Ang Probinsyano

Season 1 (2015–2016)

The story revolves around the journey of twins — Dominador "Ador" de Leon and Ricardo "Cardo" Dalisay (both played by Coco Martin) — who were separated from each other during their childhood because of financial reasons. The twins both followed the sacred path of their father, and became police officers. Ador enters the PNPA and meets Carmen (Bela Padilla), the sister of his classmate, Billy (John Medina). Ador marries Carmen; she gives birth to Dominador "Junior" de Leon, Jr (Lei Andrei Navarro). Ador becomes a prominent and respected CIDG police official in Manila, Philippines. On the other hand, Cardo, who loves the solitude of the mountains of Botolan, Zambales, grows up with his childhood best friend, Glen (Maja Salvador), who has a secret crush on him. The two enter the police force and Cardo becomes a SAF officer.

Their lives take a sudden turn when Ador is betrayed and murdered by Joaquin (Arjo Atayde). General Delfin Borja (Jaime Fabregas) orders Cardo to assume Ador's identity and continue the mission that his late brother left behind. As part of his mission, Cardo is forced to pretend to be Ador in front of his brother's family and friends; and reunites with grandmother, Flora (Susan Roces), whom he resents. After his cover is blown, Cardo reveals himself and reunites with his family. He is reassigned to the CIDG and tackles various cases.

Season 2: Ang Bagong Yugto (2016–2017)

Tomas Tuazon, Joaquin's father, is revealed as the head of the drug syndicate that Cardo battles. Don Emilio plans to get Tomas incarcerated; consequently, Tomas is ultimately captured by Cardo in a drug sting, and is subsequently convicted. To retaliate, Don Emilio and Joaquin frame up Cardo for illegal drug possession. Don Emilio then reveals to Cardo that Tomas killed his sister-in-law, Carmen. As Tomas attempts to escape the prison, Cardo and Tomas have a confrontation which results in Tomas' death. Under Joaquin's payroll, Director Guillermo Acosta makes prison life more difficult for Cardo. Cardo escapes prison and vows to clear his name. Joaquin desperate on capturing Cardo, kidnaps Benny (Pepe Herrera) and threatened to kill his family if he doesn't cooperate. Benny reluctantly led Joaquin's men to Cardo's hideout but he was killed when he took the bullet aimed for Cardo by Greg (Rino Marco.) After Benny was killed, Cardo avenged his death by killing Greg, his CIDG comrades caught up with him and let him escape.

With his escape, he joins Ramil "Manager" Taduran and Julian Valerio who work for the Cebu based drug syndicate of Romano "Chairman" Recio, an ally of Joaquin, to take the syndicate down. Unknown to Cardo, the syndicate who framed him up is the syndicate responsible for the deaths of his loved ones, including Ador.

Don Emilio is captured by Cardo and convicted for the murder Cardo's father, SPO4 Pablo de Leon. Joaquin is exposed as Ador's murderer. Joaquin was later killed by Cardo after the former disrupts the latter's wedding with Alyana (Yassi Pressman). Justice is finally served for Ador, Pablo, Carmen, and all of the victims of Joaquin, Tomas, and Don Emilio.

Season 3 (2017)

Although retired from the police force, Cardo decides to become a vigilante as the country deals with the threat of a rebel group, Pulang Araw (lit. Red Sun) led by Romulo Dumagit alias "Leon" (lit. Lion) (Lito Lapid). Pulang Araw is being framed by National Defense Agency Director Renato Hipolito (John Arcilla), a Pulang Araw sleeper-agent codenamed "Buwitre" (lit. Vulture), to raise his profile and parlay his exposure into a Senate career. Hipolito uses Major Manolo Catindig (Sid Lucero) to contact a corrupt faction within Pulang Araw, Kamandag (lit. Venom), led by Homer Adlawan alias "Alakdan" (lit. Scorpion) (Jhong Hilario), to orchestrate acts of terrorism. After the death of Cardo's only son Ricky Boy during one of Alakdan's bombings, Cardo decides to return to service in his original capacity as a PNP-SAF trooper. Cardo finds initial success in combatting former Pulang Araw members hired by Hipolito to raise havoc as well as capturing Pulang Araw's camp in Mt. Arayat.

