If the state can tolerate trolls and fake news, then maybe they should do the same for a “mindless B-movie”?
This was what filmmakers from the Directors Guild of the Philippines (DGPI) had to say about the Senate’s proposal to ban the action film “Plane” from local cinemas.
The movie, starring Gerard Butler, is a fictional story about a commercial pilot flying a plane from Singapore to Honolulu. After a storm hits in the South China Sea, the flight was forced to take an emergency landing in what turned out to be Jolo, Sulu in Mindanao.
What ruffled the feathers of Sen. Robinhood Padilla and Sen. Miguel Zubiri was how the film portrayed the island as overrun by rebels.
“As a nation, we should send our regrets that this is not the real situation on the ground,” Zubiri said.
“The film should’ve maintained its fictionality and not name our country, the Philippines,” Padilla remarked about the film, adding that the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) has reached out to Plane‘s distributor.
The DGPI condemned this proposed ban, calling it “injurious to free expression.” It also said to bar the film from local cinemas would be a “cure much worse than the illness itself.”
“We believe agency and free choice must remain with the public, rather than imposed by politicians,” the organization said. “To outrightly ban the film, especially one already approved by the MTRCB, is a cure much worse than the illness itself, injurious to free expression and sets a precedent for films to be held hostage by imagined slights to our country’s reputation.”
“If the state can tolerate free expression for trolls, fake news, and historical revisionism without worrying about their effect on the country’s prestige, then the state can do the same for a work that members of the foreign press have regarded as mindless B-movie entertainment rather than a reliable commentary on our country’s affairs,” the statement continued.
DGPI continued to say it stands against censorship or banning the film. Users on social media had mixed reception, with some supporting the organization’s stance.
Politicians, especially corrupt ones, should not dictate what movie we can and cannot watch.
MTRCB should act as an independent agency serving the interesting of the people, and not the politicians. https://t.co/KF8uFKgbGj
— Allan (@_Allan_Bernabe_) February 20, 2023
Ha ha for all the blatant lies, revisions of history that make us laughing stocks of the world, and massive disinformation from Tallano Gold to cheap 20/kg rice, they worry about a film? https://t.co/wDuDRkXXnu
— jolomon (@jolomon) February 21, 2023
DGPI really smacked Robin's face, kicked him in the butt, then dragged him through the mud. Dasurv https://t.co/YW00NEcfEx
— Nikki is Ready to Be…🌙🌄 (@Ramikkin) February 21, 2023
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