Displeased by the portrayal of the country’s capital in the latest novel of best-selling American author Dan Brown, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chair Francis Tolentino on Thursday extended to him an invitation to visit Manila.
“While we are aware that yours is a work of fiction, we are greatly disappointed by your inaccurate portrayal of our beloved metropolis. We are displeased (at) how you have used Manila as a venue and source of a character’s breakdown and trauma, much more her disillusionment,” Tolentino said.
He invited Brown to go on a tour of the country which, according to him, would enable the author to “see the hospitality and the goodness of the Filipino people.”
This is not the first time the author has caught the ire of the MMDA chair. Before the film adaptation of Brown’s best-selling novel, “The Da Vinci Code,” came out in 2006, Tolentino called for a boycott in two articles he wrote for a newspaper due to the movie’s supposedly offensive claims against the Catholic Church.
This time, Tolentino is protesting the author’s latest novel, “Inferno,” in which Manila is described as a place with a “suffocating pollution and horrifying sex trade.” A female character also referred to Manila as the “gates of hell.”
“In his novel is a picture of humanity overrun by its primal instincts for survival. Once again, we call on Mr. Dan Brown to rectify (his error),” Tolentino said in an interview with reporters on Thursday morning.
The MMDA chair enumerated why the Philippine capital should be described otherwise.
“All of the things he said in his novel were not true. Metro Manila is the cradle of Catholicism as well as other religions. We have a growing Muslim community here,” Tolentino said.
He cited the conduct of several religious festivals in the Philippines and the presence of large religious communities. “For instance, we have the Feast of the Black Nazarene which is [joined yearly] by millions. Why did he not show this kind of image?” he added.
The MMDA chief called Brown’s portrayal of the city an affront to the dignity of Manileños.
Asked if he would demand an apology from Brown or ask bookstores to stop the sale of “Inferno,” Tolentino said these measures were not necessary. “What he wrote was fiction. We just want everyone to know that it is not true.”
He clarified, however, that he had read only an excerpt from the book.
A check of social media sites, meanwhile, showed that some netizens do not share the MMDA chief’s views. On his Twitter account, lawyer Ferdinand Topacio posted this comment: “Some people have never heard of the term ‘literary license.’”