Director Erik Matti slams actress-host Toni Gonzaga for “brazen, arrogant and snooty” support of Marcos-Duterte campaign

The 'On The Job' director criticised Gonzaga for her apparently "unbothered" reaction to criticism of her involvement in a Bongbong Marcos and Sara Duterte campaign rally

Filipino director Erik Matti has made scathing comments on actress-TV host Toni Gonzaga’s “unbothered” response to criticism of her involvement in Bongbong Marcos and Sara Duterte’s recent campaign rally.

The On The Job director’s strongly worded Instagram post on February 9 followed Gonzaga’s recent hosting of the Marcos-Duterte presidential campaign kickoff earlier this week.

Besides Bongbong Marcos and Sara Duterte, Gonzaga also introduced the political duo’s senatorial slate at the rally, including House Deputy Speaker Rodante Marcoleta, whose denial of Philippine broadcast network ABS-CBN’s license renewal reportedly cost 11,000 workers their jobs – a move that has raised eyebrows given that Gonzaga signed to ABS-CBN in 2005, renewed a two-year contract with the network in 2018 and has been active on the network since 2020.

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Following subsequent social media criticism, Gonzaga shared on her Instagram story an image posted by a fan that dubbed the actress-host “unbothered”.

Matti re-posted the image, lambasting Gonzaga for her “brazen, arrogant and snooty” support of the Marcos-Duterte campaign in light of “the plunder and the horrors” of the regime of Bongbong Marcos’ father Ferdinand Marcos, who declared nine years of nationwide martial law when he was the 10th President of the Philippines.

“Everyone has a right to their own political stances. But when Hitler runs for office after slaughtering millions of Jews and you still support his bid, the least you can do is acknowledge all the blood he has spilled and with integrity, stick to your own crazy misplaced loyalty in private or in silence,” Matti wrote.

“In the same way the plunder and the horrors of the Marcos regime to our country the Philippines, that no one has claimed responsibility until now with the players still roaming around free, moneyed and powerful, is irrefutable and a historical fact that cannot be forgotten and rewritten.

“The victims of both the Holocaust and our Martial Law were all real people with names, families and siblings that walked and talked the earth then and even survived by descendants until now. No one can ever say they didn’t exist.”

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Matti added that he found it “incomprehensible” that “anyone, who have access to the same historical facts from our books and Youtube like everyone else, can still have the gall to hold their head so high to the point of being so arrogant and obnoxious to brush away critics and dissenters even acknowledging and flaunting it with such an insensitive hashtag”.

While Gonzaga is free to support any political candidate of her choice and do whatever she wants with her “celebrity power”, Matti opined that “to be brazen, arrogant and snooty makes all of it despicable, disgusting and really crude”.

Toni Gonzaga has yet to respond to Matti’s statements. Two days ago, after the social media furore over her involvement in the rally, she stepped down from the ABS-CBN reality TV show Pinoy Big Brother, which she had been hosting for over 15 years.

Rakenrol director Quak Henares also commented on Matti’s post, calling Gonzaga an “opportunist” and saying: “I can’t believe she actually introduced Marcoleta at an event, the man who was responsible for shutting down the company that built her career.”

John Arcilla, who won the award for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival last year for his role in Matti’s On The Job: The Missing 8, also left a comment praising the director’s remarks.

However, action star Robin Padilla – who is running for the Philippine Senate under the PDP-Laban slate and has in the past endorsed President Rodrigo Duterte – criticised Matti for his comments on Gonzaga. “You love to talk about freedom but you don’t respect the freedom of others,” he wrote.

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