By Gabriela Baron
“The attempt to distort history is reprehensible.”
This was how the Carmelite Sisters of Cebu reacted to the now-viral photos from a film showing late President Cory Aquino playing mahjong with some religious sisters.
“The nuns are not wearing our brown religious habit. But 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,” Sr. Mary Melanin Costillas, Prioress of the Carmelite Monastery in Brgy. Mabolo, Cebu City, said in a statement released Tuesday, Aug. 2.
“Depicting the nuns as playing mahjong with Cory Aquino is malicious. It would suggest that while the fate of the country was in peril, we could afford to leisurely play games,” Costillas noted, stressing that the nuns were then praying, fasting, and making other forms of sacrifice for the country’s peace.
Aquino was brought to the nuns’ monastery on Feb. 22, 1986, a day after the People Power Revolution started but eventually left the next morning to fly to Manila.
Costillas also clarified that “no one responsible for the production of the movie came to us to gather information on what really happened.”
“Any serious scriptwriter or movie director could have shown such elementary diligence before making such movie,” she added, noting that many of the nuns in Carmelite Monastery of Cebu 1986 “are still very much alive and mentally alert.”
Costillas added that if the pictures were taken as an authentic representation of the reality, “they would put into doubt the trust that [Cebuanos] have placed in us.”
‘No need for consultation’
Film director Darryl Yap, meanwhile, was quick to react to the statement of the nuns, stressing that there was “no need” to consult the Carmelite Sisters.
“Tungkol po sa point ni Monsignor Tan at ng Carmelite Nuns, na hindi ko po sila kinunsulta sa eksena– hindi ko po kasi naisip na kailangan,” Yap said.
“Gaya po ng sinabi nila, hindi naman po [naka-brown], at walang binanggit na ‘Huy mga Carmelite Sisters, ano na?!'” he added.
The director also invited the nuns to watch the film and maintained that there is “nothing wrong in playing mahjong.”
– ag
