[Greetings]

This afternoon\evening I am here to talk about a topic which Im sure interests us all: love. But this will not be just about love in general, but love as it is depicted in todays Filipino teen shows.

Right now, there is a whirlwind going on across the entire Philippines as fans get excited, scream, or sometimes cry at what happens between Joaquin and Chichay in Got to Believe. The same thing has been happening for Sir Chief and Maya. These are the two most prominent love teams in the country as of today, and I sincerely apologize to the fans of GMA if these two love teams are all from ABS-CBN.

But let us continue.

The question is: is the openness or the being liberated of Filipino teen shows on the topic of love creating negative effects on the youth? Why or why not?

My answer to this question is both yes and no. But it does not mean I am not taking a stand, and through this speech I will explain my stand more clearly.

First, I think that being open-minded and being liberated is good, especially in terms of gender equality and being realistic. The words openness and liberation have positive meanings after all. When we watch our teleseryes, gone are the days when men had to fetch water, chop wood, and create lovesick poetry just to get the girl of his dreams. Today, TV shows teach us that this is not supposed to be the way love goes. There must be a history, there must be a genuine relationship between two people for them to work it out. Most importantly, it must not just be the guy who always works to get the girl. The girl has just as much responsibility to keep the relationship alive, and to get the man of her dreams. But most importantly, I believe that Filipino teen shows these days teach us that not every planned relationship is going to work out. Sometimes love is unrequited, one-sided, and sometimes there is love from both sides but it simply doesnt work out the way we want it to. But thats okay. We have seen countless characters in teleseryes experience that situation, and many of them are good at moving on and getting on with their lives.

Yet this leads me to my second point. I am sure that we are all familiar with the opposing terms liberated and conservative. The term liberated is associated with Western culture, and the term conservative is associated with cultures like ours, like the Filipino culture. Today, we can already see how widespread the effects of western culture are in a conservative culture like ours. These effects are not positive, but they are magnified a thousand times when they are put up on Philippine television and called a love story.

I am sorry to say that we have to rethink the way we look at teleseryes on TV. We see shows wherein high school teens get into romantic relationships, and sometimes they even battle it out. They cry, and then they profess their love, and then someoneusually the guydoes something to make the girl feel better. And afterwards there is magic and love again. These kinds of scenes make Filipino teens feel good, and many of us want to enter a relationship because we also want to try feeling that way.

But please, let us not be blinded by the kilig or the romantic emotions we feel. What you feel when you look at a romantic scene like that is the product of makeup, of the right background music, the right lighting, a good director, and a good script. But real life is NOT like that. There is no script, no background music, and many of us dont look like actors and actresses.

And most importantly real love is not like that. In many teen shows, when the boy and girl are supposedly in love, they kiss and in some cases they have sex. And then the directors and producers give the scenes a good lighting and good background music. So when Filipino teens watch the scenes, it looks so good and so perfect that they want something like that to happen to them. If any of us, if any of you ever feel that way, then you should know that the media has succeeded in brainwashing you. Why do I say this? I say this, because I believe that in the core of every person, even in teens like us, we know what true love is supposed to be like, and it is nothing like that.

True love is kind and sincere. It is not blushing or kissing or simply holding hands. It is being there for someone, it is sharing someones pain and feeling it. Proving your love to each other does not necessarily involve kissing or having sex. Proving your love is being patient with someone and helping him or her grow as a person in the best way you can. If we cannot do this and if we do not feel this way, then either we are not truly ready for a relationship, or it is not love we feel at all. It is merely infatuation or having a crush. The problem with many teen shows is that they tell us that infatuation and crushes are equal to true love. But they are not, and we must learn once again how to differentiate them from each other.

Too many teens now are depressed and sad either because they broke up with their boyfriends and girlfriends, or they have never tried being in a romantic relationship like the ones in the movies or teleseryes. But we teens should start asking ourselves: is that really what we want in life? This is part of the cancer in Filipino society: the media controls us too much. It keeps us from thinking about what is really important, and that is letting ourselves grow as people first. Let us first focus on fulfilling our dreams and on creating the best versions of ourselves. Let us think about other people we love such as our family. Let us think about God first and about finding Him. Let us think about growing ourselves and following our dreams. True love will follow, and ultimately it will be better than anything we have ever seen in television.