Award-winning filmmaker Erik Matti called Toni Gonzaga an “arrogant and obnoxious” person following the latter’s “unbothered” Instagram story.
Erik sounded off his reproach to Toni in a lengthy Facebook on Wednesday, February 9.
“I cannot fathom 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,” the filmmaker said.
“That is just incomprehensible,” he added.
Erik also shared a screenshot of Toni’s Instagram story which she reshared from a fan with a caption that reads: “Unbothered.”
In response to this, Erik quipped on his post with a hashtag: “#Bothered.”
Toni has been in hot water on social media recently after she hosted the proclamation rally of presidential aspirant Ferdinand Marcos Jr and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, his running mate, at the Philippine Arena in Bulacan.
During the event, Toni brandished the legacy of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
“Tapos na, may nanalo na, tapos ang laban. Buhay na buhay ang pagmamahal kay Apo Lakay Ferdinand Marcos,” Toni told the audience.
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She also introduced Rep. Rodante Marcoleta (SAGIP Party-list), one of the lawmakers who denied ABS-CBN’s franchise renewal, as part of the UniTeam’s senatorial slate.
ABS-CBN is Toni’s home network for more than 20 years.
Hitler analogy
Erik, who was critically acclaimed for his films “Buy Bust” and “On the Job,” drew a hypothetical analogy between the late president and Adolf Hitler, a German dictator.
He presented a scenario when Hitler runs for office again after the Holocaust to provide better context.
“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,” Erik said.
The horrors of the Holocaust and the Marcos regime are both “irrefutable” events in history that “cannot be forgotten and rewritten,” the filmmaker further pointed out.
Erik further emphasized that the victims of both tragic periods in time were real.
“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,” he said.
Erik brought up Toni’s recent move anew.
He said that while people can choose their own leaders, Toni’s supposed arrogance and being “snooty” about her preferred candidate makes her “despicable, disgusting and really crude.”
“What makes you people so emboldened, seeming almost like untouchables, to never have the decency to acknowledge with humble bowed heads and with Almighty God as your witness, that you are on the side of what history had unmistakably and irrefutably proven to have been part of the plunder and corruption of the Philippines then and now?” the filmmaker wrote.
He ended his post with the statement: “Impunity and apathy run so deep in all of us”
Some of Erik’s colleagues in the industry later showed their support for him on Instagram.
Personalities who commented on Erik’s post include actor John Arcilla, actress Ina Feleo, DJ Chacha, director Quark Henares and singer Janno Gibbs, among others.
