Tony Labrusca Faces “#Cancelledin2019” Debacle After Immigration Incident

Rank Magazine
Rank Magazine January 5, 2019
Featured

It looks like Tony Labrusca is not having a good start this 2019 following a can of worms being opened in an incident at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport involving Bureau of Immigration (B.I.) officers. Social media quickly retaliated after allegations of misdemeanor and a displaced sense of “entitlement” for his stature as a celebrity fanned the fire of disgust especially after supposed recollections of the incident surfaced online—including one from a B.I. officer who reportedly witnessed the scene.

In a now-deleted Tweet, the 23-year-old Glorious actor aired his frustration for receiving merely 30 days of valid stay in the Philippines following his return to the country from his trip from Canada. The actor, with the nature of his job, was said to request for the Balikbayan program, which, according to reports, he is not eligible for because he is neither born in the Philippines, a dual-citizen, nor traveling with a Filipino parent.

He wrote, “Just landed in Manila and the Philippine Immigration only gave me 30 days here. LOL. k.”

As the incident blew up to a widely-debated social media courtroom drama, the bureau was actually prompted to post a reminder via FB on the merits and legalities of the Balikbayan program. The advisory read:

04 January 2019PRESS STATEMENTBI Reminds Public on Scope of Balikbayan PrivilegeMANILA, Philippines—The Bureau of…

Posted by Immigration Helpline PH on Thursday, January 3, 2019

But a reaction on Labrusca’s now-deleted online rant surfaced and actually fueled the controversy that it is now, that in turn, enraged netizens. A post, reportedly coming from a witness and employee of the said airport authorities called out Labrusca on being disrespectful to the officer involved.

The post read: “You don’t have a Philippine passport, not even born in the Philippines, and not travelling with Filipino parents, but you want the same treatment as the other former Filipinos. You even shouted and cursed at my supervisor, bragging that you’re a celebrity.

Ang galing mo talaga umeksena, hindi ka na nahiya sa ibang tao. Sigaw ka ng sigaw sa harap ng officers. Boo!

The funny thing is, you were so proud to brag that you work here when you’re only supposed to be a tourist here in the Philippines.

Tapos may ganito ka pa na post. Palakpakan!

For your info, Balikbayan visa is not a working visa.

Nakakahiya ka. Period.”

As is expected, an onslaught of negative reactions from readers of the post ensued mainly calling Labrusca out for being “entitled” and “delusional” of his stature as a celebrity looking for “special treatment”. Several reactions went as far as declaring Labrusca to be “cancelled” in 2019, calling his “glorious” days to be over, following this much-publicized rift with the authorities. The issue even reached Department of Foreign Affairs secretary, Teddy Boy Locsin, who gave short but sarcastic remarks pertaining to the incident.

He asked a Twitter user who tagged him of the incident and asked about the whole story:

Which then followed with a message saying, “let him stay.”

Fellow actor and good friend, Alexander Diaz, took to Twitter to air his side of the story with claims that he was there with the actor when the incident happened. In a series of Tweets he said:

With so many things that have already circulated online since the news broke out, we stood by and waited for developments in the story. As such, based on available materials, we saw the good and the disappointing about the unspooling of the events to come up with the real score, as we know it.

The Good:

Labrusca, in a tweet, extended deepest apologies to the officer involved in the “yelling” and “cursing” incident but denied using foul words and asking for special treatment for him and owned up for his mistake of letting his emotions overpower his judgment.  He wrote:

His father, actor, Boom Labrusca, also took to social media to make attempts at making amends with the involved parties. He said in a comment, “Hi mam, kung anu man po naging problema, humihingi po ako ng despensa sa inyo… pasensya na po kayo mam, btw, nag pm po ako.”

In this incident, we learned that the Bureau of Immigration, with its officers, take laws and rules of eligibility of those who enter the country seriously—regardless of social standing and even fame. However, while Labrusca was under fire for being “rude” and “disrespectful” to the authorities, he was still duly given the 30-days-stay-validity, which we all know, could easily be rebuked if the officer took the incident vindictively.

