FIRING LINE: Why Puregold scraps Food Delivery

By Robert B. Roque, Jr.

China’s maritime forces have turned the West Philippine Sea into a battleground for sovereignty, relentlessly driving away Filipino fishermen from waters four times closer to the Philippines than to mainland China. Our coast guard is harassed, our soldiers in distant shoals struggle for supplies, and even food deliveries to these outposts are obstructed—all part of Beijing’s unyielding grip on what isn’t theirs.

Food Delivery: Fresh from the West Philippine Sea, a documentary capturing these struggles, was set to premiere at the CinePanalo Film Festival— until it was suddenly dropped. The organizers offered no real explanation, only vague mentions of “external factors.” But the real story is clear.

Puregold — the company that initiated the film festival — might have built its empire on affordability, but its latest move proves that some things come at a cost. By pulling Food Delivery from its own festival, Puregold conveniently dodged controversy at the expense of truth. This isn’t just corporate caution; it reeks of business interest above artistic and social integrity.

The company, which has profited from the previous administration and its cozy ties with China, had every reason to avoid upsetting its benefactors. Letting Food Delivery run could mean losing more than public goodwill — it could be that it thinks it may lose business.

But in trying to silence the film, Puregold only amplified the public’s curiosity. Now, there’s a growing hunger and thirst to see the film. Don’t they know that Filipinos tend to crave something they are most deprived of — in this case, the very story Food Delivery has to tell?

For us Catholics

In a country that boasts of exemplary faith in Christ in Asia, I wonder why many Filipinos seem to have moved the moral compass so far off course that we have found a way to justify murder in the time of Duterte.

Here, I wish to echo Father Flavie Villanueva’s call last weekend to return to a discerning faith. It is said that we are a faithful moved by conscience, but how have our consciences fared in the face of cheering Duterte’s war on drugs as it left thousands dead in the streets?

How did we, a predominantly Catholic nation, come to tolerate bloodshed or reconcile it with the Ten Commandments?

Duterte’s arrest isn’t just about accountability — it’s a mirror reflecting the faith Filipinos practice versus the faith they profess. A faith that embraces violence is no faith at all, just a flimsy excuse for moral cowardice.

And let’s be honest, many of those justifying extrajudicial killings are the same ones who clutch their rosaries during Holy Week. They will kneel, pray, and chant “Thy will be done,” but when the killings happened, whose will were they really serving?

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