However, after being threatened exposure by Leon following the capture of the Mt. Arayat camp and death of his second wife Aurora (Mercedes Cabral), who was fatally shot in the stomach during the operation, Hipolito compromises SAF's operation in Mt. Karagao which results to the death of 46 of the 50 SAF Troopers sent in the operation and the capture of SAF Troopers SPO2 Geraldo dela Paz (Ejay Falcon), SPO2 Bernardo Quinto (Ron Morales) and PO3 Katrina Velasco (Louise delos Reyes). Cardo is shot by Alakdan, but he survives long enough to shed off his SAF uniform and is subsequently rescued and cared for by Leon and his daughter, Lena (Yam Concepcion). Cardo regains consciousnesses and realizes the opportunity he has to infiltrate Pulang Araw and assumes the name of Fernan. Despite suspicions from Pulang Araw's founder, Domingo Bulaon alias "Lawin" (lit. Hawk) (Dante Rivero), Cardo wins his trust and is inducted into Pulang Araw with the nom de guerre "Agila" (lit. Eagle).

As Fernan joins various missions of Pulang Araw, his perception about the rebel group quickly change, realizing that their image to the public are based on lies and carefully concocted smear campaign by Director Hipolito. Back in Manila, the propaganda stories about Cardo and Pulang Araw confuses Cardo's family, negatively affecting their lives. Rumours spread about Cardo’s survival and supposed defection into Pulang Araw, a story which Director Hipolito and Major Catindig capitalizes on to destroy Cardo's credibility, blow his cover and jeopardize his safety. At the camp, Cardo also has to deal with comrade rivalries arising from Alakdan and a jealous Anton del Mundo alias "Tigre" (lit. Tiger) (Mark Lapid), both intent on discrediting Cardo or exposing him as a fraud.

After determining that Pulang Araw is not behind the acts of terrorism, he tries to win the trust of Alakdan to infiltrate Kamandag. In the meantime, he discovers that dela Paz and Velasco are held captive and helps them escape from the hands of Pulang Araw. He tells them of his discovery that Kamandag is protected by an unknown government official who is twisting facts to demonize Pulang Araw. Velasco and dela Paz realizes that Kamandag's protector is also discrediting Cardo. They hold a press conference reporting Cardo’s death while trying to escape from Pulang Araw with them to ensure his cover.

Cardo wins Alakdan's trust and sends him to Manila to eliminate Director Hipolito's fiercest rival in the senate race, Senator Mateo F. de Silva (Joko Diaz) by detonating a bomb among the crowd just before de Silva announces his candidacy. Cardo manages the disruption without detonating a bomb, and narrowly escapes de Silva and his men. The following day, Cardo assaults Kamandag to avenge the death of his son, sending a wounded Alakdan and the rest of Kamandag packing. Cardo then informs Pulang Araw of the betrayal and acts of terrorism that Alakdan perpetrated.

To boost his poll ratings, Director Hipolito resolves to wipe out Pulang Araw and orders a strike on their stronghold in Mt. Karagao. The ensuing encounter that results in the deaths of Lawin, Lena and Lena's son, Emman, leads to Leon’s discovery that Cardo is a SAF member. Cardo and Leon resolve to join forces in order to take down Alakdan.

Season 4 (2017–2018)

They later move to Manila with the help of Engelbert "Bert" Moreno alias "Daga" (Rico J. Puno) (lit. Rat), a former Pulang Araw member and his family. Bert's daughter, Regine (Angeline Quinto) resents Cardo as she recognized the latter as the CIDG officer who killed her brother Banjo (Eric Fructuoso).

