Hold your horses, Ronald “Bato (Rock)” dela Rosa.
The Philippines’ Commission on Elections (COMELEC) yesterday warned dela Rosa, President Rodrigo Duterte’s first chief of police and a candidate for senator in this year’s elections, that he is not allowed to show his biopic during the campaign season.
The biopic in question is a movie titled Bato, The General Ronald dela Rosa Story, which stars another Duterte loyalist, action star Robin Padilla.
Padilla has posted trailers of the movie on his Instagram account but he hasn’t divulged when the Adolfo Alix Jr.- directed movie will be shown this year. However, anti-government netizens are already calling for a boycott of the movie, Interaksyon reported.
COMELEC commissioner spokesman James Jimenez warned dela Rosa and his supporters that the movie cannot be shown during the campaign period, which starts on Feb. 12 and ends on May 11, reported the Philippine Star.
Jimenez was quoted as saying by the Manila Bulletin: “[It] should not be exhibited or played in theaters at all during the campaign period. If showing (sic), whether or not there’s a boycott, there will still be a violation of election rules.”
Jimenez’s basis for this pronouncement is Republic Act 9006, or the Fair Election Act. The law’s section 21 states: “No movie, cinematograph, or documentary portraying the life or biography of a candidate shall be publicly exhibited in a theater, television station or any public forum during the campaign period.”
The Philippine Daily Inquirer and the Manila Bulletin reported that those who break the law could be imprisoned for up to six years, disqualified from public office, and stripped of their right to vote.
Candidates could appear on television or radio, but former COMELEC chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. said in 2013 that the radio or TV station should notify the commission first about the candidates’ appearance, reported GMA News.
Dela Rosa’s biopic is not the first of its kind in the pop-culture-crazy Philippines.
Former Senator Sergio Osmeña III’s escape from prison was dramatized in the movie Eskapo, shown in 1995 before he was elected to the Senate. Former senator and Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim’s life was also dramatized in a movie, twice at that: in 1995 and 2013.
These movies depict the lives of these politicians in a rosy light, making them good vehicles to promote them to voters.
Jimenez’s pronouncement did not stop Padilla from posting the Bato movie trailer on Instagram yesterday.
This time, however, he added a caption that could be interpreted as his way of throwing shade at the COMELEC.
He wrote a popular saying in Filipino, “Bato Bato sa Langit tamaan wag magalit, ” which means that only those who are guilty are affected or hurt by a statement.
All this silly political drama just means one thing — it really is election season.
