Expensive flop

“Promotion being given to the film is almost similar to a major Hollywood production that would require huge amounts of money to undertake.

The fact that the International Criminal Court (ICC) is scrounging for evidence, as it affirmed reports that it will review footage from a movie set to be released to an international audience later this month, showed the desperate measures being derived from the tool being used by opponents of President Rody Duterte in pursuing their destabilization campaign.

Human Rights Watch (HRW), the New York-based rights group highly critical of President Duterte, is spearheading the film’s screening after it premiered at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival in New York in June.

Now it is being scheduled to air on free television in the United States. The initial run of the film was obviously intended for the recent meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

HRW admitted that the film had a huge influence on UN representatives of Iceland, apparently invited to the screening, in filing the resolution to call for a UN probe on the conduct of the war on drugs.

HRW said it arranged for the film to be shown in Geneva during the 41st session of the UNHRC where Iceland formally introduced a resolution requesting the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to prepare a report on the human rights situation in the Philippines, and urging the Philippine government to cooperate with that inquiry. The resolution passed the council over the Philippines representative’s objections and threats of retaliation, since those who voted for it represented a minority of the members of the UN body.

The documentary titled “On the President’s Orders” had Emmy awards winners James Jones and Olivier Sarbil as co-directors. It supposedly recounted the dark secrets of the police chief and his officers in Caloocan City and the families of individuals killed during police operations.

Due to the movie’s heavy content of graphic scenes of killings and disturbing personal accounts of abuses in an anti-drug campaign, the ICC has requested the filmmakers officially submit their documentary, according to Jones.

HRW revealed that the film, which debuted in Manila recently to a select crowd of 800, will have a global run and is set for release in cinemas in London, Los Angeles and New York this month. The film is slated to be broadcast also on public television in Europe.

The promotion being given to the film is almost similar to a major Hollywood production that would require huge amounts of money to undertake, to think that it is not even meant to recover such amounts, since its sole purpose is demonization.

The message being transmitted by the critics of Rody is that he will be hounded by efforts to vilify him until the end of his term in 2022 and even beyond.

The film, however, will not gain any wide audience in the country since every Filipino knows what is happening in the campaign against narcotics and its results in improving public order.

The gullible audience, particularly in Western countries, who are clueless about the situation in the country, is targeted for huge donations by rights groups such as HRW.

HRW, European nations, detained Sen. Leila de Lima and Democrat Senators in the United States are combining their efforts, which Rody apparently welcomes since all the attacks directed are deflected and transform into support for him.

The constant unsubstantiated attacks against Rody, for instance, are credited for his steady 80 percent-plus survey ratings even at the midpoint of his term, which is unprecedented.

As Rody had said time and again, the hypocrites can do their best to malign him but his pursuit of a better life for Filipinos goes on.