THE Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) responded favorably to the Department’s request to re-evaluate and pull out the screening of the Sony movie “Uncharted” in Philippine cinemas following a scene containing an image of the nine-dash line maritime claims of China that is contrary to national interest.
In its response to the DFA, MTRCB stated that it had “ordered Columbia Pictures Industries Inc. to cease and desist from exhibiting the said motion picture, unless and until they are able to remove the objectionable scenes.” MTRCB further reported that Columbia has since complied with its order and has pulled out the movie from the cinemas.
The nine-dash claim is contrary to national interest, which has been settled in the 2016 Arbitral Award. The Arbitral Tribunal held that China’s nine-dash line has no legal basis as its accession to UNCLOS has extinguished any of its rights that it may have had in the maritime areas in the South China Sea. China also never had historic rights in the waters within the nine-dash line.
This is not the first time that the Department sought to prohibit the screening of a Hollywood movie featuring China’s nine-dash line. In 2019, the Department requested the MTRCB to pull out the DreamWorks animated feature “Abominable” after a scene showed the Chinese nine-dash line.
