What? A yearly Dolphy Day holiday?

I beg the forgiveness of Dolphy’s family and fans, but I think the proposal of Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone to declare July 10 of every year as a special non-working holiday called Filipino Fun Day in memory of Dolphy is simply ridiculous.

 Any Filipino with a fair sense of humor does not need a holiday to be declared in order to have fun. And while Dolphy in his time may have been incomparable in making Filipinos laugh, he is far from being the reason why Filipinos are good at laughing, even at themselves.

 I have never been sold to that new tourism slogan that goes “It’s more fun in the Philippines.” But be that as it may, that it is more fun in the Philippines, then why the heck do we need to declare a fun day for?

 To declare a fun day for the Philippines is to suggest that we do not have fun the rest of the days of the year, in which case the tourism slogan must therefore be a big fat lie. And that I do not believe, my little faith in the slogan notwithstanding.

 As to Dolphy, I do not see why an entire country should have a fun day officially declared in his honor. If the only purpose is to extol the contributions the late comedian gave to the cinematic arts, there are a thousand ways of doing that short of declaring a holiday.

 If we want, we can name a street after him, build a film museum in his honor, or create an award to perpetuate his memory. We can show film festivals each time his death anniversary swings around and we can conduct lectures on the fine art of comic acting.

 By less official means, people in their individual capacities can keep the memory of Dolphy alive in a wide number of ways. Evardone can name his favorite pet, if he has one, after the actor and print T-shirts emblazoned with Dolphy’s likeness as his campaign giveaways.

 But please let us not go overboard in pushing our incapacity to think clearly. If Evardone has nothing better to do, he should not do it in the august halls of Congress. If he is so saddened by Dolphy’s death, he can always drown out his sorrows at the nearest karaoke bar.

 Lawmakers are supposed to be circumspect in the exercise of their awesome legislative powers. They are not supposed to waste such powers on frivolous measures that can only backfire by projecting our country in an embarrassing light.

 Earlier, the House of Representatives adopted a resolution posthumously conferring on Dolphy the Congressional Medal of Achievement. That measure was right and proper and while I was never a fan of Dolphy, that was something I can go along with, even applaud as appropriate.

 I would even go so far as to agree with Evardone on yet another Dolphy measure he also proposed, which was to confer on Dolphy the recognition as National Artist. That I would consider as only right and proper.

 But a Dolphy Day holiday? Jesus Christ! Is this the quality of our legislative measures? No wonder many countries do not hold the Philippines in very high regard. Why, I can even correlate this proposed measure to the reason why we can never win any gold in the Olympics.

 To win the gold in the Olympics, one has to put his entire being into what one is doing. To come up with a legislative measure such as what Evardone has done is no different from going to the Olympics just for the sake of going.

 In either undertaking, the picture painted of us is that of being losers. And if Evardone is comfortable with that, I am not. I hate it when Filipinos make fools of themselves. I can be bitterly harsh when I criticize, but I am fiercely proud of the Filipino that I am.

I hate it when we ourselves give the rest of the world the opportunity and the reason to belittle and demean us. We should be proud of ourselves, of being Filipinos. But to do that, we need to be at our very best. We need to be respected, not ridiculed.