NEWSFLASH

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ERAP SUPPORTS CLAIRE DANES BAN

Batangas City, Oct. 2, 1998 - President Joseph Estrada thinks Hollywood actress Claire Danes should be banned from entering the Philippines for her negative remarks about the sanitary conditions of the City of Manila.

In an ambush interview at the opening of a steel mill in Batangas, Estrada also expressed support for a nationwide ban on all of Ms. Danes' movies.

"Dapat hindi na iyan papasukin dito ( She should not be allowed to enter the country). In fact, she and her movies should be banned in the whole country. I support the Manila Council in banning her pictures here," he said.

Such a ban, Mr. Estrada explained, would set an example to others who might slur the nation abroad.

"Her remarks were uncalled for, mali talaga (it was really wrong)," he added.

Ms. Danes was in Manila for several weeks early this year to shoot scenes for the movie Brokedown Palace, which in the movie were made to appear to have been shot in Bangkok. Thai authorities had not given the film permission to shoot in the Thai capital, and they had to scout for an alternative location.

Manila Councilor Kim Aitenza, son of Manila Mayor Lito Atienza, is the principal author of the resolution. He said the ban, passed unanimously by the City Council this week, will continue indefinitely until the actress makes a public apology. Atienza refused to accept Danes' explanation.

Last week, Danes said in a statement that she meant no disrespect to the Filipinos.

"Because of the subject matter of our film BROKEDOWN PALACE, the cast was exposed to the darker and more impoverished places of Manila. My comments in Première magazine only reflect those locations, not my attitude towards the Filipino people. There were nothing but warm, friendly and supportive," she said.

Atienza dismissed the statement as an "excuse made by Hollywood press officers and not a genuine apology."

In Vogue magazine, Miss Danes described Manila as a "ghastly and weird city." In Premiere magazine, she was quoted as saying that Manila "smelled of cockroaches, with rats all over ... there is no sewerage system and the people do not have anything -- no arms, no legs, no eyes."

The ban on Ms. Danes appears to be gaining supporters in Metropolitan Manila. The City Council of Quezon City has a similar resolution, and there are reports that Makati and Pasay are poised to follow suit.