As Labrusca got embroiled in this whole scenario, the bureau was able to shed light and bring a discussion on the Balikbayan program to the fore, highlighting that no class nor profession should and would be exempt from its legalities.

The Disappointing:

In his (for now) “official” statement on Twitter, Labrusca claims he was completely unaware of his status as a tourist ineligible for a Balkibayan stamp—which we all know, does not excuse him from what is written in the law.

Awareness of the law, for someone who’s consistently traveling, like Labrusca could and should have saved him from this debacle and that should teach a lesson to all of us. We will never know, however, if this is the first time that he has entered the country without his mother—who is his ticket, legally, for a year-long stay as indicated in the rules of the Balikbayan privilege.

While we will never know the gravity of the incident that transpired at the airport (unless a clip surfaces and sheds light on the truth behind it), and even if Labrusca felt “deeply sorry” about it, it should serve as a cautionary tale to public figures, politicians and celebrities alike, that a magnifying lens is on them all of the time–a reality they have to be ready to embrace. As such, actions of public figures, however small or grand they may be, get absorbed consciously or subconsciously by the public psyche.

As the issue snowballed and much of the Internet had already shared their two cents about the situation (as we normally do nowadays), it is saddening to hear that the public’s attention has somehow zoomed in on rather irrelevant points—even personal ones—adding no value to the issue. This only heightens the irony that while many are calling Labrusca “entitled”, the Internet does not take a beat to feel entitled to dish out negative comments defaming someone who’s in the wrong.

Several naysayers were quick to dismiss Labrusca as the “celebrity with the abs”, paying no regard to his impressive repertoire of roles he picked in the past year alone. With the issue, netizens have decided to downgrade him from an actor with glorious potential to someone who relies mainly on looks, and that is disheartening.

Worse, an online user took to Instagram to air his side of the issue (whose screenshots need not be included in the story), somehow making allegations of Labrusca’s sexuality as valid point in the whole discourse. This, as is expected, elicited more interest from online onlookers, jumping in on the accusations, making mockery of the situation or carrying out the unnecessary witch hunt of the alleged “boyfriend” in the middle of the incident.

Dear Internet, whether this be true or not: No one has the slightest right to “out” anyone–celebrity or not!

The Real Score—as we know it.

 Labrusca, an American passport holder and is traveling without a parent nor holding a Filipino passport to support his demand, based on the facts presented, is technically ineligible of a long stay in the Philippines—basically making him a tourist in the Philippines, who is supposedly not eligible for work. And this is something that needs to be addressed by his camp.

To date, no known evidence has been released pertaining to the altercation of the actor, Tony Labrusca with the Immigration Officer. Apart from the online posts of supposed “witnesses”, no video clips nor other evidentiary support has been brought to the attention of the public to substantiate serious allegations and claims on his combative behavior nor his unacceptable demands for fervor because of his “popularity” as a “celebrity”, which he, of course, refutes.

But, to many, the young actor’s online apology, however lacking and unofficial it appeared, confirms his “heated” stance on the whole issue.Amidst the support from his loyal fans, the bigger bulk of the online outrage directed at the actor is somehow gravitated towards the fact that he is working without proper documentation, and the attitude he allegedly exhibited only aggravated his unacceptable situation.

The sad fact is that name-calling, throwing baseless speculations and accusations of him as a person have gotten the better of the discussion. It has been blown out of proportion that the issue of the legality of his stay and eligibility to work here has been overshadowed–and that should not have been the case. If anything, the whole “drama” between Labrusca and the Bureau of Immigration has highlighted the perils of social media as a platform to crucify without careful judgment.

In the spirit of fairness, we deemed it important to ask the Labrusca on the nature of his work-eligibility. Please standby for updates once we receive a response from him or his management.