starting with Rosalinda and Marimar episodes, invaded the national consciousness and sent Filipino viewers into solemn hysteria at the end of the day. Then came soulful Korean telenovelas that feed Filipinos' appetite for elusive ideals of love and relationships - a crowd in desperate search of sympathy for their experience of lingering rejections and failed dreams.

If foreign-made dramas are not the talk of the town, Manila-concocted telenovelas are the easy substitutes, and more often than not, these Tagalog dramas carry their own potent spell and can muster legions of fans, the bakya crowd. The argument used by television producers to justify the kind of programs they introduce to the unthinking Filipino public is that it's what the people want. Give them what they want, so the television owners argue. So even if a program is total rubbish but because the bakya crowd demands for it, a TV channel, fearing decline of survey ratings and loss of followers, gives in to a pathetic demand. Who should dictate what type of TV programs that the Filipino people may watch? The bakya crowd? The illiterate mass? Or the television owners and producers themselves?

Majority of the Filipinos have always been sleeping at the wrong side of the world. Their cravings for trash entertainment are damaging to their self-esteem and psyche. On top of that, they have looked up noontime shows as the messiah for their financial troubles. Thousands are willing to face all sorts of risks just to get a slot in a TV contest. Our Filipino TV channels have been showing irrelevant, useless programs over the years – such as TV channels devote too much time for Navarro. And not one at the House of Representatives has expressed any interest to pass a legislation that would encourage the production of sensible and socially productive TV programs. TV channel owners should be the one to dictate what the masa would watch, not the other way around, otherwise we are doomed.