On the DILG, the PNP and Ang Probinsyano

Ever imagined how it would be like to live within a state that's worried about the plot lines of some prime time show? If you're from the Philippines, your imagination won't be too taxed as it seems that's where we are now.

The Department of Interior and Local Government, and the Philippine National Police under it,  has recently called into question the plot lines of beloved prime time show "Ang Probinsyano".

I for one am not a fan of the show. I often question my mom about her fondness of it. But nonetheless, I've grown to accept that the show is a nightly routine for hers. The lame fight scenes, overly dramatic sudden close ups as the characters stare at each other, the incessant smiling and proselytizing of how goodness and badness are this and that and all that moralistic crap are there to stay on her schedule.

But if there is one good thing I can say about Ang Probinsyano, it's that it reminds me of the 90's action films that still remain tenants in my heart.


Hoodlum Terminator and another FPJ hit, Kapag Puno na ang Salop, are classics to me. And just like Ang Probinsyano, they never aspired to put people of authority or the institutions they are in on pedestals. Institutional flaws were usually highlighted in films like these. From cops to politicians, flaws were abound. The main protagonists are usually the only ones free from the critical magnifying lens of film writers back then. Hell, even the titular character of Hoodlum Terminator and real-life former cop, Boyong Mañalac, was portrayed as a flawed character.

And for every flaw the institutions and people of power may have in these films, the state stayed clear of criticizing. The judiciary never questioned the characterization of Judge Valderama in Kapag Puno na ang Salop. His eventual rise to power thanks to a corrupt political structure in the sequels never got the government's attention. Or how about the level of EJK's and police brutality in Hoodlum Terminator? Where was the government outcry?

I'm not gonna write about the importance of civil liberties or the problems of an over-controlling state. I'd like to spare myself of such complexities right now. Those issues are too broad for me to write about right now. But I am right now perplexed as to what changed?

What changed in the government that something that was normal in films and shows 20 years ago are now seen as worthy of intervention? Is it the laws? But the main violation the DILG is looking to press on the producers of Ang Probinsyano, Article 179 of the Revised Penal Code, has been written into law since the 1930's. Are the institutions now so free of blame that any level of fictitious flawed portrayal should be seen as major slights befitting of litigation? Nobody, not even the president who described his chase against graft and corruption to be endless, can believe that. Is it the people in charge? Maybe...

Whatever's happening, it is certainly looking like a bitch move from an administration that have touted the same level of machismo of our 90's action heroes since they got into power.