Volume 4, Issue No. 28
OPINION/COMMENTARY
/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /
. . . . . A community service of The Filipino Web Channel (TheFilipinoWebChannel@gmail.com) and the Philippine Village Voice (PhilVoiceNews@gmail.com) for the information and understanding of Filipinos and the diverse communities in North America . . . . . .
Our latest as of Tuesday, November 29, 2022
~ One would be incredulous to learn a host of names generated by the social media troll who goes by the handle "Marites". Supposedly, she now has a brother called "Tolits". Give it to Filipinos' wacky creativity that such new genres of kumare have evolved, for example, Marisol - mareng tagasulsol; Maris - mareng anung tsismis; Maribeth - mare sino ang kabet; Marife - mare feram pera, and many more.
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TROLLS FIND LITTLE MANILA A NEST
Filipinos Have 'Marites' and 'Tolits'
Derivatives of Maria Fill Social Media
By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ
Editor, The Filipino Web Channel
"Always remember . . . Rumors are carried by haters, spread by fools, and accepted by idiots". - Ziad K. Abdelnour
TORONTO - All these years I knew that Marites is a feminine name, a contraction of Maria and Teresita, just like Marilou from Maria and Lourdes. I had many friends who answer to the call Marites, and they are mostly upright.
In many places here in Canada and the Philippines, Marites has taken different connotations. It's jargonized, for one, to describe a gossipy woman in the act of rumor-mongering or of passing tall tales.
Social media posts, notably on Facebook, have one definition of Marites, which is modified in Tagalog to result in the phrase "mare ano'ng latest?"
"Mare" is a noun shortened from the word "kumare," meaning godmother or friend. So the whole phrase "mare ano'ng latest?" translates to "Hi friend, what's the latest (as in news or neighborhood chatter)?"
Bless my ignorance but certainly, I did not know that there is such a transformation before. At least now, I'm getting updated and brought to speed by tech-savvy and digitally literate friends of the Millennials and Generation Z.
I was trying to fact-check a recent posting on social media by a certain Marites and asked friends if they knew or heard about this Marites saying this and that nonsense. Where the heck is she getting inaccurate and fake information? Word of mouth from her own mouth?
Well, I was utterly dumbfounded the moment I got answers to my queries.
Marites is an eponym, a diminutive of the corruption of two proper nouns. Though this Marites is basically a troll, there is a real person behind that troll. Says the dictionary: "A troll is a person who posts inflammatory or otherwise unwanted material on an electronic forum, especially anonymously".
The friendly response really piqued me from then on. I know a number of Marites, real and fake. I know the trolls, both men and women, young and old. And most of them find Little Manila, the residential and commercial hub many Filipinos frequent seven days a week, a comfortable breeding ground.
"Marites" has generated at least 21 jargon. The root word Maria has been replaced by the noun "mare" and is spelled that way and affixed to a secondary name.
I saw a list on Facebook by former network executive Edson C. Guido which evoked a burst of good laughter on this cold and cloudy day.
He spelled them out in Tagalog as: Marisol - mareng tagasulsol; Maris - mareng anung tsismis; Marieta - mare ito pa; Maricar - mare kararating lang; Maricon - mare confirmed; Marina - mare ano na; Mariposa - mare ipost mo na; Marison - mare sundan ko chika mo; Marife - mare feram pera; Maricris - mare crisis ngayon;
Maricel - mare pa cancel; Maribeth - mare sino ang kabet; Marivic - mare pavictim; Marian - mare ayan na; Maribel - mare bili mo ko nyan; Marilou - mare luto na ba; Mariana - mare tama na; Marichu - mare echusera; Marinela - mare anong sabi nila; Marikit - mare pag inggit pikit; and Maripaz - mare pasa mo na chika.
Well, the menfolk will not be left behind in this social media whirl. One trending jargon is "tolits" (described as 'tol, ito ang latest or bro, this is the latest) which an unknown poster says is the brother of Marites.
Marites apparently also has a male counterpart. "Hindi lamang mga babae ang Marites. May mga lalaking tsismoso rin. Ang tawag sa lalaking Marites ay Mon," another poster says in Tagalog. Roughly, it says there are also men who gossip and they are called Mon.
In real life here in the Greater Toronto Area, Tolits and Marites are well-known to their friends and co-conspirators of fake news. The most notorious, according to those in the know, is this chubby woman who doubles as an events organizer.
Her pastime is devoted to promoting the little-known business she's doing for the past many years. She's also reputed to be a Marisol, Maris, Marichu, and Marikit all rolled into one.
I'm not into this kind of idle talk and I hesitate to propagate it. But it's impacting local journalism and the people who do not have the knowledge and skill to verify information posted on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.
It's no different from the yellow journalism practiced by so-called supermarket tabloids that we knew. There's almost no accountability for the authors masking as any of the trolls.
Be forewarned. The person right beside you could be "Marites" or "Tolits" or '"Mon". (Copyright 2022. All Rights Reserved).
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