Was this kind of nitpicking warranted?
It seems not everyone is happy with singer Jimmy Bondoc’s appointment as assistant vice president of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR).
Some for his qualifications and others for his…grasp of the English language.
READ: Singer Jimmy Bondoc defends appointment as PAGCOR’s AVP for Entertainment
On Thu, Jul 14, Philippine Daily Inquirer reporter Pocholo Concepcion wrote a 500-word article that not-so kindly pointed out lapses in Bondoc’s English.
Harsh! (And unnecessary?)
“If the Ateneo is a school respected for its English proficiency, what would its professors, especially its resident Jesuit priests, say about this,” the reporter asked in the beginning of his story, entitled “Pagcor appointee posts credentials, mangles English language.”
He then enumerated Bondoc’s awkward phrases and incorrect usage of figures of speech.
For instance, he took notice of Jimmy’s use of the phrase “from the cradle to the grave” to say he studied at the Ateneo de Manila University “from prep to college.”
The phrase, he explained, “is actually an idiomatic expression which the dictionary defines as, ‘from birth to death’.”
“A person does not start going to school until about age 4, definitely not on the day he/she is born. And the normal age when a student graduates from college is 21 — widely regarded as the start of the years that define one’s youth, certainly not one’s twilight years.”
He also took issue with Jimmy’s use of phrase “back and forth” to describe how well he knows the entertainment industry.
“What Bondoc most probably meant was that he knows the entertainment scene “like the back of my hand,” to mean that he has a very good and detailed knowledge of something—in his case, being a singer-songwriter,” Pocholo said.
But he also criticized that, saying: “That is not an entirely false claim, but which could also not be confirmed to be the whole truth, given his relatively young age.”
Jimmy Bondoc, 41, is best known for his 2004 hit song “Let Me Be The One.”
The points raised by the now-viral Inquirer article (seven thousand shares on Facebook and counting) are correct, of course.
This begs the question: Was this kind of nitpicking warranted?
“If you wanted to write about job incompetence, maybe you should have started with a summary of facts proving Mr. Bondoc’s caliber as an artist and as an executive for that matter,” one comment in the article page read.
“Aysus, ‘mangles’ talaga? Sana ganyan din kayo ka-passionate sa pagdepensa ng sarili nating wika. Nakaka-1920s!” filmmaker Moira Lang wrote in a Facebook post.
Of course, there are those who believe government appointees deserve to be put it that kind of scrutiny.
“But seriously, EVP for Entertainment? What are Bondoc’s qualifications?” another commenter wrote.
What do you think, Coconauts?
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