Rico Yan's family, Jessy Mendiola, others react to 'disrespectful' trend involving the late actor's grave
The family of Rico Yan gave a reaction to the recent trend involving the late actor wherein various social media users have begun posting clips of his films and taking pictures of his grave.
In case you're not up-to-date, several online users—who are mostly composed of the younger generation—have been uploading photos and videos of Rico on their social accounts, having seemlingly discovered his charm only now.
However, things escalated to a controversial level when some began to visit his resting place at the Manila Memorial Park and posted about their experience, which instantly became viral after other users claimed that it is "disrespectful" to the late actor.
In an ABS-CBN report, Rico's brother Bobby was asked about his reaction to the trend, but said that the family "will not issue any statement for now."
He also said that after speaking to the caretaker of Yan’s tomb, he was told that "it’s nothing to be concerned about, for now."
"We welcome po anyone from anywhere. We have visitors from abroad visit Rico's tomb and there are visitors weekly since 22 years ago," Bobby told ABS-CBN News.
Despite this, he stressed that "they will take action" if visitors have begun bothering the neighboring mausoleums at the cemetery.
In contrast to Bobby's positive outlook on the trend, other personalities had a different take. For instance, Jessy Mendiola took to her Instagram stories to share an article about Rico's grave being the latest TikTok trend and urged others to respect his resting place.
"Wala na ba magawang matino ang mga social media addicts? Konting respeto naman sa namayapa na at pati na rin sa pamilya ng yumaong. Susme. Lahat nalang ba para sa likes, followers, and views? Nakalimutan na yata ng mga tao ang salitang 'respeto.' Wala nang decency," she wrote.
On TikTok, reactions on the issue were mixed, with some criticizing those who were taking pictures and videos of their visit to Rico's grave while others fended off haters and said that these people were only admiring their deceased idol.
"Grabe talaga, dinumog yung puntod ni Rico Yan na parang tourist attraction, imbes na respetuhin na lang yung namayapa. I get it, you are very curious about Rico Yan. Okay lang na i-admire niyo siya, even though he is no longer with us, pero wag naman sana i-disrespect at gawing for clout yung content ninyo na bibisita niyo yung puntod ni Rico Yan," one user said.
Another argued in a post, "It’s 2024 na po! In my opinion, there’s nothing wrong with admiring. Rico Yan is a famous former actor, normal na may mga bumibisita sa tomb niya."
Others said, "For me, wala namang mali sa pag-bisita [nila] kay Rico Yan kasi kaya nga nasa public place puntod ni Rico Yan para mabisita din siya ng mga fans niya."
Rico died of cardiac arrest in March 2002 due to acute hemorrhagic pancreatitis. He was 27 years old.
Some of his popular works include Dahil Mahal na Mahal Kita (1998) and Got 2 Believe (2002), in which he starred with his love team partner and later ex-girlfriend Claudine Barretto.