San Carlos Bishop Gerardo Alminaza is calling for a boycott of the controversial film “Maid in Malacañang”.
Alminaza described the film as “shameless”, and called on the people behind it to issue an apology.
The movie supposedly depicts the last 72 hours of the Marcos family in Malacañang Palace before they fled the country.
A trailer of the movie showed the late president Cory Aquino playing mahjong with a group of nuns, which was condemned by critics.
Aquino sought refuge overnight at the Carmelite monastery in Cebu during the 1986 Edsa People Power Revolution.
Alminaza stressed that “the producer, scriptwriter, director and those promoting this movie should publicly apologize to the Carmelite nuns, to Pres. Cory Aquino’s family and to the Filipino people.”
The Carmelite nuns have slammed the “mahjong scene,” stressing that the attempt to distort history is “reprehensible,” Sister Mary Melanie Costillas, Prioress of the Carmelite Monastery, said in a statement published on Tuesday, August 2.
“Depicting the nuns as playing mahjong with Cory Aquino is malicious. It would suggest that while the fate of the country was in peril, we could afford to play leisurely games,” she added.
Alminaza dared the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) to act responsibly on this and perform its mandated duty.
He said that MTRCB is a quasi-judicial government agency under the Office of the President which is responsible for the review and classification of television programs, movies and publicity materials, stressing the national agency mandated to supervise and regulate the public exhibition of motion pictures, television programs, and publicity materials under a regulatory framework guided by the constitutional norms of respect to the dignity of the person together with utmost respect and protection for the vulnerable.*