MTRCB says 'Plane' distributors have already pulled movie out
MANILA, Philippines — The Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) said that distributors for the Gerard Butler movie "Plane" have already pulled the movie out of the country after it became a topic of controversy given the movie's plot.
"Plane" tells the story of how the crew and passengers led by pilot Brodie Torrance (played by Butler) of an international flight survive the jungles of Jolo, Sulu where their plane landed after it got hit by a storm.
Sen. Robin Padilla then called for the movie's banning by the MTRCB, despite "Plane" having initially premiered in the Philippines back in mid-January and given a PG-rating from the agency, for putting Jolo in bad light.
MTRCB chairperson Diorella "Lala" Sotto-Antonio shared the news in a Senate hearing of the Committee on Public Information and Mass Media, jointly held with the Committees on Games and Amusement, Ways and Means, and Finance.
"Ang distributors ng 'Plane' ay voluntarily pulled out the film already," said Sotto-Antonio, adding that the MTRCB received a letter last Feb. 21, 2023 from the film's distributors.
Sotto-Antonio had previously said that upon hearing concerns of actor Robin Padilla and his fellow senators regarding "Plane," the agency immediately released a statement on the film being a work of fiction and were in the middle of re-evaluating and re-examining the movie.
Sen. Grace Poe, who attended the hearing virtually, reiterated that the movie is indeed fictional and encouraged Filipino filmmakers to create movies showcasing the bravery of the country's military.
Related: Robin Padilla says MTRCB 'commits' to ban movie 'Plane'
Padilla agreed with Poe, though he jokingly said that movies can be made where the American government and military are shown to be incompetent and "walang kakwenta-kwenta" as it falls under the Philippines' constitutional right to freedom of expression.
"Fiction sa inyo 'yan pero tumatama sa'min 'yun. Jolo is not fiction, the Philippines is not fiction. Lugar namin 'yun," said Padilla, reiterating his stance that the Muslim community was offended by their portrayal in "Plane." "The Muslims will never accept that this movie is fiction."
The actor-turned-senator also brought up the issue of video-game movie "Uncharted" — mistakenly referring to it as a Disney film — which had a scene showing China's illegal nine-dash map claim over the South China Sea, an issue already settled by the July 2016 arbitral award by a United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea-backed tribunal.
One issue brought up during the hearing was not to ban movies just because of seemingly debatable content, but rather to encourage debate among viewers and create more films to let audiences decide their opinions.
The Directors' Guild of the Philippines had opposed the government’s plan to ban "Plane," pointing out that the state "tolerates free expressions for trolls, fake news, and historical revisionism without worrying about their effect on the country's prestige" so it should do the same for movies such as "Plane."
“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,” the organization also said.
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