At this point, Senator Mateo de Silva (Joko Diaz) is revealed as a drug dealer who drew funding from Don Emilio in exchange for securing the reversal of the latter's conviction and a stake in de Silva's drug empire. De Silva subsequently joins the hunt for Pulang Araw to catch up to Hipolito in the ratings, both eyeing the top spot to secure the nomination for the Presidency of the Philippines. Bert is later killed by Sen. de Silva's henchmen after the latter refused to reveal Pulang Araw's whereabouts. His family is rescued by Pulang Araw, and finally discovers Senator de Silva's involvement in the assault on Bert's family. Regine and her brother Bruno (Janno Gibbs) moves in with Pulang Araw.

After visiting his dead son's grave, Don Emilio and his henchmen kidnap and torture Cardo in an isolated island called Isla Muerte (lit. Death Island). Ramil and some of Cardo's inmate friends learn of Cardo's predicament and devise a plan to rescue him. Arriving at the island, they successfully rescue Cardo but two companions, Julian (Julio Diaz) and Gener (Jeric Raval) are killed. In the ensuing gunfight, Cardo shoots and kills BuCor Director Ladronio (King Gutierrez), one of the persons who helped Don Emilio torture him.

With the remnants of Cardo's allies from prison and the surviving members of Pulang Araw, Cardo forms the vigilante group Vendetta.

Vendetta started their plan to annihilate Don Emilio's and Sen. de Silva's drug laboratories. They successfully ended the operations of two drug laboratories, leaving no one alive. However, Bruno was then captured by unknown men, and Vendetta were not successful in rescuing him, leading to his death. His mother, Dulce (Irma Adlawan), blames Vendetta for his death.

Vendetta found a new enemy in Mayor Jethro Garrido (Bernard Palanca), who sells drugs to college students, some of which also selling drugs from him. Mayor Garrido set up a concert motivating students to stop taking drugs. Vendetta found about the planned concert, so Cardo orchestrated a plan for them to get in. They disguised as a band participating in the concert, named Vengaboys. They won in the battle of the bands, and were congratulated by Mayor Garrido. Unbeknownst to him, they are a vigilante group who plan on taking him down. After handing them drugs, Cardo confronted Mayor Garrido, provoking a shootout. Cardo later shot Mayor Garrido to death.

However, after successfully taking down the drug operations, Cardo realized his shortcomings to his wife. He wasn't aware that Alyana was almost kidnapped in the concert. When Alyana was about to be kidnapped, her office boss, Marco Cabrera (J. C. Santos), came just in time to save her from the kidnapper. Alyana then broke up with Cardo. However, Cardo is still determined to fix his marriage with Alyana.

General Diana Olegario (Angel Aquino) wanted to talk to Cardo so she and Cardo planned to meet at the bridge. Unbeknownst to her, Major Catindig found out about the plan but was not aware that it was Cardo. In the bridge, when Diana was looking for Cardo, Manolo and his men found her first and cornered her. They successfully shot Diana, but they were not aware that Cardo was in hiding. Cardo then saved Diana and brought her to Vendetta's hideout.

After General Olegario was well rested, she wanted to go back to the NMIG. As she came back to her house, Diana was ambushed by Cantindig's men. Vendetta followed her beforehand and came to rescue Olegario. When they took her back to their base, she decided to join Vendetta, seeing an opportunity to get justice for her son (Marco Gumabao), who was killed in the mall during the Alakdan bombings.

Vendetta finally puts a stop to Don Emilio and Sen. De Silva's operations and they set their sights next on Director Hipolito and Kamandag. Meanwhile, Alyana gives in to Marco’s advances and starts a relationship with him, much to the chagrin of the latter’s aunt, Menchu Versoza (Matet De Leon).

Season 5 (2018)

Marco formally introduces Alyana to the rest of the Cabrera Family. Marco’s half-brother, Congressman Brandon Cabrera (Mark Anthony Fernandez) is supportive of the pair’s relationship. On the other hand, the Vice President of the Philippines, Lucas Cabrera (Edu Manzano), is concerned about how his son’s relationship with Alyana will adversely affect his bid for the Presidency in the next election. His spouse, the Second Lady Catherine Cabrera (Alice Dixson), feigns acceptance of Alyana, if only to stop Marco from throwing a fit. Cardo continues to woo Alyana, but is finally rebuked when Alyana returns her wedding ring to Cardo.

