This evening, Big Brother announced to the celebrity housemates some changes in the prizes that await the Big Four, a never before twist in the many seasons of PBB in the Philippines.

The housemates, who have just heard director Maryo delos Reyes' comments on their short film, were gathered in the living room when Kuya suddenly called his "special guests" and the Wowowee girls started coming in, all in skimpy clothing, with boxes full of money. You should’ve seen Baron going crazy! Haha!

What the hell are all the boxes full of money for? It appears that Big Brother has decided to double the cash prizes of the show: P400,000 for the 4^th placer, P600,000 for the 3^rd placer, P1,000,000 for the 2^nd placer, and a whopping P2,000,000 (plus other perks) for the Big Winner. Kuya also said that challenges will be tougher and only the toughest can stay until the big night on January 5, 2008.

January 5^th. Wow. The first thing that came to me was, “Oh, they have to spend Christmas and New Year inside the house!” At that instant, Kuya announced that he is opening the door and those who cannot take the challenge are free to exit the house. The episode was cut as the housemates were left amazed by this shocking declaration.

Initially, this season was expected to run until mid December, right before the holidays. I suppose this tremor was never anticipated by the housemates, unless this has been preplanned and revealed to them even before the show started. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, I reckon the housemates joining because they know in the first place that they’ll be home for Christmas and New Year. If only they knew the twist, would they still go for it?

On a side note, it makes me wonder what drove the PBB production to come into this kind of twist. After four seasons, why double the prize only now? Is it to make the show more interesting to watch after the “hell-week” that happened? Could it be because of the unexpected exits that took place this past week? I honestly think Mcoy was insulted by Kuya’s behavior and Ethel was just, well, being the pasaway that she is, but that's another issue altogether.

Anyway, back to the topic.

Okay, I thought, if I were in the housemates’ position right now, what would I do? Should I leave the house to spend the holidays with my family (as originally planned) or take a shot at the doubled rewards?

This dilemma, I think, is brought about by the culture which we have been brought up as Filipinos. I say it’s a difficult decision because we were taught ever since childhood to value our families just like how we value God, more than money or fame or anything material in this world. So not being able to spend Christmas or New Year (it is when family reunions are usually arranged) is a big no-no to most conservative Filipino families.

But as I look carefully into the situation, if I were a housemate, this can be the only holiday season that I am not spending with my family. I mean, it’s not like I will never come back or something. I can always have my next holidays spent with my loved ones, but this is a one-shot deal that may never come again, so why waste it?

My take on this issue: take up the challenge. After all, only 8 housemates remain; four will be evicted and there is a 50% chance of winning the money. P400,000 isn’t bad at all, so might as well take the risk. If the opportunity gets better, P2M might be on its way, which is a totally good thing!

This is just me being practical and all. Others might need 20 years working in the office to get this amount of money. I might need to work in the lab for several years to get my hands on P400K. It’s money, and no matter how we look at it, we are going to need it for sure. In fact, I even tried paid blogging to make extra moolah!

So now I pass on the question to you: if you were in this predicament, if you were a housemate, what will you do? What will you choose? I’d love to hear you guys out.

Labels: PBB