Anybody who thinks eliminating superior competition for local entertainment to prosper must be a clown.

In the same vein, anybody who thinks being more pogi should be the lone criterion for people to patronize their movies is wrong. Very wrong. He, too, should be considered a clown.

And so that's how two so-called honorable members of the Senate, both established actors in the local entertainment industry, showed their lack of proper grasp of the issue. They missed the point entirely.

Senator Jinggoy Estrada faced online ridicule after suggesting a ban on Korean telenovelas. He suggested this during the budget hearing of the Film Development Council of the Philippines last week.

"My observation is that when we continue showing Korean telenovelas, what Filipinos idolize are these Koreans, and our Filipino artists lose jobs and income," he was quoted as saying. "So sometimes it enters my mind to ban these telenovelas of foreigners and that our Filipino artists who have talent in acting should be the ones to be shown in our country."

The remarks immediately went viral as netizens heavily weighed in on his comments.

A Twitter user slammed the lawmaker for such a short-sighted and lazy response. He suggested boosting the local entertainment industry instead to produce higher-quality content. Another remarked that Filipinos could promote better quality films and telenovelas without banning other countries' brilliant masterpieces. He suggested that it would be better for the government to support the film industry like what South Korea is doing.

In response to the backlash, Estrada immediately issued a statement saying his remarks "stems from the frustration that while we are only too eager and willing to celebrate South Korea's entertainment industry, we have sadly allowed our own to deteriorate because of the lack of support from the movie-going public."

He also expressed the wish that the zealousness of Filipino fans in patronizing foreign artists can be replicated to support homegrown talents, whom he believes are also world-class.

The reaction of another lawmaker, Robinhood Padilla during the same FDCP hearing, did not help any.