General Olegario sought the help of General Borja, despite the objections of Romulo, Ramil and Cardo. Unbeknownst to General Olegario, her Secretary, James (Jay Gonzaga), was tailed by Major Catindig. Catindig then informs Director Hipolito, who in turn, orders Alakdan to perform a hit on Vendetta. Vendetta survived the attack on their hideout but at the cost of both Kalabaw (lit. Carabao) (Rey Solo) and Jimboy (Jayson Gainza) who sacrificed themselves to make their escape. During the attack, Director Hipolito arrived to personally take down Romulo, seeing an opportunity to raise his profile again. However, Romulo survives his wounds and is immediately brought by the CIDG in a hospital where he laid in critical condition. However, Hipolito manages to wrest control of the supervision of Romulo from CIDG and Vendetta must race against time in order to extract Romulo from the clutches of Director Hipolito. When Alyana decided to visit Lola Flora and her family, Marco is against her decisions thinking she was going to Cardo's family causing the two to have an argument which resulted Alyana to leave but is unaware of Marco's violent behavior.

When Cardo poses as a doctor to rescue Romulo at the hospital due to being guarded by Hipolito's security, he meets Andrea "Andy" B. Collins (Jessy Mendiola) a nurse who also working at the hospital. Failing to rescue Romulo at their first rescue attempt, Andy's brother finally informs her about what happened to their mother much to her horrible shock. Vendetta successfully rescued Andy's mother and other hostesses being involved in human trafficking headed by Mr. Gibson (Andy Lunz) at their yacht as Blossom (Katya Santos) one of the hostesses was raped by one of the foreigners for their enjoyment. In the meantime, Marco forces Alyana to marry him against her will despite his father and his older brother's disapprovement and threatens her he will commit suicide while showing his violent behavior towards her and leave. Since Alyana didn't answer all of Marco's calls, his car accidentally crashed on the truck, nearly killing him. After rescuing Andy's mother and the other hostesses named Blossom, Marigold (Jaycee Parker), Hasmin (Gwen Garci), Rose (Maui Taylor) and Dalia (Zara Lopez), Andy decides to join Vendetta to rescue Romulo at the hospital once again followed by her brother, her mother and the hostesses. At the hospital, Romulo was visited by Oscar who wants to know some answers about Hipolito's corruption which Romulo tells him everything it happened and he begins to fed up his government rule much to his surprise. When the doctors informs Lucas, Brandon and Catherine that Marco is fine after the car accident as they argue because of Marco wanted to have a wedding with Alyana despite she was not annulled. Lucas and Brandon wanted to stop Marco's wedding as Lucas finds another way to stop this madness by making a file from the Director of Internal Relations to put his wife enter the convention.

Andy and the others successfully informs Cardo and the others in how to rescue Romulo due to being heavily guarded by the security including the authorities as they make a strategy. However Alakdan informs Hipolito about Catindig's personal mission to take down Romulo including Vendetta as he calls Alakdan and his group are mere troublemakers.

As Alyana visits Marco at the hospital, he was happy and more focus to be with her. However, he angrily throws a fit when his doctor informed him that his therapy is over as Alyana witnesses his violent behavior.

When they are about to take their strategy to rescue Romulo, it was disrupted by Catindig and his men attacking every innocent lives including the authorities at the hospital to kill Romulo. Knowing that Andy is in danger, Vendetta is forced to attack Catindig's group to rescue them. Vendetta takes down most of Catindig's men as Cardo infiltrates to rescue Romulo and Andy from Catinding and his men who makes a total wipe out inside the hospital. They succeeded in their mission & killed Catindig, but the PNP tried to catch Cardo & his friends as well, but to no avail, since they escaped. Hipolito tries to call Catindig, not knowing that he died.

While Marco is recovering at the hospital, Alyana received the annulment papers sent by him as he called her in a happy manner. Her mother was happy about Marco being with her daughter but Alyana is unsure to sign the annulment papers after knowing of his violent behavior. Therefore, his half-brother Brandon became involved in weapons smuggling in which he had found out that Alakdan remains in contact with Hipolito while he got paid for the smuggled firearms.

