Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 15) — The Department of Tourism should file charges against advertising agency DDB Philippines for providing unoriginal stock footage in the “Love the Philippines” video, Alliance of Concerned Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro said Tuesday.
“Nagbunga ito [“Love the Philippines” video] ng kahihiyan sa ating bansa, sa mga Filipino itong trabaho ng DDB na trabahong tamad at plagiarism yung paggawa ng video at yung mga misrepresentation ng mga sites so hindi lang dapat termination, dapat nagkaso tayo dito sa DDB,” Castro said before the House Committee on Appropriations.
[Translation: The \”Love the Philippines\” video brought disgrace to our country and to the Filipinos. DDB’s work is lazy and the video was also plagiarized and misrepresented the sites. So, DDB’s contract should not only be terminated; They must also face legal charges.]
Mae Elaine Bathan, DOT Undersecretary for Legal and Special Concerns, told the House Committee that the contract between DOT and DDB has been terminated.
“There was already a forfeiture of the performance bond as part of the penalty, aside from the termination and cancelation [of the contract] and no payment of any relative expenses that have been incurred relative to the project,” Bathan said.
DDB earlier apologized for using stock footage in the “Love the Philippines” video and said no public funds were used in its production.
Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco said DDB was under a contract that it would provide original footage in the \”Love the Philippines\” video so the Tourism department could not have known that it would provide unoriginal footage.
The footage provided by DDB in the \”Love the Philippines\” campaign were stock video clips from other countries.
“Hindi dapat natin ibigay yung kumpiyansa natin kasi ‘yung video dapat tinitingnan natin kung ito ay original or not right before we show it to the public,” Castro said.
