Opposition senators want probe on PTV-4 airing of Chinese shows

Six opposition senators on Monday sought a Senate inquiry into the “propriety” of airing Chinese shows and movies on the state-run People’s Television Network (PTV-4) starting this August.

The six are Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, Senators Leila de Lima, Bam Aquino IV, Risa Hontiveros, Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan, and Antonio “Sonny” Trillanes IV.

In Senate Resolution No. 780, the legislators urged the Senate committee on public information and mass media being chaired by Senator Grace Poe to conduct the investigation.

The senators believe that airing Chinese shows on PTV-4 may be “an insidious agenda” to advance the propaganda of the Chinese Communist Party.

“Airing of Chinese shows in a state-run network may represent an insidious agenda of subtly inculcating among Filipino viewers propaganda on Chinese Communist Party and its authoritarian one-party state, anti-democratic, and atheist ideology and principles, thus countering and possibly ultimately destroying the Filipino’s democratic, pro-people and religious culture and identity,” the resolution stated.

“Airing Chinese shows in our state-run network poses a danger of spreading Chinese propaganda sanctioned by our government through our official media stations,” the senators also noted in the resolution.

The legislators further believe that airing the Chinese government’s propaganda “signifies the clear and present danger of Chinese domination in the Philippines, short of invasion.”

Last June 13, Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Zhao Jinhua’s reportedly announced that Chinese TV series, documentaries, cartoons and movies, which are dubbed in Tagalog, would start airing on PTV-4 this August.

In the same resolution, the opposition senators cited the ambassador’s reported statement that these Chinese shows would not only help Filipinos understand China better in terms of history and culture but would also allow Filipinos to learn how China attained “steady economic growth, improved their people’s lives and have secured regional peace and security.”

The six senators, however, pointed out that the government’s plan of airing Chinese shows on PTV-4 might ultimately destroy the Filipino’s democratic, pro-people, and religious culture and identity due to the continued tolerance and leniency of the Duterte administration to Chinese intervention in the public’s political and economic lives.

The minority senators then reminded the government-owned network of its mandate to prioritize television programs that “foster patriotism and nationalism in every Filipino, instead of disseminating and inculcating propaganda from a foreign government.”

“It is incumbent upon the government to shield the broadcast industry from any form of intrusive and invasive foreign agenda of domination, control, and brainwashing of the Filipino people, be it subtle or explicit,” they stressed.   /kga