A friend of mine texted me earlier tonight telling me to check out TV5. My friend, who will be referred to as Menggay from here on out, seemed frantic. I've never seen so many exclamation points in a 3-sentence message. Must be some kind of big news, I thought. I rushed to the TV.
As it turned out Menggay, who is probably the biggest fan of businessman Manny V. Pangilinan, merely wanted me to share in her disappointment, a state-of-mind that I was able to confirm through the second message I received from her. There were no more exclamation points, but the message had a lot of expletives.
As it turned out, the source of Menggay's frustration was Willie Revillame's return to TV5, which is owned by MVP. Yes, it's true revillame is back on air and apparently with a vengeance. In the five minutes I spent checking out Wil Time Big Time, I saw two female contestants professing their undying love for the TV host. More idiotic drama, I thought.
I called up Menggay to admonish her for interrupting my session on the porcelain throne. But my complaint fell on deaf ears. I haven't even completed saying "hello" when she broke into a seemingly endless rant against what she calls the embarrassing mistakes of the Master. She calls MVP the Master.
One thing you need to understand about Menggay is that she is an intellectual or so she claims. If you ask me I think she's just kinda loopy. She's convinced MVP is her soulmate and that someday she will carry the surname Pangilinan.
As an intellectual, Menggay has very little regard for Willie Revillame and his antics. She says Revillame is the worst thing that ever happened to primetime television and that he is the curse that would bring down the Master. Yadda, yadda, yadda. Don't get me wrong. I don't care much for Revillame too but I think I can't stand loopy women more.
Anyway, after close to 10 minutes of her anti-Willie rant, Menggay shifted her anger on the PLDT-Digitel acquisition deal.
In case you don't know what that is, PLDT, which is chaired by MVP bought Digitel, which operates Sun Cellular. Globe Telecom is not happy with the deal and is now crying "monopoly." A public hearing has been set by the National Telecommunications Commission on May 23.
Menggay said she is worried this whole PLDT-Digitel deal may be bad news for Sun Cellular's subscribers. Her concern is that this might mean the end of unlimited calls.
I'm a prepaid subscriber of Sun and I can honestly say that the company's unlimited call service helps a lot in bringing down my telephone costs. It would be a shame to see the service discontinued.
As Menggay put it, MVP will be making a big mistake if he decides to scrap the service. She pointed out that Sun's unlimited calls is quite popular among low income earners. She said it would look bad on MVP if it turns out that this mega-deal of his would end up as the killer of a service that has a strong masa following.
I told Menggay that she may be jumping to conclusions. For all we know, shutting down the service may not even be a germ of an idea in MVP's head. I also told her that the government will still look into the deal and take the necessary steps to ensure the protection of consumers.
Menggay cut me off in mid-sentence with "ho-hum" which actually sounded more like "o um."
She resumed her anti-Willie rant.
Good thing, it didn't take long before my phone's battery conked out.
So, what do you think? Is MVP making a big mistake letting Willie Revillame go back on air? Is MVP going to kill Sun cellular's unlimited call service? Should I still be friends with Menggay?
