Rodrigo Duterte Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefRappler, the independent news organization that earned its co-founder Maria Ressa a Nobel Peace Prize in 2021, has been ordered to close down.The paper had been under siege for much of the past six years for its frequent criticism of Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte.The order to close came just two days before Duterte is due to end his term as president and hand over to Ferdinand Marcos Jr., heir to the late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos.It also came just days after the country’s National Security Council ordered the National Telecommunications Commission to block access to 28 news websites. They are accused of supporting terrorism through affiliation with the Communist Party of the Philippines, New People’s Army and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.

Siddhant Adlakha A companion piece to her documentary “A Thousand Cuts,” Ramona S. Diaz’s “And So It Begins” follows the 2022 Philippine election, and Vice President Leni Robredo’s run for office.

Here Lies Love — a disco musical created by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim about the life of former Filipino first lady Imelda Marcos — will close on Broadway on November 26, the show’s producers announced this morning (November 7). An ambitious, $22 million affair, the production took over Manhattan’s Broadway Theatre, renovating the space to accommodate spinning stages and a state-of-the-art audio system that created a club atmosphere.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic “Essential Truths of the Lake” is the last thing most people would expect from Lav Diaz: a direct follow-up to his previous film, “When the Waves Are Gone.” It’s not a sequel, per se (this one actually comes earlier), but they are connected, with a third movie featuring the same disillusioned police detective in the works. The Filipino filmmaker, whose pokey social critiques run anywhere from three to 11 hours, established the character of Lt.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Films Boutique will handle international sales on Filipino master Lav Díaz’s “Essential Truths of The Lake,” one of the highest-profile titles in the just announced main International Competition at this year’s Locarno Festival.  The Berlin and Lyon-based production-sales company’s fifth collaboration with Diaz following, among others, Venice Golden Bear Winner “The Woman Who Left” and Berlin Silver Bear Winner “Lullaby To A Sorrowful Mystery,” “Essential Truths of The Lake” marks a prequel to Diaz’s ‘When The Waves Are Gone’ that premiered out of competition at Venice last year. It reprises the character of the ethically conflicted police lieutenant Hermes Papauran, one of the best investigators of the Philippines. When asked what drives a man to search for the truth, Papauran says dejectedly that maybe he just wants to keep inflicting pain on himself. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief ABS-CBN, once The Philippines largest broadcast group, said Thursday that it would sell its internet and broadband division Sky Cable to PLDT, the country’s biggest telecoms company. The transaction is valued at $123 million and means that ABS-CBN will focus even more on content production and distribution. “The proceeds from the sale of the shares of ABS-CBN and the settlement of Sky Vision’s obligations to ABS-CBN will be used by ABS-CBN to settle and fund its retirement obligations. The sale of the company’s ownership in Sky will also allow ABS-CBN to focus its resources on content creation,” ABS-CBN said. Since losing its TV licenses, it distributes it content via its own streaming business and on Facebook and YouTube.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Philippines media powerhouse ABS-CBN is launching “The Bagman” action drama series as a remake of its own “Bagman” digital production and will launch it at Hong Kong’s FilMart next week. The original “Bagman,” which ran to two seasons and sold to Netflix in The Philippines, follows a neighborhood barber who lands a job as the governor’s henchman and gets caught up in a dangerous web of crime, corruption, and political turmoil. That is a familiar story for ABS-CBN itself. The company was until 2020 The Philippines leading broadcaster. But it dared to criticize the policies of then president Rodrigo Duterte and found its TV licenses were not renewed. Since the loss of its TV broadcast operations, ABS-CBN has repositioned itself as a mass content company working as a producer with other producers and broadcasters and outputting news to its website, streaming service iWantTFC and YouTube channels. It also operates related businesses in talent management and events.

It’s rare that a sequel competes in the International Oscar category, especially when the first part didn’t get selected. It’s a measure of Erik Matti’s latest film that, though it follows on from 2013’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight title On the Job—or rather, starts in the aftermath—this second instalment stands alone. “The big difference between the two,” said Matti, “is that the first one was set in urban Manila, and the second one is set in the countryside of the Philippines, just to show two contrasts that exist within both worlds.”

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor“POV,” the Emmy-winning PBS documentary series, has announced the acquisition of environmental thriller “Delikado” as part of its upcoming 35th season.The film, which premiered April 29 at the Hot Docs Canadian Intl. Documentary Festival, is the directorial debut of award-winning journalist Karl Malakunas.

UPDATE: Manny Pacquiao has decided to enter a different sort of ring. The boxing legend will now run for president of the Philippines.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (Photo public domain by Ryan Lim of Malacañang Photo Bureau)

A US Marine has been pardoned by Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte for the murder of a transgender Filipino woman, Jennifer Laude in 2014. At the time, Laude’s murder sparked widespread condemnation and anger in the former American colony. On the evening of October 11, 2014 after meeting in the Ambyanz disco bar in Olongapo the pair allegedly went back to a nearby motel, where staff later found Laude’s body, her neck blackened by strangulation marks and with her head in a toilet bowl.Lance

LOS ANGELES -- Maria Ressa says she didn’t take Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte seriously when he declared four years ago that “corrupt” journalists weren’t “exempted from assassination.” “In 2016, it was really, really laughable. And I thought, ‘Oh, doesn’t matter.’ I laughed,” said the country’s most well-known journalist and leader of the independent Rappler news organization.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorWhen Filipino American documentary filmmaker Ramona S. Diaz saw reports of people being killed in the streets as part of newly elected Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs, she knew what she wanted her next project to focus on.

Audrey Cleo Yap Since 2016, Maria Ressa and her team of journalists at the Philippines-based news site Rappler — which she co-founded and serves as executive editor — have been squarely in the cross-hairs of the country’s president Rodrigo Duterte.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefABS-CBN, long the leading broadcaster in The Philippines, was Friday denied a bid to win a new franchise. The company had been forced off air in May in what many critics saw as a move to silence critics of the country’s President Rodrigo Duterte.Since the abrupt decision in May, two of ABS-CBN’s digital channels which were not subject to the same license, were also closed.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“A Thousand Cuts,” a film that chronicles how Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte uses social media to spread disinformation, was Friday named the best international feature at New Zealand’s Doc Edge International Documentary Film Festival.

The leading broadcast network in the Philippines went off the air under government order Tuesday, sparking shock over the loss of a major news provider during the coronavirus pandemic and accusations of targeting a presidential critic. The National Telecommunications Commission ordered ABS-CBN Corp.

By Patrick Frater

The Philippines’ leading broadcast group ABS-CBC may have its license revoked. The move is widely seen as an attack on media freedom in the country.