MANILA, Philippines—In his first television interview after releasing a tell-all autobiography, singer Mark Bautista shared the story of sexual abuse he experienced as a child.
Sitting down with journalist Jessica Soho for a ‘Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho’ episode aired on Sunday, February 25, Bautista recalled the incident that he said had a huge impact on his character.
“I would consider it more of an assault,” Bautista said, referring to the sexual misconduct perpetrated against him by a “distant cousin.”
“May pressure, naging aggressive yung distant cousin ko. In-expose niya yung sarili niya sa akin, parang pinipilit niya ako to do a sexual act (There was pressure, my distant cousin became aggressive towards me. He exposed himself to me, as if he was forcing me to do a sexual act),” he added.
“Ganun yung nangyari, pero natakasan ko yun (That’s what happened, but I got away from it),” Bautista said.
According to the singer, he did not discuss with his family and friends for a very long time the sexual abuse he was subjected to.
“Pero ang daming tanong sa isip ko, but I think sa edad ko rin na yun, hindi pa ganun kalalim yung pag-intindi ko sa mga ganun bagay (But there were many questions on my mind, but I think at that age, my understanding of those matters wasn’t thorough),” he said.
“So, parang kinalimutan ko na lang siya (So I seemed to have just forgotten about it),” he added.
But Bautista had not completely put away the bitter memories of assault. In fact, the subject made it to the singer’s autobiography entitled ‘Beyond the Mark,’ released on February 14.
Soho said she asked Bautista to talk about it in order to shed light on the issue of child molestation.
“Pag nakakakita ako ng bata na naglalaro sa lansangan, or alam kong parang napapabayaan ng parents… parang natu-trauma ako, I don’t know. (When I see a child playing on the streets, or when I know that the child is neglected by the parents…it seems like I am being traumatized. I don’t know),” Bautista said.
As a sexual assault victim, Bautista advised parents to “be careful with the people that surround your kid.”
“Kilalanin siguro yung mga taong pumapaligid sa mga anak niyo (Identify the people who surround your children), kasi minsan (because sometimes) it’s beyond the parents’ control or the kid’s control,” he said.
He added that people should be mindful of the effects of molestation to children.
Although Mark didn’t want to admit then that this unfortunate experience had shaped his life today, the singer said, “I would like to believe na hindi, pero major part siya sa nangyayari ng buhay ko (I would like to believe that it didn’t, but this is a major part of what had happened in my life).”
After making headlines for playing former president Ferdinand Marcos in the musical ‘Here Lies Love’ at the West End, Bautista became the man of the hour once more after publicly coming out as bisexual.
His journey to coming out was chronicled in his autobiography.