Hipolito is forced to use Alakdan and his group since his right-hand man Catinding and his group were killed by Cardo and his vigilante group as Alakdan's group serve as his back-up.

When General Borja sent two of Cardo's former comrades to search about Vendetta's hideout, the neighbors became suspicious to their appearance only to warn Andy's mother about their real presence as policemen. She tells Cardo that she and the others will deal with them. After succeeding in distracting the two disguised policemen, Vendetta manages to take Andy to the hospital safety.

Meanwhile, Lucas and Brandon are secretly planning to take down Hipolito after exposing he was responsible for letting Catindig and his men makes a total wipe out at the hospital before being killed by Cardo and his vigilante group. After the battle between the two political campaigns of both Oscar and Lucas, he and Brandon personally meets Hipolito knowing he is one of Lucas' party members in his campaign. Despite his plan to expose Hipolito's corruption during their personal meeting, Hipolito finally explains his reasons why he became the member of Pulang Araw in his youth along with his rival Romulo whom he helps him in his severely wounded state. He was later sent in Manila to study politics while Romulo became the leader of Pulang Araw and this is how he was in the present where he brings down the rebel group successfully as a Defense Secretary until he resigns to run for Senator while continuing his plans to bring down his rival Romulo who is now leading the vigilante group Vendetta.

After hearing of Hipolito's story, Lucas decided to support Hipolito's ambition to become a Senator since he and Brandon are responsible for selling smuggled weapons to them.

At some point, Alyana compares between both Cardo and Marco when they started their relationship to her. Later on, she was in charge on taking care of Marco by Catherine while she was away in New York despite being hesitant to do it along with Menchu.

By the time Andy works at the hospital and to get home safely, General Borja secretly follows her as he discovers Vendetta's hideout knowing that Andy was trying to assist the vigilante group as Andy also warns Cardo about his grandfather.

Lucas, Brandon, and Hipolito begin their reign of ascension by threatening most of Oscar's party members including other innocent people by using their lies and Alakdan's group to pose as from Oscar's campaign to make death threats to vote Hipolito as Senator. Their plans are later found out by one of the members of Vendetta as Cardo vows to expose their corruption after rescuing several teachers from some members of Brandon's group. Meanwhile, Oscar watches the video about the teachers being rescued by Vendetta and to his surprise that the vigilante group is actually the ones who rescue countless people instead of causing more casualties.

Vendetta succeeds for the second time in rescuing all of the people posing as call center agents from Brandon's group and was watched by most people including the President. During their victory celebration, Cardo misses his family and was given some wise advice by Ramil. Then, Andy's mother wanted to invite the group to meet Brother Lorenzo Alano (Rey "PJ" Abellana) a senior pastor who leads a church organization where Andy and her family went to their church to listen to their discussions and prayers. Lorenzo becomes Lucas, Brandon and Hipolito's next target.

By the time Vendetta rescue many people poses as call center agents seen in the news, Marco became extremely jealous as he angrily throws a fit on Alyana thinking that she still loves Cardo as his violent behavior is found by her parents. Alyana's father Teddy angrily scolds Marco for badly mistreating Alyana and he angrily threatens him that even if he is his daughter's boyfriend or his daughter's upcoming fiancé, he will never let him owned his daughter. This threat causes Marco to formally apologize to Alyana who is now horrified and afraid from his violent behavior.

Lucas later uses another plan. He bribed and blackmailed William Celerio, SAP to Oscar to do his bidding, involving sabotaging the election voting machines. William ambushed the convoy, killing all election officers and soldiers then used a hacker to rig the VCMs. But Vendetta intercepted the convoy and killed the men who guards it.

Brandon meanwhile kidnaps Alano then tortured him to force him to align himself with Hipolito and Lucas, but he remained strong. Vendetta later rescued him and wounding Brando. Alano later says on live TV that Brandon tortured him.

Election day arrives, Hipolito became dead last in elections, with Oscar's slate got all the seats in the Senate.

