The Philippines through its Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) has ordered the removal of the episodes showing a map of China’s so-called nine-dash line from the political drama "Pine Gap."
Netflix Inc., the popular video streaming platform where the series is aired, immediately complied with the ruling by pulling out the two episodes depicting China's territory on Monday, Nov. 1.
The decision to order the removal of the episodes was handed down by the MTRCB on Sept. 28, 2021 after a thorough review saying that certain episodes of “Pine Gap” are “unfit for public exhibition.”
The review came after the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) lodged a complaint to the MTRCB to look into the incident.
In its decision, the MTRCB underscored that “under a whole-of-nation approach, every instrumentality of the government, whenever presented with the opportunity, has the responsibility to counter China’s aggressive actions in the West Philippine Sea to assert the Philippines’ territorial integrity."
"It further noted that the portrayal of the illegal nine-dash line in Pine Gap is no accident as it was consciously designed and calculated to specifically convey a message that China’s nine-dash line legitimately exists," the decision stated.
The MTRCB further argued that "such portrayal is a crafty attempt to perpetuate and memorialize in the consciousness of the present generation of viewers and the generations to come the illegal nine-dash line."
"Using the medium of a motion picture is but China’s unconventional approach to gain an upper hand in the territorial conflict in the South China Sea/West Philippine Sea,” the MTRCB stressed.