Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 14) — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. sees nothing wrong with allowing the domestic distribution of the film “Barbie,” which Vietnam has banned for featuring a map that supposedly depicts Beijing’s expansive claims in the contested South China Sea.
In a chance media interview on Friday, Marcos pointed out that the movie is fictional.
“‘Yung sinasabi nila ‘yung kasama doon sa ano, ‘yung boundary line na ginawa. Ang sagot ko doon, what do you expect? It’s a work of fiction,” he said, referring to China’s “nine-dash line” claim which critics believe was shown in the movie.
[Translation: They’re saying that the boundary line was shown there. My answer is, what do you expect? It’s a work of fiction.]
“Maganda raw eh, sabi nila [They say it’s good],” Marcos also said of the film.
Earlier this week, the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) decided to allow the screening of Barbie in the country, saying it found “no clear nor outright depiction of the nine-dash line.”
However, it said it has requested the film’s distributor Warner Bros. to blur the controversial lines in order to avoid further misinterpretations.
Some senators have criticized the movie and called on the MTRCB to ban it, or for Philippine cinemas to include an explicit disclaimer that the nine-dash line is \”a figment of China’s imagination.\”
In 2016, an international arbitral tribunal in The Hague upheld Manila’s sovereign rights and jurisdiction in its exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea, and said the nine-dash line claim had no legal basis. Beijing, however, continues to reject this ruling.
