The real winners of the Barretto feud

Could Manila’s real life Pretty Woman, Gretchen “La Greta” Barretto of arguably unparalleled beauty and audacity be the victorious queen of this edge-of-your seat drama that has unfolded before our eyes the past weeks?

Or could it be the “good daughter, bad mistress” Marjorie Barretto, she with the “five beautiful and well-raised children?”

Could the winner be the loving Claudine Barretto, the sweet baby in the family whose heart is big enough to adopt children despite her rumored drug history and money problems?

Or could it the badass gambling tycoon who is no doubt God’s gift to the Barretto clan, the man of the hour himself, Charlie “Atong” Ang?

Atong, after all, must now be the envy of every single, loveless and forlorn Pinoy male these days. And why not? Some of Philippine show business’ legendary beauties are fighting hair, tooth, and nail over him.

Unfortunately for this family of beautiful faces and their rumored Adonis lovers, the real winners of the family feud aren’t among any of them. 

These days, the real winners are the country’s telco and broadcast tycoons.

Telcos

Did you know for instance that the telco giants had a heyday the past weeks because of Filipinos insatiable appetite for gossip?

Telco industry sources said broadband data usage shot up especially at the height of the controversy, starting on that day when President Duterte visited the Barretto family patriarch’s wake on Oct. 17 and decided to play peace ambassador to the feuding sisters.

It can’t be quantified just yet but telco insiders said the spike in broadband usage during the weeks of the real life drama is real. The spike may be comparable to what telcos experience during election season, they said.

This isn’t surprising. Filipinos, young and old male or female, rich or poor, have been glued to their phones for updates on the blockbuster real life drama. Fortunately for the telcos, the sisters’ battlefield was social media and the launch pad for their respective rocket-powered missiles were their very own Instagram accounts.

In fact, the number of Gretchen’s Instagram followers easily spiked to 1.7 million followers today from around 1.1 million prior to the height of the feud.

With the battle in this arena, it could only be good for the telcos. Filipinos were downloading and browsing just about anything and everything about the Barretto sisters, 24/7.

Did I mention the Viber and other chat groups? I’m sure it’s not only my phones which were burning with endless chatter about the feud.

It doesn’t matter which network provider you subscribe to, Ayala-led Globe or the Pangilinan-led Smart. Both networks no doubt satisfied Filipinos’ penchant for gossip.

Broadcast giants

The broadcast giants, of course, were not be left behind.

Lopez-owned ABS-CBN allocated 18 minutes of precious airtime for Marjorie Barretto’s exclusive interview on TV Patrol , and another 12 minutes for Atong Ang two days after.

Surely, it was worth the bucks for those who advertised that day. I’m not sure how much TV Patrol’s ad rates are now, but it may not be far from previously revealed rates of the broadcasting giant -- P900,000 for non-primetime and P1.4 million for primetime.

As if these aren’t enough, do you know that those who missed the interviews can watch the replay on YouTube? These videos were peppered with ads as well.

Showbiz

This, my dear readers, is really what showbiz is all about -- it’s all show and big business.

As Atong Ang said in his interview, these days, Filipinos have something to entertain themselves with.

He is right. We have to give it to the Barretto sisters, really. Their real life drama has toppled all other soap operas on primetime TV and whatever edge-of-your seat Netflix show you’re glued to.  And the telco and media tycoons are reaping the benefits.

Filipinos were so darned entertained, too much in fact that we have forgotten all the real issues we’re supposed to be dealing with -- the second and worst water crisis in recent years, the bloody drug war, our transport crisis, our messy traffic problem and so on and on.

Karl Marx famously said that religion is the opium of the masses. That is true but in this chaotic republic, there’s more than enough to quiet the minds of Filipinos and distract us from the real problems we face everyday. Sure, religion can be a good tranquilizer, but now our opiates can come in the form of three beautiful sisters and their very handsome lovers.

Oh, how fortunate this country is.

Iris Gonzales’ email address is [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @eyesgonzales. Column archives at eyesgonzales.com