Age Falsification: Vanity or outright deception?

Phyllis Haver (1899 - 1960) - Photo via The Golden Age of Hollywood

(May Dagdag-Bawas din sa edad).

Just like in the canvassing of votes - Philippine-style - during pre-PICOS elections, there’s also something called subtracting time (‘shaving’) from and adding time (‘padding’) to one’s age resorted to by some actors, actresses, athletes and some politicians. In the case of actors and actresses, talent managers do it pala for their protégées so they get hired for roles and for publicity purposes. The deed is done through repeated oral or written statements, and in the case of certain local politicians, it strangely appears to have even inspired family members of original perpetrators to perpetuate the same practice.

Recently in the local entertainment industry, a winner in a television reality show pegged his age at 24 when in truth he shaved that age by five years, a fact ignored, for whatever reason, by producers of the show.

In the sports business, a scandal was created some years ago when the Little League World Series stripped Zamboanga City of its title. It was discovered after the games that some of its players were too old for Little League, an incident that caused furor and outrage to many Filipinos. To avoid a repetition of the said fraud, teams joining now must have a copy of birth certificates, with documents being checked again as teams advance in the tournament.

Age falsification is similarly resorted to by some local politicians for propaganda purposes and for other reasons only known to them. In his book “Stalin”, (oh, him again), historian E. Radzinski argues that the year of birth of Joseph Stalin was changed from 1878 to 1879 to have a nationwide celebration of his 50^thbirthday. The incorrect date of December 21, 1879 was since printed in many publications during Stalin’s reign, and remains as one of the most widely reported incorrect dates of birth. Eva Peron had her birth certificate altered after becoming First Lady of Argentina, making herself three years younger. Read.

A local Marinduque candidate for the 2013 Elections has apparently followed suit and deliberately shaved five years, thinking, in all likelihood, that the poor, exploited electorate could hardly care anyway for such habitual acts of lying and deception.