Netizens react after it’s revealed that “Katips” lead actor watched “Maid in Malacañang” at the cinema

Netizens fired off a flurry of tweets after learning that “Katips” lead actor Jerome Ponce “Maid in Malacañang” had gone to the cinema to watch “Maid in Malacañang.” The two films, which portray the Marcos family in a rather opposing manner, happen to be duking it out at the box office.

Ponce’s apparent “transgression” was revealed when Christine Laparan Policarpio, mother of Ponce’s girlfriend Sachzna Laparan, gushed over “Maid in Malacañang” after having watched it at a cinema.

“Iyak tawa! Sobrang ganda ng MiM wala akong masabi sa Darryl Yap namaga ang mata ko at grabe yung totoong MGA MAID SILA ANG TOTOONG BIDA! Bidang bida hahaha! And of course thank you Joseph Jerome Porciuncula sa pag sama.” wrote Sachzna’s mother in the said post. Accompanying the post is a selfie of the three standing before a poster of Maid in Malacañang” taken at what appears to be an SM Cinema theater.

“Maid in Malacañang” writer-director Darryl Yap couldn’t pass up the chance to share Policarpio’s post on his Facebook with the caption “Salamat sa panonood Sachzna Laparan at Jerome Ponce, parehas artista sa pelikulang katips. MAIDinMALACAÑANG DAY 3”

No two feature films about the Marcos family could be more opposed to each other than “Katips” and “Maid in Malacañang.” “Katips,” a musical drama written and directed by Vincent M. Tañada, follows the lives of a group of student activities from the Katipunan area of Quezon City as they fight the violence and tyranny of Ferdinand E. Marcos’s Martial Law in the 1970s. On the other hand, writer-director Darryl Yap’s “Maid in Malacañang” portrays the Marcos family in gentler, sympathetic light, in film’s dramatization of the Marcoses’ final 72 hours in Malacañang Palace, before they were exiled to Hawaii.

The people on social media had plenty to say, particularly on Twitter, when the news broke. Many couldn’t believe that the lead actor of “Katips” could stand to watch “Maid in Malacañang” One even alleged Ponce might be a Marcos apologist after all.

On the other hand, some chose to give Ponce the benefit of the doubt, while maintaining that people need to respect others’ personal choices.