By Mario Casayuran
International boxing icon Senator Emmanuel D. Pacquiao said Saturday his being tapped by a movie production unit to play a major role in the movie ‘’Malvar’’ is a non-issue.
Senator Manny Pacquiao (JANSEN ROMERO / MANILA BULLETIN)
Through a media relations officer, Pacquiao said he would support an actor to play the ‘’Malvar’’ role as he asked movie moguls to produce historical movies.
Pacquiao said historical movies must be produced so that Filipinos will not forget national heroes who spilled their blood to pay for the freedom and liberty that the current generations now enjoy.
Relatives of national hero General Miguel Malvar object to the selection of Pacquiao as the ‘’General Malvar.’’
But lawyer Jose Malvar Villegas Jr., head of the JMV Film Production which is making the ‘’Malvar’’ movie, said ‘’the overwhelming acceptance and acclamation of the choice of Senator Pacquiao to play the major role in the movie ‘’MALVAR’’ as General Malvar is proof that the public accept the fact that Senator Pacquiao, besides being a senator, is well known in the movie world as ‘’consummate actor, besides being a boxing world champion famous all over the world.’’
‘’The critics who want to twist the choice of Senator Pacquiao do not do justice to the ability of Senator Pacquiao as an actor and smacks figment of imaginations of the politicians who are even using close relatives of General Malvar to sow intrigues to serve the interest of some political sectors opposed to the government and act as apologist for the foreign colonial regimes that occupied the Philippines for 400 years,’’ Villegas said.
Villegas is a grandson of General Malvar.
‘’The life and times of General Malvar in history belongs to the people and cannot be monopolized even by his immediate family as provided for in the Heritage Law and anybody can write or do a movie on the National Hero even without the consent or knowledge of his next of kins,’’ Villegas added.
Senator Manny Pacquiao (JANSEN ROMERO / MANILA BULLETIN)
Through a media relations officer, Pacquiao said he would support an actor to play the ‘’Malvar’’ role as he asked movie moguls to produce historical movies.
Pacquiao said historical movies must be produced so that Filipinos will not forget national heroes who spilled their blood to pay for the freedom and liberty that the current generations now enjoy.
Relatives of national hero General Miguel Malvar object to the selection of Pacquiao as the ‘’General Malvar.’’
But lawyer Jose Malvar Villegas Jr., head of the JMV Film Production which is making the ‘’Malvar’’ movie, said ‘’the overwhelming acceptance and acclamation of the choice of Senator Pacquiao to play the major role in the movie ‘’MALVAR’’ as General Malvar is proof that the public accept the fact that Senator Pacquiao, besides being a senator, is well known in the movie world as ‘’consummate actor, besides being a boxing world champion famous all over the world.’’
‘’The critics who want to twist the choice of Senator Pacquiao do not do justice to the ability of Senator Pacquiao as an actor and smacks figment of imaginations of the politicians who are even using close relatives of General Malvar to sow intrigues to serve the interest of some political sectors opposed to the government and act as apologist for the foreign colonial regimes that occupied the Philippines for 400 years,’’ Villegas said.
Villegas is a grandson of General Malvar.
‘’The life and times of General Malvar in history belongs to the people and cannot be monopolized even by his immediate family as provided for in the Heritage Law and anybody can write or do a movie on the National Hero even without the consent or knowledge of his next of kins,’’ Villegas added.