What was supposed to be a night of tributes and prayers for a departed friend became a moment that Filipino artist Joscephine Gomez would remember for the rest of her life.
The year was 2024, and Gomez was with a group of fellow poets paying their last respects to a friend and fellow poet who had died. As they were in a huddle during the wake, a notable figure who was seated with her in the front pew uttered an off-color joke for all to hear:
‘Kung bata-bata lang itong si Joscephine, ni-rape ko na ‘to e!’
That person was none other than a revered National Artist whom Gomez chose not to name.
Like other women who have experienced unwanted attention, she was taken aback. However, her restraint was more borne of her training as a Buddhist, which taught her not to react impulsively to anything.
‘If I reply to him, I would create a scene with my theater and operatic voice and thereby disrespect the occasion. I’m a Buddhist, and a true Buddhist does not react easily. We are trained to just note first, ‘ she told INQUIRER Entertainment in an exclusive phone interview on Monday following her Facebook post on October 24.
‘At inulit pa nya, exactly the same words, in the same instance,’ she said. Gomez said nobody in their small huddle called him out, seemingly out of shock that someone they so revered could be so crass as to speak such distateful words.
Gomez said that the National Artist appeared to be expressing himself mindlessly, but she still felt objectified.
‘Feeling nya, wala siyang masamang sinabi. Mindless. Pwede naman na sinasadya nya,’ she said. ‘Nag aassume lng siya na pwede nya akong sabihan ng ganoon. Hindi ako mababa, hindi ako matitinag sa ganoon,’
Minutes after her Facebook post was published, it quickly took a life of its own, with many commenters urging her to name her transgressor and sympathizing with her predicament, among them National Artist Patis Patis Tesoro, theater director JN Nombres, actor and director Bodjie Pascua, author Cecilia Brainard, renowned artist Ofelia Gelvezon-Téqui, theater director Edna Mae Landicho, PR bigwigs Charisse Chuidian and Dynes Regner included, even if they could only guess who it was.
Others, however, were seemingly blaming her for what happened.
But Gomez took all these in stride. She said she has no intention of naming the National Artist involved. However, she said that she felt compelled to speak up on social media in the wake of recent reports of sexual harassment in the workplace, and the entertainment industry, particularly in the writers’ circles, is not an exception.
‘Hindi ko papalampasin. Yan ang gusto kong ituro sa ibang babae, to speak up,’ she said. ‘Had the setting been different, if it wasnt a solemn ceremony, or a place or one that is not quiet or subdued, one must speak up. Sasabihan ko sya, bahala na kung sino makarinig. Imagine, with your wide vocabulary, you’ve reduced yourself to using those words?’
Besides, Gomez said it was not in her nature to stir up a scandal; she just wanted to speak her truth.
The conferment of the title of National Artist falls on the jurisdiction of National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP).
Who is Joscephine Gomez
Gomez herself is a heavyweight in the same artists’ circles that she moves in. She has made a name for herself as the ‘renaissance woman’ of the Philippines, apart from being one of the country’s leading sopranos. She is also a theater actor, broadcast journalist, filmmaker and poet, rubbing elbows with the country’s top cultural figures.
The multidisciplinary creative is also a voice rehab specialist, often called by her colleagues as the Vicky Belo for voice.
She makes a distinguished figure with her distinctive eyepatch, a souvenir from her being the Philippines’ longest living cancer survivor. At two years old, she was diagnosed with retino blastoma which affected her right eye. She would later found, together with a group of doctors, the Retinoblastoma Foundation of the Philippines and launched the National Awareness Campaign on Retinoblastoma.
Cancer did not prevent Gomez from living life to the fullest.
As a solo classical concert singer singing in ten languages, she has given around fifty solo concerts and around 500 performances locally and internationally. She is the first Filipino classical singer to give solo performances in Russia, Brunei Darussalam and in Israel.
She also represented the Philippines in the First International Music Festival in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, after passing auditions for the lead role of Susanna in the opera Le Nozze di Figaro. She performed in three concerts in the city.
After she slowed down from doing musical and theater work, she assumed another profession – that of being a voice rahab doctor. The title does not give her any medical entitlements, but she is nonetheless credited for being a pioneer as an allied medical practitioner in her field.
The Joscephine Gomez Method is being used for vocal behavior modification to treat certain voice disorders
In November 2022, she founded the international groups POETS and Writers Unite (first named PRINCIPLED WRITERS’ GROUP ) and the World Fine Arts Society, which she actively runs as president and chief administrator.