MaThon may screen ahead of Yap movie

A hardly heard-of movie of (ex-?) lovers Maris Racal and Anthony Jennings might be shown way ahead of Darryl Yap’s controversial The Rapists of Pepsi Paloma.

Ever heard of Sosyal Climbers? That’s the title of a movie quietly shot by MaThon (the loveteam’s portmanteau, remember?) for Netflix Philippines some time ago.

The streaming giant released the film’s trailer on its Facebook page on 30 January, and announced that the movie will start showing on 27 February. 

The over-a-minute trailer features the pair pretending to be a rich couple, interacting with real wealthy people in an apparent attempt to gain money from them. The clip also includes a love scene and a kissing scene of the actors. 

Racal and Jennings first hinted at the film directed by John Paul Laxamana in March 2024 yet. At that time, the loveteam was sizzling in Kapamilya Channel’s series Can’t Buy Me Love, overshadowing the series’ almost reticent lead stars Belle Mariano and Donny Pangilinan. 

Postponed until further notice

Meanwhile, the scheduled theater release of the Pepsi Paloma film on 5 February will be most likely postponed until the court has decided on the 19 counts of cyberlibel case filed against Yap by actor-host-producer Vic Sotto due to his being explicitly mentioned in the film’s teaser as having raped the teen actress Pepsi Paloma (allegedly in 1982).

The vice chairman of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB), lawyer Paulino Cases Jr., has written to the film’s distributor, Leo Olinares, that the movie cannot be reviewed until three government entities have certified that it is no longer a subject of litigation or administrative investigation. Atty. Cases is also the chairman of the MTRCB hearing and adjudication committee. 

A part of Cases’ letter mightily states, “Considering the controversies surrounding the aforementioned film, and in view of Section 3(c), Paragraph VII of the Presidential Decree No. 1986 (P.D. No, 1986) which explicitly prohibits the exhibition of materials that pertain to a matter sub judice in nature, the Board, prior to the review of any material related to the said film, hereby request a Certificate/Clearance of No Pending Criminal, Civil, or Administrative Case lodged or filed under the following jurisdiction: Regional Trial Court, Muntinlupa City; Department of Justice, Taft Avenue, Ermita, Manila; and Office of the City Prosecutor, Muntinlupa City.”

Sotto filed his cyberlibel case in Muntinlupa on 9 January. The series of hearings for cyberlibel began only on 17 January at the sala of Judge Liezel Aquiatan. No date has been set and announced as to when the case will be resolved. Litigations are known to take months to conclude.

Cases had to write to Olinares as a reaction to Yap’s Facebook posting that his film is already “under review” by the MTRCB. It was Olinares who submitted the film to MTRCB, not Yap himself, which is why Cases communicated with Olinares, not Yap. 

Actually, the MTRCB did not accept the submission and instead required Olinares to secure certifications from the said government agencies before the film can be reviewed and rated. 

Olinares explicitly stated in his letter that the requirement is not a prohibition and judgment of the film.

Yap seems to be still uninformed about the prerequisite for review for his film when he casually announced that it was already under review. He also seems to be unaware of that particular provision of the MTRCB law. 

In his FB-posted reaction to Cases’ letter, Yap stressed that none of the 16 movies he has previously released was subjected to such prerequisites for a review and rating. 

But none of those 16 films, mostly controversy-seeking, caused him to be sued. Some of those films were released through the streaming platform Vivamax (now known simply as VMX) where MTRCB approval and classification are not required. VMX movies, all sex-oriented, with so much baring of the actors, are actually intended for adults only. 

Olinares has expressed his willingness to book Yap’s film at a later date. He also said that he himself will secure all the certifications required by the MTRCB. 

Yap’s pro-bono lawyer, the well-known Raymund Fortun, has told the media, “I am not assigned to secure MTRCB approval for Yap’s film.” 

Incognito no more

As for Sosyal Climber, both Racal and Jennings have posted its trailer in their respective social media accounts. 

Both actors are managed by ABS-CBN, which may have requested Netflix Philippines not to publicize and promote Sosyal Climber while their love team was in the thick of promoting the ABS-CBN series Incognito in which both actors are considered lead stars along with Daniel Padilla, Richard Gutierrez, Ian Veneracion, Baron Geisler and Kaila Estrada.

It’s largely an action series in which the lead stars belong to a bunch of paid “warriors” on a secret mission. Anyone who gets captured will be denied to be part of the group and no efforts to save the captive will be undertaken. 

Incognito is reported to be doing well at the ratings. It was initially shown in full at Netflix Philippines for a few days and then serialized on ABS-CBN streaming platforms. 

It was initially thought that MaThon would not be included in the promo blitz for Incognito since the series was launched at the time the real-life couple were exposed to have been cheating on Jennings non-showbiz girlfriend Jamela Villanueva, who is a vlogger. She had been Jennings’ girlfriend for seven years, but he made Racal believe that he had broken up with her (Villanueva). 

Jennings and Villanueva have been sharing a pad on certain nights, thus allowing Villanueva to have access to Jennings’ cellphone. One day, she read the exchange of text messages between Jennings and Racal and eventually got fully convinced that they had been cheating on her. One fiery and fierce day, Villanueva uploaded on her social media account the exchange of messages between the two, including carnal ones from Racal. 

MaThon was relentlessly bashed by netizens and it was thought to be the end of their careers. The two broke up. 

But ABS-CBN persisted in including both Racal and Jennings in their promo blitz. Though they did not behave like lovers even when they sit beside each other on stage, no one hooted at them. No one called them names. 

But they may have to act like lovers again to promote Sosyal Climbers where they portray a married couple. They are most likely back on each other’s arms when no one is looking. After all, Villanueva and Jennings were never married. 

Now smiling

Meanwhile, Villanueva has been launched as an endorser of a dental company. A billboard of her smiling her sweetest has been mounted somewhere along the country’s premiere thoroughfare: Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (the ever traffic-heavy EDSA). 

Villanueva has even met with the press and graciously survived the barrage of queries about forgiving Racal and Jennings. Villanueva is sweetly hot copy again. 

Her take on forgiving her famous heartbreakers: “Very nakakatanggal po ng tinik sa puso kapag nakarinig ka ng sorry. At grabe rin po ang matatanggal na tinik sa puso mo kapag nagpatawad ka kasi parang na-release mo na lahat ng mabibigat sa puso mo...

“Ang plan ko po [ngayon] is to just focus sa sarili ko and i-build yung career.

“Moving forward naman po. Process pa rin po.

“Yung forgiveness po, hindi po sobrang daling process, but I’m getting there. Diyos nga po nagpapatawad, e.

“I wish them well. Ayun naman po talaga... 

“Moving on is not just about forgetting the past. It is also about choosing yourself in the present at kung paano mo itatayo ulit ang sarili mo despite ng mga nangyayari.”