Tarriela: Film fest must explain pullout of West PH Sea movie

Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea Commodore Jay Tarriela. Noy Morcoso/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines — Organizers of a local film festival should explain the last-minute pullout of a movie about the West Philippine Sea, Commodore Jay Tarriela, spokesperson for the Philippine Coast Guard in the West Philippine Sea, said on Wednesday.

Tarriela was referring to “Food Delivery: Fresh from the West Philippine Sea,” which was first screened in Auckland on June 30.

READ: Tarriela on potential China ban: ‘It’s a badge of honor’

On Friday, the Chinese Consulate General in Auckland requested that the festival cancel further screenings of the movie, but organizers decided to proceed as planned.

“For me, before we condemn China for pressuring New Zealand, we also need to understand why it was not included in the [CinePanalo] Festival last month,” Tarriela said in Filipino during a Kapihan sa Manila Bay media forum.

He noted that the movie was originally slated for screening at the CinePanalo Festival, but organizers decided to exclude it just days before the event.

“That’s the reason why it was included in other international documentary festivals,” he added. “So somebody has to explain why it wasn’t shown here in the Philippines and wasn’t part of the festival.”

A representative for CinePanalo declined to comment on the matter.

The documentary by Filipino filmmaker Baby Ruth Villarama follows fisherfolk and coast guard officers amid tension in the West Philippine Sea.

Beijing has continuously made aggressive actions against the Filipino coast guard, navy, and fisherfolk in asserting its sovereignty claim in almost the entire South China Sea through its now ten-dash line.

This was despite the historic 2016 arbitral tribunal ruling which effectively dismissed Beijing’s overlapping claims while ruling heavily in favor of Manila’s sovereign rights in the western section of its exclusive economic zone. /mcm / gsg