Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr. denounced a scene in the Metro Manila Film Festival entry “Sakal, Sakali, Saklolo” that suggested Filipinos who spoke the Visayan dialect (the language widely spoken in the Visayas and large parts of Mindanao) were second-class citizens to the Tagalog.

Pimentel specifically cited a portion of the film in which a grandmother was telling a nanny (yaya): “Bakit pinalaki ninyong Bisaya and apo ko?” (Why are you rearing my grandchild as a Bisaya?)

The mother butted in telling the yaya: “Speak to the kid in Tagalog. Parang Pinoy. (So that he grows up like a pinoy)”.

Pimentel said the conversation was insensitive and arrogant and called on Star Cinema, to apologize and delete the scene from the movie.

Pimentel also slammed the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) for failing to spot the derogatory remark while reviewing the film.