When the annulment paper arrived on Cardo, he kidnaps Alyana and brought her to a place where his former buddy lived. Meanwhile, Marco with his deranged mental instincts hunts Cardo. Alyana reconciled with Cardo after she experienced a nightmare which in Cardo was killed by Marco himself.

Vendetta meanwhile tried to extract info about William Celerio's involvement, but failed when Homer and the police sniffed their plans and William got killed by Pinuno.

Cardo decides to woo his former wife Alyana and he succeeded in doing so, but his challenge was in the form of Tanggol (Joross Gamboa) and later his older brother Baldo (Rommel Padilla) who informs Tanggol about his observations. He decides to return to Manila to tell their families that they were reconciled, but a challenge faced them. As they go to the Vendetta hideout, his granduncle and President Oscar's trusted general launched a simultaneous raid on the compound, with Homer and Hipolito's men and Marco's goons also on them, due to General Terantes ratting them to Cabrera. A firefight happens, which killed Barakuda and Happy dies of blood loss. Marco died when Cardo counterattacked and fled to Wangbu's family.

As they fled, they took 2 policemen, Soriano and Girona with them. Wangbu's cousin, a vet treated their wounds, but distrust arose when the former Pulang Araw members and Manager suspected the policemen are going to rat them out. Tensions were high, but Cardo assured the rest of the members to trust them, as they trusted Diana.

VP Lucas Cabrera, desperate for his son Brandon, launched his plan of taking over Hidalgo's position, with Terantes' goons, they tried to assassinate Oscar on their homecoming on Camilo de Santiago University. The sniper failed and killed by Harold, Oscar's PSG head. He later died when he shielded his boss. But Terantes has plans, he sent all his men disguised or not to attack the place, Oscar and the first family fled, but they were intercepted by more of the rogue general's men. Vendetta repels them, but most of PSG and policemen died. Yohan and Gracie was hit, but they were chased. Cardo followed them and rescued the President, who was wounded alongside the rest of his family, and took him to Wangbu's house. Yohan and Gracie died on arrival, with their mother dies of wounds, leaving the eldest daughter comatose. Wangbu's cousin and Diana treated the President's wounds. Terante kills and incinerates one of his lackeys as "evidence".

Hidalgo, after getting conscious, blamed Vendetta for all the "crimes" they created, including the ambush that killed his family. He distrusted them and tried to escape, but was cornered by Vendetta. He took Wangbu hostage, and went to his family's wake, but was discovered by Cabrera.

Season 6 (2018–present)

The Vendetta finally wins the trust of Oscar Hidalgo after the latter discovers the ulterior motive of Lucas Cabrera. Hidalgo now turns to Vendetta in order to restore him back to the presidency and correct all the wrong that Cabrera seeks to perform with his new found power.

"Girl in the Rain" episode

On July 29, 2016, the MTRCB sent a summons to the producers, writers and directors of the show over a scene in its July 25, 2016 episode with "sexually suggestive themes".^[50]

The scene in question sees Ella (Vice Ganda) having a hard time changing a flat tire in the rain, when Cardo pulls over to help out. In the course of the scene, double entendres are allegedly used in the dialogue between the characters.

The MTRCB also noted that although the episode showed an apt SPG (Strong Parental Guidance) rating, pursuant to MTRCB Memorandum Circular No. 12-2011, said episode did not contain the appropriate descriptor "SEX" despite the presence of what may be considered 'sexually suggestive' shots in the subject depiction.

A conference was held on August 2, 2016 wherein Malu Sevilla (director), Eileen Garcia (executive producer), Dagang Vilbar (producer), Elaine Songco (network MTRCB coordinator) and John Joseph Tuason (episode writer) attended. MTRCB Chairman Eugenio Villareal noted that the summoned personnel manifested that they had no intention to offend anyone in regard to the subject scene; and they believe that there is room for improvement for the program as regards sensitivity to particular types of audience, for instance, the young and women.

Villareal likewise said that they took note of the show's "self-regulatory resolution" to fight objectification and depict scenes instead where the "dignity of the human person is upheld."

