'Mahjong scene in Marcos movie distorts history, casts doubt on Carmelites'
MANILA, Philippines — Scenes from a trailer for a movie about the 1986 People Power Revolution from the perspective of the Marcoses portaying Corazon Aquino playing mahjong with nuns distort history and may shake the trust that people have in the Order of Carmelites, the head of its Cebu City monastery said Tuesday.
Screen captures from the "Maid in Malacañang" show a representation of Aquino gambling with nuns as the Marcoses were about to flee the country at the end of the dictatorship.
In a statement released to media and carried by RPN, Cebu Daily News and PressOnePH, Sr. Mary Melanie Costillas, OCD, prioress of the Carmelite Monastery, said that while the nuns in the clip were not wearing the order's habit, "if these pictures are portraying the events of February 1986, then the allusion to the Carmelite Order in Cebu is too obvious for anyone not to see."
Giselle Sanchez, the actress who plays Aquino in the movie, has defended the scene and the line, saying she had been assured by Sen. Imee Marcos that "‘Yun daw ang sabi ng mga Kano (That is what the Americans told us)."
She said producers of the film did not reach out to the monastery about the scene, which she also described as malicious as it portrays Aquino — president of the Philippines after Ferdinand Marcos fled — as having time to "leisurely play games" during a perilous time for the Philippines.
"The truth was we were then praying, fasting and making other forms of sacrifices for peace in this country and for the people's choice to prevail," she said, adding they were constantly in fear of the military coming to the monastery to get Aquino.
She said the scene trivializes "whatever contribution we had to restore democracy."
More than that, Costillas said, the scenes "would put into doubt the trust that the people have placed in us."
She said that Cebuanos have been asking the Carmelite nuns to pray for their intentions for more than seven decades and portraying them as gambling during the revolution would jeopardize that.
"With the grace of God, we take this vocation to pray for and with the people in all seriousness," she said.
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