You’d think the Philippines’ government officials would have better things to do than gang up on a teleserye (soap opera).
Yesterday, the non-government organization Let’s Organize for Democracy and Integrity (LODI), an alliance of people working in the arts and media, criticized government agencies for their recent tirades against the ABS-CBN show Ang Probinsyano (Literally “The Man from the Province”).
In its statement posted on Facebook, LODI called out the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) for trying to censor the TV show.
“PNP Chief Oscar Albayalde and DILG Secretary Eduardo [Año] should resign their posts and, just like others, apply to be chosen as TV scriptwriters for ‘Ang Probinsyano’ or any other program they wish to write scripts for,” it reads.
The scathing and obviously sarcastic statement goes on to say that Albayalde and Año, of all people, should defend freedom of expression.
“We in the media and arts alliance LODI stand solidly behind the cast and crew of ‘Ang Probinsyano’ against any cheap attempt by the chiefs of the PNP and DILG to wrongfully use their power to censor their creative output on the flimsiest of reasons,” the group wrote.
Last week, three government officials took turns slamming Ang Probinsyano.
The program is your typical cop show with elements of melodrama and humor usually seen in Filipino soap operas. At its center is Cardo Dalisay (Coco Martin), a police officer who routinely fights bad guys.
So what’s the problem?
Well, Albayalde, the police chief, thinks the show puts the police force in a bad light. In the show, the PNP chief — who is not based on him — tried to assassinate the president.
“That kind of portrayal is not fair to the PNP. The chief of the PNP himself is a villain — I don’t think that ever happened to us. In reality, well, that can never happen,” he said.
Albayalde is apparently so bothered by the program that he plans to write to television censors and ABS-CBN to formally complain.
The PNP has also instructed its personnel to stop assisting the show and to stop providing them with resources.
Siding with Albayalde, the DILG also said that they want to take legal action against the show’s producers for the negative portrayal and for using police uniforms and the acronym “PNP,” ABS-CBN News reported.
DILG chief Año even alleged that the show’s producers are “intentionally sending a wrong message to the public which is demoralizing the ranks of the PNP.”
Not wanting to miss out on the party, the head of the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) also nitpicked the show last week.
PAO chief Persida Acosta said the show was misleading because an episode showed families of people who have vanished going to the PAO to seek help. Apparently, it’s the Commission on Human Rights that deals with those cases.
As we said, she nitpicked.
All these can be seen as just the government’s way of riding on the show’s popularity — Ang Probinsyano has been running since 2015 and continues to rake in views. However, for LODI, it could also be much more serious than it seems.
In its statement, the group said that this attempt at censorship “could be a trial balloon for future attempts of the Duterte regime to crack down on media and the arts, just because the fictional story headlined by Cardo Dalisay is different from what the regime wants us to believe.”
It also said that government officials should “look for a mirror and join President Duterte in staring at it,” saying that the extra-judicial killings brought by the administration’s war on drugs are what demoralizes law enforcers.
Read LODI’s full statement here:
