MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Education (DepEd) condemned on Thursday the use of a tribute song for COVID-19 frontliners in a political video supporting the presidential candidacy of Vice President Leni Robredo.
In a statement, DepEd Undersecretary for Administration Alain Pascua said the song “Dakila Ka, Bayani Ka” was used in the video without permission from the song’s composer and performers.
The video posted on Facebook was performed by the Nueva Ecija Doctors for Leni and was produced by the Robredo People’s Council Hope and Beyond Nueva Ecija.
According to Pascua, the song was composed by Arnie Mendaros and arranged by Albert Tamayo and is a tribute song to COVID-19 frontliners who sacrificed their safety and bravely performed their duty amidst the public health crisis.
The project was spearheaded by Pascua at the start of the pandemic to give support to all frontliners.
“While we respect the political choice of the medical personnel featured in the video, we are appalled that the people behind the production of the said video did not even practice due diligence in securing permission first from the artists who graciously lent their time and talent for the song,” he said.
“We are also taking offense that a mellow song about heroism was used to forward political messages of one party when it is clearly meant for all COVID-19 responders, regardless of political affiliations,” he added.
According to Pascua, the lyrics of the song also recognizes the frontliners’ service to the people while setting aside political colors and partisanship.
“That message and recognition was sadly and unfortunately bastardized by this political rendition,” he said.
“We shall seek legal actions on this negligence from the erring production team as we remind the public to keep non-political materials away from the messy side of the election campaign season,” he added.
“For the meantime, we urge the people behind the video to stop sharing and to take down their post before we even ask Facebook to remove it,” Pascua further said.
The video has been taken down from Facebook.
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