Ousted House speaker Alan Peter Cayetano is taking a page from BTS and it’s… uh… not a good look.
Cayetano recently announced that he will be forming a new bloc called “BTS sa Kongreso.” Just like the K-pop group, the bloc will consist of seven members: Cayetano, Camarines Sur Representative LRay Villafuerte, Laguna Rep. Dan Fernandez, Batangas Rep.Ranie Abu, Anakalusugan’s Mike Defensor, Bulacan Rep. Kuya Sy-Alvarado and Capiz Rep. Fredenil Castro. All of them were ousted from their congressional posts after House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco’s coup against Cayetano last year.
The bloc will be debuting tomorrow, according to Cayetano. Even though I don’t want this to happen, I am morbidly curious if their debut will come with a song and dance number à la Harry Roque’s music video and flashy outfits. I’m praying to all the gods that we’re not going to see politicians in boy band bellbottoms tomorrow but still, you know, all bets are off for now. We’re getting a pseudo politician boy band. It’s 2021, anything can happen.
At their debut, the boy band wannabes will be explaining why on earth they’re appropriating the K-pop group’s name (aside from free clout, I guess), as well as answer all the questions that’s no doubt circling your mind right now (for me, it’s “Who asked for this???”).
The new bloc has already received a huge pushback on social media (no surprises there). BTS—the actual BTS, not Cayetano’s group—fans have also pointed out that the band’s agency, Big Hit Entertainment, previously released a notice stating that unauthorized use of their trademark in publications is not allowed. I’m not sure how applicable that is to a congressional bloc. The BTS’ management group may not have envisioned anything like this happening and might not have put any roadblocks preventing it, though. Nevertheless, fans are rallying to inform the agency of the matter.
As funny/infuriating/absurd as this is, we need to be wary of politicians clout chasing and hopping on trends to remain relevant. We’ve seen in the past decade how easy it is for bad actors to leverage their infamy and laughingstock statuses into actual positions of power—we can’t let that keep happening.
Just saying, don’t expect a fancam from us anytime soon.
Cursed Cayetano edit by me, unfortunately
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