ASSUME that the creators of the ABS-CBN teleseries “Ang Probinsyano” deliberately made the plot of Book III (Fifth and Sixth Season) hew to a fact of life in Philippine politics: there are dirty cops and corrupt politicians in government.
Would that make them liable for a crime?
Some PNP and DILG officials think it would. Thus, they threaten legal action against the show’s producers, including the broadcast network ABS-CBN, of the most-watched drama on national TV.
False representation
Reading the law, though, one sees the legal ground to be thin and shaky: Art. 177 and 179 of the Revised Penal Code ban use of military and police uniforms or their imitation: to “falsely represent” AFP and PNP in the first article and to “publicly and inappropriately” use them in the second. Republic Act. 493 covers unlawful use of insignias, medals, buttons and other accessories to the military or police uniform: again, for an illegal purpose.
One wonders how the use of police uniform by police officials and personal in the TV drama “Ang Probinsyano” could be “false representation” or “public and inappropriate use” of police insignias and badges when the public knows up front that it is a television show, a make-believe, a piece of fiction. The ban on use of police uniform and insignias must be predicated on deceit, illegal purpose, or gross disrespect. Would police want villains prohibited from wearing PNP uniform or symbol just because they’re villains in the drama.
Nobody deceives other people: both producer and audience know the wearing of uniform or insignia is not for real. Everything in the TV drama is a concoction and, if anybody forgets that, the disclaimer that “Ang Probinsyano” is fictional is displayed in each show. Must they flash that reminder every half-four, complete with flashing light and blare of trumpets?
Not all can be Cardo
How about these criticisms?
[] DILG Chief Eduardo Ano says it casts the police in a bad light. The story revolves around Ricardo Dalisay, a good cop from the provinces thrown into the dirty swamp that is Manila. It showcases the honest and heroic deeds of PO2 Cardo just as it displays the evil machinations of PNP Chief Alejandro Ternate.
[] From Sen. Ping Lacson, who says the drama is unfair to the police. Actually, it revolves around the cop from the province, PO2 Ricardo Dalisay who saves lies and foils criminal plots in his Manila assignment. Would he want the TV drama to be 100 percent false by having all the cops behave like Cardo?
What police can do
Here’s the deal: Police can complain about unfairness or the bad image that the show may cast on the police organization. PNP may withdraw its support to the production of the film, such as the use of police stations and equipment and personnel.
But banning police uniforms and insignias from TV would be an overreach: elsewhere in the world, that simply is not done. “Ang Probinsyano” is neither news nor documentary, good heavens, but fiction. And suing would be wasteful exercise.
Far-out scenarios
PNP Oscar Albayalde was reportedly pissed off that the PNP chief in the TV drama plotted to assassinate the president. On top of other far-out scenarios, such as the vice president leading a gunrunning operation and a would-be senator in the mid-term elections (2019) who supports a terrorist group aiming to top the race to “catapult himself” to the Senate president’s seat, from which he could launch his bid in the next presidential election. Doesn’t all that stuff remind the audience it is all a concoction? Or does Albayalde fear that, as in the US drama “House of Cards,” reality might ape fiction?
Leave “Ang Probinsyano” alone. Albayalde, Ano and company are merely drawing more people to its huge audience.