JUST ANOTHER DAY

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BY LUIS BUENAFLOR JR.
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ONE of the hottest topics being talked about these days is the cancellation of Grammy award winner singer/songwriter James Taylor of his concert in the Philippines. The said concert is scheduled for February next year.

Normally this is no big deal as artists often do this and some would even do a cancellation on the concert date itself. What usually happens is either a press conference is held to announce the cancellation or just a press release. It doesn’t even make the news but this one made the six o’clock news of mainstream television and prominent pages of major newspapers.

According to James Taylor he cancelled his February concert in the Philippines “due to President Rodrigo Duterte’s ongoing war on drugs, which has claimed the lives of several thousands of drug suspects.” And that is why ladies and gentlemen, this particular cancelled concert made the 6 o’clock news.

The usual rabid anti-Duterte media, ABS-CBN Television and the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper, of course, squeezed whatever they can get out of it to use in their anti-Duterte campaign.

There is an ongoing debate in social media between the supporters of President Rodrigo Duterte i.e. Mocha Uson and Sass Rogando Sasot versus the jaundiced “born against Duterte” netizens on the real reason why the concert was cancelled.

There are three very plausible reasons why James Taylor cancelled his February concert in the Philippines:

One is poor ticket sales; second, James Taylor is a drug addict and third, Loida Nicholas Lewis.

Let’s discuss them one by one starting with the “poor ticket sales” reason. Duterte supporter and blogger Sass Rogando Sasot posted this in her Facebook account, “I really want to know kung ilan ang bumili ng tickets ng James Taylor concert. Bakit ngayon lang siya nag-cancel eh July pa iyong may patayan? Ang chika eh out of 20,000 tickets, 52 pa lang ang nabibiling tickets. February na iyong concert. Sus! ginamit pa ang “rule of law.”

I did some research and this is what I found out with regards to the ticket sales of the concert: 2,352 tickets sold out of 16,000 to 20,000 seats, sales started October and the concert is in February. It does seem that “poor ticket sales” is indeed “poor” and this alone is enough for the concert organizers to cancel the show. It would be financial suicide to continue the concert if ticket sales are poor, just the talent fee of James Taylor is a million dollars.

The concert is on February and sales for the ticket started in October. With barely two months to go sales are dismal. Consider this, James Taylor is not well-known to the millennials; most of his fans are either senior citizens or dead. He is an old man and does not cut an attractive figure on stage, in terms of marketing, not very saleable.

Two, James Taylor is a long-time heroin user; he is 67 years old and according to him, a recovering addict. If you are that considering the hard-line stance of President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs, wouldn’t you be very afraid to come to the Philippines? He might suffer a fate worse than what happened to the Beatles the last time they visited the Philippines.

And third, James Taylor is a hard-line Democrat. He supported Hillary Clinton. It is a well-known fact that the Democrats led by outgoing President Barrack Obama are not fans of Duterte. Loida Nicholas Lewis is a Democrat and a supporter of Hillary Clinton, quite chummy with James Taylor and wants President Duterte to resign. Take note that Loida Nicholas Lewis is very vocal against the holding of the Miss Universe in the Philippines. She petitioned that it should not be held in the Philippines because of Duterte. Of course she failed to have the Miss Universe Pageant in the Philippines stopped. Guess what, having James Taylor cancel his Philippine concert is the next best thing as long as she can blame it on Duterte.

So James Taylor, Bullocks!/PN
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