Man in Manila stabbed over “Nobody”

A man was killed in Manila this week for butchering “Nobody,” the Korean pop song that also served as Caloocan mayor Recom Echiverri’s election platform.

Just minutes before he was stabbed, Viray and his friends were drinking at the bar when they decided to sing the Wonder Girls’ hit song.

Their rendition, however, irked another group of drinkers at a nearby table who made their displeasure known by shouting them down.

Shouting soon turned to stabbing, as usually happens, and Viray ended up stabbed in the face and neck.

Tragic as that is, it also invites the question: why do grown-ass men in their cups always think it a good idea to sing like girls?

Metro News: Gay alerts people to freak accident

Well, all right. The actual headline on ABS-CBN news was “Army sergeant dies in freak accident in Taguig,” but there was nothing really freaky about what happened.

A guy has an argument with his wife, walks out, and is run over by a black van. It was surprising, but not freaky by any standard. If the guy had been run over by a Jaguar…driving a Tamaraw FX, then that would have been freaky.

In fact, what’s most striking about the story is this statement from Staff Sgt. Ronnie Natividad, the victim’s buddy and fellow soldier:

Nasa loob kami tapos may narining kaming lumagabog. Sumisigaw iyong bakla, sabi niya may nasagasaan daw. Paglabas namin nakabulagta na siya dyan. (We were inside when we heard a thud. The gay man was screaming that someone had been run over. When we went outside, he was already sprawled there.)

Who was this ‘bakla’ and how does he figure in the story? Why did S/Sgt Natividad have to specify that the witness was gay? Was the witness the one they found sprawled on the ground? Was it the victim?