BTS in the Philippines’ Congress? Duterte ally’s plan to name political grouping after K-pop band draws backlash

Former House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano said he plans to form a new political grouping named after the world-famous South Korean boy band
But BTS fans are not happy with him appropriating their favourite K-pop group’s name – and have been quick to let him know it on social media

BTS

Elyssa Lopezin Manila

Published: 5:09pm, 13 Jan 2021

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A former speaker of the Philippines’ House of Representatives has sparked outrage on social media after announcing his intent to form a new political grouping named after world-famous South Korean boy band BTS.

Alan Peter Cayetano, an ally of President Rodrigo Duterte who was ousted as speaker in October, said he would form the BTS sa Kongreso (BTS in Congress) bloc with six fellow lawmakers – Representatives Luis Raymund “LRay” Villafuerte Jnr, Dan Fernandez, Raneo Abu, Mike Defensor, Jose Antonio Sy-Alvarado and Fredenil Castro – even mimicking the number of members in the K-pop group. The bloc is expected to be formally introduced in Congress on Thursday.

On Filipino social media, the backlash was swift. The hashtag #CayetanoStopUsingBTS has been trending on Twitter in the Philippines since early Wednesday morning, just hours after Cayetano made his announcement, with more than 8,000 associated tweets as of 3pm – most from the K-pop group’s legions of devoted followers, who call themselves the BTS Army.

The fans have accused Cayetano, who is also a former foreign secretary of the Philippines, of using BTS’s name “for clout”. Cayetano and the other members of the proposed bloc lost their leadership posts in Congress when he was replaced by current House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco three months ago.

In October, Cayetano resigned as speaker via a Facebook Live video, minutes after he was formally voted out by 186 of the Philippine House of Representatives’ 299 members. Cayetano was absent from the vote.

Some BTS fans have used the appropriation of their favourite Korean boy band’s name as an opportunity to raise awareness of the need for people to register to vote in the Philippines’ next national elections, set to be held in 2022, to prove they were not swayed by Cayetano’s tactics.

Alan Peter Cayetano pictured in 2018 while foreign secretary of the Philippines. Photo: AP

Others, however, have called on fellow fans to stop using the hashtag as it gives Cayetano and his allies “free publicity”. They have instead urged fellow fans to report Cayetano to Big Hit Entertainment, the management company behind BTS, for his unauthorised use of the group’s name.

Amid all the hullabaloo, Cayetano on Wednesday said the name of new political grouping was “not meant to offend the fans” of the South Korean boy band, telling reporters that BTS sa Kongreso only meant “Back to Service Congress”, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper.

BTS is an acronym for the Korean expression Bangtan Sonyeondan, which roughly translates as Bulletproof Boy Scouts. The group’s members RM, Jin, SUGA, J-Hope, Jimin, V, and Jungkook made history last year after their hit single Dynamite rose to No. 1 in the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the first South Korean musical act to do so. The song has now been in the US charts for 20 weeks and counting.

The band also became the first K-pop group to be nominated for a Grammy earlier this year after Dynamite garnered a nod in the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance category alongside tracks from Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, and Ariana Grande.

More plaudits came in October last year when BTS – named 2020s Entertainer of the Year by Time magazine – were credited with driving Big Hit Entertainment’s IPO success, which made the band members multimillionaires after reached a valuation of US$7.6 billion on the first day of trading in South Korea.

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