Gonzales did right in twitting Cory on Kris

Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales is probably the most unpopular man in the country today, and all because of that unsolicited advice he gave former president Cory Aquino to mind the love life of her daughter Kris first before minding President Arroyo's and asking her to resign.

If Gonzales can be faulted for anything, it was his zealousness in trying to defend her boss. And because of that zealousness, he failed to appreciate the fact that by taking on Cory, he was in fact taking on Kris.

Gonzales obviously forgot that in this country, you can topple presidents but you revere showbiz stars. To drive home this point, I am willing to bet that if ever mother and daughter, that is Cory and Kris, were to run against each other in an election, Kris would win hands down.

When Gonzales took on Kris, every conceivable sort of expert on feminism, plus the usual holier-than-thou talk show resource panelists, leapt out of the woodwork and had a field day nailing the hapless Cabinet official to his cross for his allegedly " sexist " remarks.

There was even that fat woman who was into psychology or something who went on nationwide tv to say Gonzales looks so awful she would not have sex with him even if he were the last man in the world. Well, talk of sexist remarks, that was it if ever there was one.

Actually, shorn of all hypocrisy, there was nothing wrong with what Gonzales said. He said what every Filipino father would have in mind. Stripped of all political trappings, Cory is still a mother, and as far as Kris is concerned, she is not a howling success in that regard.

Kris has had a string of bad relationships, mostly with married men. Now, some may argue that what she does with her love life is her own affair, conveniently forgetting the fact that, for one who leads a very public and high profile life, such a private life does not exist.

Kris is a public icon who commands the admiration of thousands, if not millions, of young Filipino girls who look up to her as a model. But given the thin line that separates the private and public life of showbiz stars, any example she sets can be confusing.

In the ephemeral world of showbiz, scurrilous love affairs are as much an indicator of success as is the incessant ring at the tills. With few exceptions, the more topsy-turvy the love life, the more it suggests the degree with which one has got it made.

To be sure, young Filipinos are getting smarter. But there are still those who, in face of sufficient exposure to the wrong examples set by public figures like Kris, are bound to take their lives to a whole new level, on the mistaken notion it is all right to play around.

After all, if Kris can get away with the kind of love life she has been leading despite having a former president of the republic and morally upright devout Catholic for a mother, why can they not as well?

The trouble with this predominantly Roman Catholic country of ours is that we are so rich in hypocrisy and so poor in everything else, like why is the life of Kris so private if someone like Gonzales comments on it, and not when she brings a domestic spat out before nationwide tv?

There was nothing so private about the love life of Kris when one time she paraded her bruises in public, drenched in tears that her man at the time, Joey Marquez, threatened her with a gun. Gonzales did not speak up then, but the entire nation did. It was a media feast.

And now, poor Gonzales, even the very woman for whom he did what he did, President Arroyo, has dropped him like a hot potato, apologizing, for God's sake, to Kris for all the trouble he had caused.

What a pathetic sight Arroyo had become, reduced to becoming so sensitive about the need to hold on to power that she would even turn her back on Gonzales. For fighting her fight, the guy has had to take more flak than he deserved. And Arroyo had to apologize to Kris? For what?

Sure, Gonzales did not really have moral uprightness in mind when he twitted Cory about Kris. All he wanted was to defend his president. But that does not diminish the validity of what he said. Instead of being pilloried, he should be praised for making sense, despite his motives.