DGPI opposes Robin Padilla’s proposed ban on ‘Plane’

“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,” DGPI said in a statement.

“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,” it added.

“We support allowing the film to screen, informing the public of any problematic claims it makes, inviting open debate, or simply ignoring the film altogether. But we stand against censorship or banning the exhibition of this film from screening.”

In a statement issued prior, Padilla maintained he already received a commitment from the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) as led by chairperson Lala Sotto to ban the film after he aired his concerns about it as depicting the country in a bad light.

“Plane,” starring Gerald Butler, is an action thriller that follows an airplane pilot and his passengers as they crash landed in an island in Sulu.