The Philippine Online Chronicles

Word that actor Richard Gutierrez had performed some manner of search and rescue operation for actress and popular love pairing Cristine Reyes during the height of tropical storm set off a firestorm of online outrage among Filipino netizens.

While Gutierrez and Reyes recounted the incident to the press, even attracting the attention of foreign news groups like Fox News and CNN, text messages and notices on blogs and message boards claimed that the rescue was nothing but a publicity stunt.

As blogger Gerry of a A Gout Stricken Pilgrim called it, “That thing about Richard Gutierrez riding a speedboat to Cristine's rescue is, in my opinion, nothing more than a charade--a publicity stunt for their upcoming movie.”

Worse still, the critics said, it was a publicity stunt performed while the casualty count for the Ondoy tragedy hit the thousands, with many victims finding themselves stranded as Reyes had been, but with less hope of immediate rescue.

“I feel sad that there are negative-minded people na gumagawa ng mga maling kuwento [who make these false stories],” Gutierrez said in response to the rumors. “Do you think I, or anybody for that matter, would risk my life negotiating the dark, flooded area at 1 o’clock in the morning para lang mag-gimik [just for a gimmick]?”

Reyes agreed that it was not just a publicity stunt. “Do you think I would be that crazy to stay on the roof for 12 hours with my mom and my two pamangkin para lang gumawa ng gimmick [just to cook up a gimmick]?” she asked.

But the barrage only intensified when people online began to claim that Gutierrez was outright lying about his involvement in Reyes' rescue. Self-professed witnesses came out with their own stories of what happened the night Gutierrez came to Provident Village in Marikina, and their stories were far less flattering than the heroic tale that had gained wide circulation in the media.

They agreed that Reyes had indeed been stranded on her rooftop and Gutierrez did come to the flood-swamped subdivision on Saturday night, but that's where the similarities end.

Straight from the hero's mouth

In an interview with Showbiz Central, Gutierrez recounted the “unforgettable experience” of going out to save Christine Reyes.

According to Gutierrez, he and Reyes had been in contact throughout the storm. He received text messages from her saying the floodwaters had entered their house and the water level was rising, forcing her and her family onto the roof of their house.

When rescuers had not arrived by late afternoon, Gutierrez decided to take matters into his own hands.

“Hindi ko matatanggap na wala akong magawa [I couldn't accept that there was nothing I could do]…I had to do my part and help out,” he said.

At around “8 or 9 pm” Gutierrez and a friend who owned a speed boat set out for Provident Village where Reyes lived. According to Gutierrez, it took them five hours to navigate the flood's strong current. They sometimes bumped into houses and had to push past telephone cables which they were floating level with.

“It was really an eye-opening experience,” Gutierrez said, adding that the scene at Provident was like the “end of the world” with cars floating in the water and people calling for help in the dark.

Gutierrez narrated how Reyes' home was right next to the river banks, so that and his friend had to stop at a post, clutching the phone cables to keep the boat from washing out into the river.

It was only after the rain stopped and the water had calmed that they continued to Reyes' home, finding the house through the light of a multi-colored lamp that Reyes had earlier told Gutierrez she had so they would be able to tell where she was in the dark.

According to Gutierrez, they tied the boat to a tree and he went down to the second floor roof of Reyes' house. Reyes went through her room, removing the glass from the window so that she could step out, and she and Gutierrez slowly went back down to the speedboat.

“Sobrang hindi ko ma-imagine iyong ginawa niya [I can't imagine what he did],” said Cristine Reyes during a different interview. “Ni-risk niya iyong buhay niya. Hindi biro iyong nangyari sa akin [He risked his life. What happened to me was no joke].”

Other versions of the same story

While Gutierrez paints a chivalrous picture, supposed witnesses of what really happened at Provident Village claim that it isn't entirely accurate.

An anonymous poster in the comments section of the GMA 7 News Today blog article about Reyes' rescue said, “May ibang mga residents ng Provident Village na nakakita ng totoong nangyari [Some residents of Provident Village saw what really happened].”

“Mga navy volunteers from Olongapo ang totoong sumagip kay Cristine. Nasira ang speedboat ni Richard kaya sya mismo kinailangang sagipin ng navy [It was the navy volunteers from Olongapo who really saved Cristine. Richard's speedboat broke down so he himself had to be saved by the navy].”

Over at the blog Victorina, Amiel Aguilar Cabanlig re-posts a comment found on a different website.

“He was all brave and arrogant and stuff but in the end, he wasn’t really thinking straight, the water was too high, there was strong current so he had to be saved also,” the comment said. “This, of course, means that rescue groups had to save him, they had to use their resources to find him and Christine taking away help from the many who were in more dire situations.”

Another Internet personage known only as Ice_Burn appeared on Pinoy Exchange to tell the same story.

“Richard Gutierrez's grandstanding and false heroism is really offensive,” said Ice_Burn. “He didn't even rescue Cristine Reyes. He had to be rescued by the Navy men because his speedboat supposedly 'conked out'.”

“He claims he followed Cristine’s multicolored lights to get to her house. Does he know Provident Village by heart to be able to navigate through the 3m high water in total darkness to find some multicolored light deep in the village? To get past the debris? The sunken houses?”

According to Access Pinoy, Ice_Burn had relatives at Provident Village, who witnessed what really happened during the storm. Richard Gutierrez was said to have been accompanied by other members of his family, particularly his mother Annabelle Rama. There is no mention of the scenario where Gutierrez went onto Reyes' roof to help her out of the house.

“Apparently Annabelle Rama was causing a commotion because Richard tried to go off and be a hero and had to be rescued by the Navy men,” said Ice_Burn. “The darkness, swirling cars and debris made it impossible for them to go very far and they got stranded. Official statement is that their speedboat conked out.”

After the navy men rescued both Cristine and Richard, the Gutierrez family simply “took off.”

Gutierrez never mentioned that he had arrived at Provident with a rescue team. In an interview with Cristine Reyes on Yahoo! News however, the starlet recounts how a group with a an Army rubber boat had arrived in the early hours of Sunday, after she and her family had spent 12 hours on their roof. She said that Gutierrez had been “part of the rescue team.”

“Richard should stop acting like he singlehandedly rescued her,” said Ice_Burn. “Give credit where credit is due. He didn’t rescue Cristine, it was the Olongapo Navy Volunteers who rescued Cristine and her family.”

Hero or heroic fantasy?

Richard Gutierrez wasn't the only celebrity to brave the muddy floodwaters of Ondoy. In the days that followed, news of TV and movie stars taking whatever small part they could in the relief efforts filled the news, like Gerald Anderson wading through high waters in Marikina to reach his neighbors, or Jericho Rosales surfing to the aid of storm victims.

As the blog Pala-Isip points out however, “[Gutierrez is] the only one [who did] an interview of his heroism while no other artist who helped save people did. Artists like Jericho Rosales and Gerald Anderson [have] no interview of their heroism and in fact were avoiding any interviews about it.”

“Then again, if you're an artist, any publicity is good publicity.”

Gutierrez may or may not have accomplished the heroic feats he claimed he did, and the subsequent glamorizing of his midnight boat ride to Provident Village may or may not have been solely to promote himself. But if the outrage online about his story are testament to anything, it's that the term 'hero' is not to be used lightly, given the countless, untold stories of rescuers who set out in rubber boats, or civilians who risked life and limb for their families and neighbors, or even of low-profile celebrities who did what they could during the all-encapsulating calamity of Ondoy.

Photo by Jim Frazier, taken from Flickr.com. Licensed under CC-by-nc-nd-2.0-deed.en.

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