After Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Oscar Albayalde expressed his opposition on the bad portrayal being received by the cops in the top-rated nighttime program of ABS-CBN ‘Ang Probinsiyano’, the organization decided to withdraw all of its assistance to the said show.
In the memorandum posted by Jezreel Magpantay, a netizen who works for PNP, it showed that TDPCR told all members of the organization to avoid assisting the production team of ‘Ang Probinsiyano’.
It was confirmed that members of Police Community Relations Group (PCRG), Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) and production team of ‘Ang Probinsiyano’ already met on October 17 and 23, 2018.
The said representative of the TV show agreed that they would make corrections in their storyline to avoid portraying the cops wrongly, however, two weeks after the said dialog, ‘Ang Probinsiyano’ continues to paint the organization badly.
They said that ‘Ang Probinsiyano’ portrayed the PNP leader, other police officers and members of Presidential Security Group (PSG) as corrupt and villainous while making the fictional rebel group ‘Vendetta’ as heroic.
“This puts the PNP organization in a bad light and causes unwanted damage to its dignity and reputation,” PNP said in the memorandum.
While they respect the freedom of expression, PNP said that the portrayal of ‘Ang Probinsiyano’ to the organization is “unfair” and ”creates confusion on the minds of the youth who are viewing it”.
“There is a need to correct the situation,” the memorandum reads.
After seeing that ‘Ang Probinsiyano’ is not cooperating with the authorities, PNP decided to immediately withdraw its assistance to the production team of the said show, like using their “facilities, vehicles and firearms” and “participation of some PNP personnel and shots of PNP offices and buildings in some segment or scenes”.
“In this regard, all units, officers and personnel are advised to immediately refrain from assisting to withdraw their support to the production of the said Teleserye in terms of PNP resources like patrol cars, firearms, personnel, venues and other items and gadgets being used in the teleserye,” it said.
The memorandum has been signed by Police Director Eduardo Serapio M. Garado, head of TDCPR.
On November 14, Albayalde announced that the PNP will protest the bad portrayal of the cops in the said show.
“Masyadong hindi na pangkaraniwan na nangyayari and it gives us a bad impression actually. It’s a bit unfair sa PNP when you portray yung mga ganung activity that doesn’t really happen sa organization naming,” said Albayalde.
Meanwhile, the leading actor of ‘Ang Probinsiyano’ Coco Martin apologized to the PNP, saying that they don’t mean to badly portray the cops in his show.
“Honestly affected ako kasi hindi ko inaasahan na magkakaroon ng ganito,” Martin said.
“Sabi ko nga sa simula’t simula eh sila ‘yung gumabay, sumuporta sa amin sa pagbuo ng Probinsyano. Siguro nagkataon lang na hindi nagkaroon ng pag-uusap, lalo na’t tatlong taon mahigit nang tumatakbo [ang serye], so siyempre nag-iiba [ang kuwento],” he added.
He also asked the PNP to talk to them to fix the problem.
“Kay PNP chief, sana magakaroon kami ng pagkakataon na makapag-usap kami at makapagtulungan para sa ikaaayos ng lahat.”