Tañada to PNP: Sue “Ang Probinsyano” and get lesson about freedom of expression

DAGUPAN CITY – Former Quezon Rep. Lorenzo ‘Erin’ Tañada III dared the police to sue popular television show, “Ang Probinsiyano” so law enforcers would learn first-hand what freedom of expression and freedom of speech truly means.

Speaking here on Tuesday (Nov. 20) after meeting with local officials, Tañada said it was the task of the police and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to clean up their image, and not blame a television series that has corrupt police officers and politicians for villains.

“Masakit ang katotohanan. Masyado silang balat sibuyas (The truth hurts. They are too onion-skinned,” he said, reacting to statements made against the show by Director-General Oscar Albayalde, chief of the Philippine National Police, and Interior Secretary Eduardo Año.

Albayalde complained about the negative portrayal of policemen in the show produced by ABS-CBN. Año said the DILG would study the possibility of suing the show’s producers for smearing the police service.

“I encourage them to file … so they will be educated,” Tañada said.

Promoting the police image “is not the responsibility of the media, nor of the executive director [of ‘Ang Probinsyano’],” he said, urging the police to instead “do right so it could improve its reputation.”

To the show’s producers, Tañada said, “Ituloy lang nila ang script nila na kathang isip lamang (Continue churning out scripts that are pure fiction).”

In Baguio City on Saturday (Nov. 17) during a press event, one of the show’s actresses, Yassi Pressman, also stressed that the show was fiction.

“We are working with a show that has a fictional story and fictional characters. Alyana [her character in the show] does not exist in real life,” Pressman said.

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