Pollies Fight Over 'bong' Nickname

[Tom]

May 10, 2004

 

WHAT'S in a nickname? Quite a lot in the Philippines, where two candidates standing for parliament have fought a bitter legal battle over the right to be called "Bong".

 

Voters can choose their favoured candidate by nickname alone, and bowling champion Olivia "Bong" Coo feared losing vital votes to movie star Ramon "Bong" Revilla in the race for a Senate seat in upcoming polls.

 

However the Supreme Court rejected a petition from Coo and ruled that Revilla also had right to use the nickname. It ruled that neither of the candidates should be credited if the voter only wrote "Bong".

 

Virtually every Filipino has a nickname usually decided shortly after birth and even the country's leaders rarely refer to each other by their given names.

 

 

Source