Mt. Arayat as a rebel group stronghold

Originally, Pulang Araw held camp at Mt. Arayat until SAF Troopers raided said camp, forcing them to escape to the fictional Mt. Karagao.

Behind the scenes, the show began removing all references to the Municipality of Arayat, Pampanga, beginning with its July 18, 2017 episode. However, despite the scrubbing of all mention to Arayat, on July 21, 2017, the Municipal Council of Arayat, Pampanga forwarded a Resolution to the Provincial Board of Pampanga demanding that the show's producers apologize for depicting Arayat “as a haven and breeding ground for terrorists and hoodlums", said its Municipal Mayor Emmanuel Alejandro. The Resolution also “calls for a hearing and to make ABS-CBN apologize for the wrong impressions it created and to correct these [in the long-running telenovela]”.^[51] The Municipality of Arayat, also contemplated to file charges of libel against ABS-CBN for the show's "damaging" portrayal of the town.^[52]

The show's producers reasoned that Arayat was only used in the show nominally and the production has never shot an actual scene in Arayat. The producers said further that there was no intention to portray Arayat in a bad light; that a disclaimer was issued at the beginning of each episode of the show, stating that the characters, incidents and organizations depicted there were purely fictitious and bore no resemblance to actual people and events. ABS-CBN has since apologized to the Municipality of Arayat.^[51]

Mayor Alejandrino also directed ire at former Pampanga Governors Mark Lapid and Lito Lapid for their participation in the storyline which taints the reputation of the town and province they once served. Coco Martin, the show's lead is also a native of Pampanga, hailing from San Fernando.^[52]

Alejandrino said that the storyline the show is running is a sensitive topic in Arayat, which used to be a bastion for socialist and communist movements from the pre-World War II years up to the 1990s.^[51] Alejandrino further said that contrary to what has been the reaction online to the course of action taken by the Municipality, they are not overreacting^[53] and that they are only trying to protect the town's image, which has a lucrative tourist market.

Usage of Dingdong Dantes and Marian Rivera's Family Photos

The show's production team was called out online by fans of the spouses Dingdong Dantes and Marian Rivera over the alleged unauthorized usage of the spouses' family pictures.^[54] The controversy first began gaining steam when a twitter fan site dedicated to the spouse' daughter Zia, ZiaDantesFanSite‏ posted a video with the caption “Zia’s photo was unethically used by ‘Ang Probinsyano’ in Nov 2017. In last night’s episode, [Dingdong and Marian] DongYan’s photo was edited and used again by the show. Were the photos of Dingdong, Marian and Zia used [and] edited without permission? Dear Ang Probinsyano, strike two na po kayo ah.” which was quickly shared by other users and from which Dantes possibly gained knowledge of such usage.

Dantes' response to the controversy was posted on his Facebook account^[55] "Courtesy and fair practice must always be observed especially in an established industry like ours. But whether or not it is done within the entertainment sector, we should always be reminded of the basic etiquette for online photo use and sharing that includes asking permission and/or citing sources. I do hope that this won't happen again to anyone." he wrote. In the same post, Dantes also shared an excerpt of his letter to the production team dated August 11, 2018 which read “I appreciate that you found artistic inspiration from the original photos. Unfortunately, there is the inescapable consequence that legal and moral rights were violated here. And as you may very well be aware of, established industry practice is against such act as it amounts to disrespect. Worst of all, as a father and husband, I cannot help but feel offended and deeply hurt by such actions, which happened not just once, but twice. Basic rules of courtesy in this case dictate that you first secure permission from the photographer and my Family.”^[56]

On August 14, 2018, the production team of FPJ's Ang Probinsyano released a statement apologizing to Dantes and his family.^[57] The statement explained that the production team hired a third-party contractor to create the props for the show, of which they were neither aware that the photograph belonged to Dantes nor was it intended to disrespect or offend Dantes and his family.

The producers added that they have already launched an investigation "to prevent a similar incident from happening in the future." Alice Dixson, likewise offered her apology to Dantes.^[58]