‘Pepsi Paloma’ director ordered to take down trailer but film a go
Film director Darryl Yap has been ordered to take down the 26-second teaser video of his upcoming film “The Rapists of Pepsi Paloma,” with the court hearing the petition for writ of habeas data filed by Marvic “Vic” Sotto granting that motion.
In a 20-page decision issued on Jan. 24, Presiding Judge Liezel Aquiatan of Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court Branch 205 directed Yap and his production team to delete the teaser from all online platforms “for having misused… collected data/information” about an alleged conversation between two deceased individuals that cannot be verified as having actually occurred.
The teaser trailer, which is still available on social media, features an unverifiable confrontation between the late actress Delia Dueñas Smith, who went by the screen name Pepsi Paloma, and the late actress Charito Solis—wherein Solis, as portrayed by actress Gina Alajar, demanded to know from Paloma, portrayed by actress Rhed Bustamante, if she was raped by Sotto, a popular TV host and comedian.
According to news archives, Paloma filed a rape complaint in 1982 against Sotto and fellow comedians Joey de Leon and Ricardo Reyes (Richie D’Horsie), but withdrew that complaint later that year by filing an affidavit of desistance.
The Muntinlupa court still allowed Yap “to proceed with the production and eventual release of the film ‘The Rapists of Pepsi Paloma.’”
“The Court cannot suppress the entire film, as it is based on the life story of Pepsi Paloma, where the respondent secured the consent of [her] mother and brother, derived from public records like newspaper clippings [and] footages[,] and is protected by artistic freedom and public interest,” the decision read in part.
In partially granting Sotto’s petition, the court said some level of protection is granted to certain narratives in cases of public interest, especially those based on verifiable public records.
“However, based on the teaser, the film portrays the comedian as a rapist despite the case’s dismissal,” the court said, referring to Paloma’s withdrawal of her complaint.
“The widely circulated teaser video could lead a reasonable person to conclude that the petitioner is indeed a ‘rapist,’ thereby violating his privacy rights and potentially threatening the life and security of his family,” the court also said.
