Belle Mariano was dragged into an online controversy she had no part in — and her on-screen partner Donny Pangilinan is drawing a firm line.
The actor took to X on Saturday to call out hate directed at actress Shuvee Etrata, whose fangirl moment over Pangilinan at a recent event was caught on video and quickly spread online — triggering a wave of negative reactions from certain fan camps.
Pangilinan pushed back on attempts to frame the situation as any kind of rivalry or slight. “People forget we are all friends in this industry. Why do we keep pitting people against each other?” he wrote, adding that he only learned the videos were circulating after the fact. “I told [Shuvee] the videos were going around out of shock, as I went to dinner at first thinking it was just going to be intimate and private.”
He was equally direct in calling out the broader culture of online hate targeting public figures. “I feel like we’ve gotten too comfortable throwing hate online without thinking about how that affects actual human beings who have done nothing wrong. This is for all fandoms. Artists have lives too. It’s gone below the belt. Why did we reach this point?” he said.
On Mariano being pulled into the narrative, Pangilinan was unequivocal. “As for Belle, please keep her out of your narratives. She is beautiful, talented, and most importantly, has a great heart. Nothing you say or do will change that,” he wrote.
