Lawyer Jose Malvar Villegas, Jr., founder-chairman emeritus of the two million-strong Citizen Crime Watch (CCW) and the grandson of national hero Gen. Miguel Malvar, said during the Christmas party of the CCW at Max’s Restaurant Ermita, Manila that he has decided to produce Malvar because of an “unfinished business.”
The film, which is based on the story of Gen. Miguel Malvar (to be played by Sen. Manny Pacquiao), was first conceptualized 20 years ago. It did not materialize on the hesitation that the American government would be offended by the producer.
According to Villegas, Malvar shall show the atrocities committed by the American forces during the 1899-1902 Philippine-American War where Gen. Malvar led the Filipino forces as Supreme Commander of the 1898 Philippine Revolutionary Republic, replacing Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo as head of the First Philippine Republic in Asia.
Villegas added that it is only now that many are supporting the Production of the movie because of Pres. Rodrigo R. Duterte’s advocacy for an Independent Foreign Policy, which will cut the stranglehold of the Americans on the lives of the Filipinos.
“They have continuously done so, for more than a century. The American government controls the destiny of the Filipino people and established a neo-colonial Republic in the Philippines,” he said.
Villegas who is also chairman-president of the Labor Party Philippines (LPP), the fifth major political party in the Philippines, emphasized that the Filipinos continue to fight foreign intervention on the affairs of government and the democratic lives of the people in the choice of their leaders, destroying our culture, heritage, and nationalistic spirit all-together.
According to Camarines Sur Vice Gov. Imelda Papin, president of the Actors Guild of the Philippines and line producer of Malvar, Sec. Salvador S. Panelo, presidential chief legal counsel and presidential spokesman, has accepted the invitation to be the keynote speaker in the JMV Film Production Christmas Assembly Seminar, which “intended to light the torch toward the correct history of the 1896 Philippine Revolution.”
Meanwhile, director Jose “Kaka” Balagtas said that the movie will show how hundreds of thousands of Filipino civilians were massacred by the American Invading Force, notably the Balangiga Massacre in Samar, which after having been denounced by Pres. Duterte, the American Government finally returned the three Balangiga Bells, after refusing to do so for more than a century.