In defense of Paula Jamie Salvosa

In the clip, a young lady constantly hollered at a female security guard at the LRT station (Metro Manila, Philippines) the words “I’m a liar,” her squeaking tone interchanging between a question and a statement.

The young lady explained that the guard’s rude behavior had enraged her. “I’m just returning the favor,” she retorted.
Source

LIKE A TIGER SHE ACTED. That might even be an understatement. I’m talking about Paula Jamie Salvosa—the young Filipina who made it to Internet stardom through a minute-long “AMALAYER” video clip a very responsible online citizen posted few days ago.

Salvosa received countless criticisms, for example, on Twitter, Facebook (FB), and YouTube (YT). “Educated? That’s not the way an educated person should behave,” said a comment on YT. “She must be attending her English class in school, but she must have been absent in her Good Manners and Right Conduct class,” said another. “She should have proven that she’s really educated, but with the way she acted, it’s not obvious.” Apparently, numerous comments pointed out that her education should have made her behave more civilized. These criticisms rooted, perhaps, from a line she uttered while talking to the guard: “May pinag-aralan akong tao!” (“I’m an educated person!”), her tone as though she was bragging about her educational attainment or something. A tone that would make someone—who might have attained just a high school diploma—feel inferior.

Poor female security guard! 20 percent of my sympathy goes to her. The remaining 80 percent goes to Salvosa. I don’t get it why people had judged her so easily. Mocking her. Cursing her. Nagging her.

I have nothing against those who sympathized with the female guard. That’s sweet. Being educated shouldn’t give anyone the right to treat someone inferiorly. Salvosa was extremely wrong with that—if that was her mindset. But being educated, too, shouldn’t be a guarantee that someone would behave like a saint. If there’s one specific truth about this educational-attainment—this is the only word I could think of right now—phenomenon, it would be this: A diploma is neither a license to feeling superior nor as a pacifier that would stop someone from screeching when he or she has to. I know for certain. I’m an educated person; I have my bad days too.

In defense of Paula Jamie Salvosa, it might have been her bad, bad day. Or there might have been a reason why she behaved like a tiger. Really. Only a little feistier in her case. After all, we didn’t see the entire incident, did we?

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The only full incident I’ve seen was Salvosa’s audition for the next MYX VJ (fast-forward to 1:01 of the clip above). (That means she’s a star-wannabe which also means that the video was her chance of publicity. Bad publicity! But it’s still publicity.) From that clip, I suppose it’s safe to say that her nose is not perfect. A typical Malayan nose like mine. That’s the only objective opinion anyone can say about her. (But she’s certainly not ugly.) If she hollered at the guard the word “pango” (flat-nosed), or something similar, I’d understand people reacting aggressively—like the ones nagging on YT—as long as their noses are perfect. Salvosa, however, didn’t react that way. Unfortunately.