'Barbie' movie to be screened in Philippines despite map controversy

By Necva Tastan

ISTANBUL (AA) — The Philippines will not ban the movie "Barbie" over a scene showing a map of China's unilaterally claimed territory in the South China Sea, a lawmaker from the country has said.

Senator Francis Tolentino said Tuesday that the country's film and TV rating agency had approved the movie's screening but required the blurring of a map that shows the "nine-dash line," used to assert Beijing's claims in the South China Sea, the Philippines News Agency reported.

Fellow Southeast Asian country Vietnam had banned the movie on Monday over the map's inclusion and asked other nations in the region to follow suit. Scheduled for a July 21 release, promotional materials for the movie have been removed from Vietnamese movie distributors' websites.

China and several other regional countries make overlapping maritime claims in the South China Sea, resulting in conflicting situations.​​​​​​​

The Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) said in a letter sent to media outlets that it had "exhausted all possible resources in arriving at the decision," the Philippines News Agency added.

MTRCB chairperson Diorella Maria Sotto-Antonio said in the letter that the board "has no basis" to prohibit the film, as there is "no clear nor outright depiction of the 'nine-dash-line' in the subject film."

It compared "Barbie" to other films depicting the image, such as 2022 action movie "Uncharted," which the MTRCB banned last year due to its depiction of the "nine-dash line" on a map.

Its review found that in "Barbie" the dashed lines attached to a landmass labeled "Asia" were not "U-shaped," and had eight markings instead of nine.

Also, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia are not depicted on the map featured in the film, according to the review.​​​​​​​