Carmelite nuns denounce “malicious” depiction of nuns playing mahjong with Cory Aquino

CEBU CITY, Philippines –“Depicting the nuns as playing mahjong with Cory Aquino is malicious.”

This was the statement of the Carmelite nuns in Cebu following a now-viral photo of a scene from the controversial movie “Maid in Malacañang” showing a woman in a yellow dress, who looks like the late President Corazon Aquino, playing mahjong with nuns.

In a statement that the Carmelite sisters issued on Tuesday, August 2, 2022, the Carmelite sisters said that if the photo of the supposed scene from the film represents the events of February 1986, then it is impossible for anyone to miss the reference to the Carmelite Order in Cebu even though the nuns in the picture did not wear the Carmelite’s brown religious habit.

The official statement was signed by Sr. Mary Melanie Costillas, Order of Discalced Carmelites, the prioress of the Carmelite Monastery in Barangay Mabolo, Cebu City.

Moreover, the Carmelite sisters said that the makers of the film did not come to them to conduct research and gather information on what really happened during Aquino’s visit to them in 1986.

“Let it be known that no one responsible for the production of the movie came to us to gather information on what really happened. Any serious script writer or movie director could have shown such elementary diligence before making such movie,” reads a portion of the statement.

“After all, many of those nuns in Carmelite Monastery of Cebu 1986 are still very much alive and mentally alert. Among them is Sr. Mary Aimee Ataviado, who was the superior at that time,” it added.

Photo courtesy of Cinema Bravo

Nuns at the Carmelite Monastery in Brgy. Mabolo, Cebu opened their doors for the late President Aquino for her safety and security before going back to Metro Manila during the height of the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution.

Read:

The day the Carmelite nuns hid Cory

The nuns furthered that the “attempt to destroy history is reprehensible” and depicting the nuns as playing mahjong with Cory Aquino is “malicious.”

Contrary to the movie’s portrayal, which shows the nuns “leisurely playing games with Aquino” at a time when the country’s fate is in jeopardy, the sisters claimed that they are praying, fasting, and offering other types of sacrifices for peace in the nation.

“While in our prayer, we were constantly in fear that the military will come to know of the whereabouts of Ms. Cory Aquino and would soon be knocking at the monastery’s door. We knew the dangers of allowing Ms. Aquino to hide in the monastery. But we also prayerfully discerned that the risk was worth it, as our contribution to put an end to a dictatorial regime,” the nuns in the statement said.

“Indeed, we were ready to defend her at all cost,” the nuns added.

The Carmelite sisters, in their statement, also maintained that “unity can only be built on truth and not on historical distortion.”   /rcg

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