PBB Voting Theories and Daniel Matsunaga as Big Winner

The main talking point, of course, of the PBB All In Big Night last night was that the Big Winner was a half-Brazilian half-Japanese model by the name of Daniel Matsunaga. The purists will protest, needless to say, that the ‘P’ in PBB, after all, is ‘Pinoy’ – and Matsunaga’s claim to being Pinoy is limited to a five-year residence, broken Tagalog and a self-proclaimed Pinoy heart.

Personally, I do not really mind. This is showbiz, after all. Essentially, Pinoy Big Brother in whatever incarnation it hits television screens nationwide is a platform for discovering new talents as well as a numbers-based tool for gathering information about a personality’s star potential.

Thus, I am more fascinated by the voting trends and how these remain constant or fluctuate on a week-by-week basis.

Toni Gonzaga’s face when she was handed the envelope with the result for the third-placed housemate – eyes instantly wide and eyebrows arched – probably betrayed that she was counting on Jane Oineza to claim the top prize.

“ Having a Brazilian-born PBB Big Winner may be contentious; but Daniel Matsunaga represents an opposite point of view to what we often take of ourselves. He likes us for what we are and has made a home of this country for all its faults. He shows us a good side to ourselves that we are probably too often blindsided to see. ”

In my previous article on the PBB, I wrote that if voting trends did not change, I expected the top two to be Jane and Loisa Andalio. These two had been consistently defying nominations by raking in impressive votes from the public.

Claims on Twitter that the voting is rigged are probably far-fetched. An accounting firm verifies the information gathered and will not risk its reputation by allowing the data to be manipulated.

What is probably not far-fetched is that the voting public can be led along by what they are fed in the show’s last fortnight. Kris Aquino’s individual interviews with the remaining five housemates last Friday, I believe, swung votes one way or the other.

Loisa’s failure to make the Big Four as the last housemate evicted from the PBB House, I believe, was due to a double whammy. The first was self-inflicted, her failure to name herself among the Big Four. On the one hand, the modesty was admirable. On the other hand, it can be argued that the voting public gave her what she wished for.

More than this, I think it was Kris’ line of questioning that killed her chances. Of all things, Kris’ interview focused on sanitation issues: the lice infestation inside the house that Loisa apparently started and her supposed reluctance to take baths.

She denied the latter; but I believe that the damage had been done. She was being roasted on Twitter in the early days of the show because of the lice infestation and her voting results only started to get better when the issue started to die down.

But then, Kris just had to remind the voting public. The mere mention of the word ‘kuto’ was probably Loisa’s kiss of death.

Jane had been raking in spectacular votes up to the final eviction night, which is why Toni Gonzaga – who had been announcing the results – was incredulous that she would only finish third.

It is entirely possible that her votes plummeted because the one vote per-SIM-per-day rule was implemented for the Big Four. If this was the case, then her high results previously were inflated by multiple votes from the same SIMs.

In my opinion, it was Daniel who benefited most from the Aquino and Abunda show’s visit to the PBB House. Each of the housemates was asked who they would like to be the Big Winner aside from themselves; and most named Daniel.

Moreover, the visits of the three female housemates’ families to the PBB House were bundled together in one show. The same show concluded with Daniel telling Kuya inside the Confession Room that he understood it that his family could not be with him because of the expensive plane fares to and from Brazil.

In fact, his sister and mother arrived the same day and their tearful reunion would be featured in the following day’s episode. In terms of impact, the separation of this reunion from the others was probably immense. Aside from the interviews with Kris, this was probably the singular event that swayed the votes Daniel’s way.

Daniel’s PBB All In win somewhat reminds me of Slater Young’s PBB Unlimited victory in 2012. Slater’s numbers were quite mediocre until the final two weeks, if I am being honest.

A final challenge when he was asked to save the other housemates by using his shooting skills was a failure; by his tearful conversation with Kuya in the Confession Room – when he was really bawling his heart out – probably won him the sympathy vote and made him Big Winner.

Daniel was the strong personality inside the PBB House who showed himself not prone to tears even with the tough physical and psychological challenges. His tears of joy at the sight of his Mom and sister were probably the equivalent of Slater’s tearful conversation with Kuya and won him the sympathy vote as well.

As a people, we Pinoys can be overly critical of ourselves; and the greatest ambition of many among us is sadly to leave our own shores.

Having a Brazilian-born PBB Big Winner may be contentious; but Daniel Matsunaga represents an opposite point of view to what we often take of ourselves. He likes us for what we are and has made a home of this country for all its faults. He shows us a good side to ourselves that we are probably too often blindsided to see.

That cannot be a bad thing; and that he has won the votes to become the PBB Big Winner means that there are many who think so, too.

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