Movies and politics should blend, not clash

My family was involved with the movie industry from the very start. My father owned and operated our oldest movie theatre, the Cine Ideal. I was still a boy when one day, we were told, "Today we will go to a theatre. And we are informing you in advance that what you will see are not human performers. You will see photographs that move."

"Photographs that move?" we exclaimed.

"Yes, photographs like this," he pointed to a picture in the room. "Only they move!"

"Impossible! How can a photograph move?"

"You will see."

We went to see our very first moving picture and were amazed to actually see photographs that move. A few years later, we were told, "Now, we will go to the theatre and you will see photographs that talk!"

We thought that was going too far. We saw moving pictures but we could not conceive how a moving picture could be made to talk. That is the way we were introduced to what was first popularly known as "talking pictures".

So I felt at home when Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo appointed us as head of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board.

The next movie phenomenon we actually witnessed is the movie-world’s invasion into our national politics. That, of course, began with Joseph Estrada. President Macapagal-Arroyo is convinced that "the first time was a mistake; the second time will be a disaster". That is what this present election is all about as far as those who take the stand that election should rest on the qualification of individual candidates and not just mere personal popularity.

Now there is another minor dispute about the movie world and politics. Some quarters maintain that Rodolfo "Dolphy" Quizon’s program Home Along The Airport was stopped because he is fully supporting his old colleague in the movie world, Fernando Poe, Jr., as president. Others say that it was axed because its ratings had gone down. It will be good if the facts regarding this case can be established. The fact remains that if movie personalities can invade the movie world, politics can likewise make their influence on the movie world. We just hope that their counter influences are for the good of both parties.