President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on Friday that he doesn’t see any issue with the commercial release of the movie “Barbie” in the country.
The President’s remarks came days after concerned citizens called on movie regulators to block “Barbie” for its alleged depiction of China’s nine-dash line in one scene with star Margot Robbie.
Mr. Marcos called the movie’s depiction a “work of fiction”.
“What they are saying is that in the movie, a boundary line is created. What do you expect? It’s a work of fiction,” said the President.
The Movie and Television Review and Classification Board recently gave its permission for “Barbie” to be shown in the Philippines starting July 19 despite calls from politicians for a ban.
“Considering the context by which the cartoonish map of the character ‘Weird Barbie’ was portrayed in the film, the Review Committee is convinced that the contentious scene does not depict the ‘nine-dash line.’ Instead, the map portrayed the route of the make-believe journey of Barbie from Barbie Land to the ‘real world,’ as an integral part of the story,” MTRCB said in a statement.
The Philippines recently celebrated the 7th year of its arbitral victory over China on the West Philippine Sea.
In July 2016, the UN Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague junked the nine-dash claims of China covering the entire South China Sea and recognized the Philippines’ sovereignty in the area within its 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone.