Morissette Amon tells why it’s important to speak up

Enough is enough for Asia’s Phoenix Morissette Amon.

We had a moment with the ever-so-courteous singer at the recently concluded Billboard Philippines Women in Music event in Taguig, where she received the fan-voted recognition of People’s Choice Award.

Morissette, affectionately called Mori, wore a shy smile before opening up about the recent issue where an events director lambasted her online for a company event performance. It later came to light that Mori had been, in fact, sick and bedridden the day before.

When we asked Mori how she is doing, she shared, “Okay naman. I just decided to speak my truth because mahirap na ngayon, so many people believe what they hear from just one side but siempre you cannot please everyone. We’re just trying to stay positive and stay happy.”

She said that her job was almost affected and it was imperative of her to speak her truth since the incident happened last month.

“It has been going on for a while now. Parang lumalaki na siya ng lumalaki at hindi ko na tanggap na iyon na rin yong perception ng mga tao sa akin. Of course, I am trying to protect my work also. Nagkakasakit din naman iyong mga tao,” she explained.

After the post of the director went viral, Mori received so many negative comments on her pages that she had to mentally muster strength, even though her side of the story had not been heard yet.

It was grueling for her to go through the perils of fame but thankfully, her husband posted on the matter, and she herself said that she performed and did her best.

“Malinis naman konsensya ko na (My conscience is clear that) I was still trying to deliver and iyon naglabas na ng resibo iyong asawa ko!” she said.

She further said that her team is now handling the issue internally with the events company that hired her. She does not want to be involved anymore, stating, “It is okay. We have been going back and forth. My team and I have been going back and forth with them.”

The events director, who wrote the now-deleted post about Mori on his Facebook page, has also not apologized and reached out to her yet. “Walang nakarating sa akin personally, but I don’t mind. It happens. Iyong talent coordinator nag-apologize naman, iyong mismong nag-contact po sa akin.”

Mori, nevertheless, learned so much from the issue. At the same time, she hoped that it might also serve as a lesson for everyone who has been attacked online.

She said, “What I also got from a friend is that when someone posts an issue publicly, I guess it’s also fair to settle it publicly. Because they could also settle it privately, but they didn’t go that route and unfortunately, it also stained my image in the industry.

“It’s important nowadays, especially that there’s the Internet and it’s easy to speak up, and that’s a message not just for artistas but for everyone! Try to speak up on very important matters, especially (concerning) mga core values mo talaga.”

As of now, Mori is busy with her two new songs under her label Underdog Music. She has been trying to champion regional music as well. So aside from her English and Tagalog songs, she has a Bisaya song now called Ang Paghuwat, which means the waiting and it’s Mori’s homage to her Cebuana roots.

She said, “I just released two songs and one is in Bisaya written by a Cebu-based songwriter who I love so much! Actually, sila Miss Reg (Regine Velasquez) helped him. His name is Ferdinand Aragon. So I have a Bisaya song out for the Bisaya speakers and an English song out.”