Cavite gov opposes banning Korean music, telenovelas
INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
LUCENA CITY — Cavite Governor Jonvic Remulla on Wednesday admitted that he is a fan of popular Korean music and dramas and hinted at his opposition to banning them in the country.
“LIke many Caviteños, I am also a fan of KPop and KDramas. I think they strike a chord in the Filipino heart,” Remulla said in a post on his Facebook page.
He defended the showing of popular Korean pop music and movies in the country and urged local industry players to rise to the challenge.
“There are no boundaries in pop culture. Learn and take inspiration from what the Koreans have achieved. We can do that, too,” Remulla stressed.
He recalled that at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, “when most of us were locked in our homes, KDramas and KPop gave many Filipinos hope and inspiration.”
Remulla also noted that Koreans are also the top tourists in the country.
“They love our country while we love them for their world-class entertainment,” he said.
Remulla’s reaction came after Senator Jinggoy Estrada on Tuesday, Oct. 18, said, during the hearing of the 2023 budget of the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP), that it would sometimes cross his mind to have Korean dramas and other foreign-made films and tv shows banned in the Philippines to boost Filipino-made shows.
Estrada opined that if the showing of Korean telenovelas continues, “it’s the Koreans that our countrymen admire, and our Filipino artists lose their jobs.”
“What we are promoting are these products of the Koreans. That’s why we have so many Korean products here. Instead of promoting our own products, what we are promoting are foreign ones,” Estrada said.
Actor Tirso Cruz III, FDCP chair, explained that one of their programs is the creation and promotion of local films.
“It’s just that we can’t help ourselves because this is a worldwide business. We can’t stop streaming [foreign films] because it’s accepted by the world already,” Cruz said.
The popular Korean drama “Squid Game” and the recent “Extraordinary Attorney Woo,” both Netflix hits, are stamps of Korea’s success on global screens.
The history of K-drama shows wasn’t an overnight success, according to a report on The Korea Herald/Asia News Network in Aug. 2022.
“Korean producers spent decades honing their craft and trying to win over global audiences, at the vanguard of what would later be known as the Korean Wave, or Hallyu,” the report said.
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