With the latest brouhaha in Palawan, several influencers we’d rather not mention by name ended up acting out for everyone to see, only for them to realize very quickly that there are actually consequences to their actions, especially when done offline. It didn’t take long for Palawan’s local government to consider giving these so-called celebrities persona non grata status, forcing them to apologize pretty quickly.

But what exactly does it mean to be “persona non grata?” Does that mean you’d get arrested upon setting foot in a place that declared you as a, literally, unwanted person? Well, nothing much, actually. The reality is, that declaring someone persona non grata is mostly a political statement, and not a legally binding one.

If someone who is considered persona non grata in, say, Palawan, decided to set foot in Palawan, it’s not like they would get arrested on the spot — but it shouldn’t surprise them if they get more than a few dirty looks along the way. If you’re not a Filipino, though, it does mean you are banned from entering the country, although again, how enforceable this is, we do not know. Nobody’s ever tried, to our knowledge — and can you blame them?

With that in mind, and in the vein of our classic series over Pinoy Outrage, let’s look at the times the government decided to clutch their pearls on our behalf and see which celebrities have earned this dubious distinction.

8. Claire Danes

The Inciting Event: The year was 1998. Almost 30(!) years ago. Claire Danes just finished filming Brokedown Place, and was on her publicity tour to promote the country, where she called Manila “a ghastly and weird city” in Vogue magazine, no less. She cited some unpleasant sights that greeted her in the city, and this was before poverty porn was cool, so none of that went over well with us. 

The Aftermath: Manila declared her persona non grata, and even then-president Erap Estrada all but officially extended the soft ban to the entire country. It was the perfect opportunity for political grandstanding for the key people running our capital, and boy, did they milk it.

We do have to ask the awkward question, though – where’s the lie? Because it sure as heck sounded like Claire Danes made some observations, and as unsavory as they were, well, they’re not necessarily untrue.

7. Alec Baldwin

The Inciting Event: In 2009, Alec Baldwin made a “mail-order bride” joke in David Letterman, quipping that he was deciding between getting a Filipina or a Russian one. Well, the senate didn’t take too kindly to that, and Senator Bong Revilla himself led the charge to get the former Shadow banned from setting foot in the Philippines.

Because that’s what we really needed: a celebrity banning another celebrity from our country while allegedly stealing hundreds of billions from our coffers, being told by the Sandiganbayan to give it back, then never giving it back. Allegedly.

The Aftermath: Almost nothing, because nobody watches Letterman in the Philippines. Why bother when we have Jojo A all the way over here, right? A quick apology later through an article he wrote, the controversy died down – just like that cine… oh, too soon?

6. Candy Pangilinan

The Inciting Event: In the middle of a show in Baguio, the comedienne made a joke with the punchline “tao po ako, hindi Igorot,” which, to be clear, was misspoken. She meant to say “Igorot statue,” which does make the joke make a whole lot more sense.

The Aftermath: Giving new meaning to the words “Candy Crush,” Baguio promptly declared Candy Pangilinan as persona non grata, only to lift said declaration a month later, after she gave her apology and explanation. All’s well that ends well?

5. Ramon Bautista

The Inciting Event: In 2014, Ramon Bautista said “ang daming hipon dito sa Davao.” All hell broke loose. 

The Aftermath: After being called “sexist” despite the expression “hipon” being generally gender-neutral, Davao City officials decided that they have no time to put up with the internet action star, and gave him their scarlet letter. They even cited his joke as a form of harassment under their local ordinances, which was the biggest stretch we have ever seen from a middle finger by government officials – until our #1 happened.

4. Leah Navarro

The Inciting Event: A tweet in 2019. Yes, a tweet about the Mindanao earthquakes being some form of retribution, most likely in reference to who was running the country at the time.

The Aftermath: General Santos promptly declared the singer as persona non grata, and will never, ever book her to perform in their city. She then promptly deleted her tweet, and then we all forgot about it, given that you’re most likely reading about it only now.

3. Xian Lim

The Inciting Event: In 2015, Xian Lim was in Albay, and on what was sort of a courtesy call, was handed a shirt and a coffee table book. Depending on who you ask, he either politely or brusquely turned these tokens down, then declared he was “not here to promote Albay.”

The Aftermath: Oh, you just know that Albay feasted on this. Then Governor Joey Salceda stood by their declaration of persona non grata even after the actor tried to explain himself. This, and several other events eventually gave Xian Lim a bit of a reputation for being “difficult,” whether or not there was any truth to this.

2. Ai Ai Delas Alas and Darryl Yap

The Inciting Event: This video.

The Aftermath: Well, it was extra awkward being declared persona non grata for Ai Ai than Darryl Yap in QC because Ai Ai Delas Alas lives in QC. And unlike most of the other people here, neither person apologized and in fact doubled down on what they did, PNG status for Ai and the PDF notwithstanding.

1. Pura Luka Vega

The Inciting Event: Oh, you know the one.

The Aftermath: Waaayyyyy overblown. But we’ve had that discussion already, so let’s just focus on the fact that Floridablanca in Pampanga and General Santos in Mindanao both declared her persona non grata. And while people are free to be offended and freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences, even that didn’t happen, considering how many attempts to imprison her over this performance have happened since the inciting event.

Again, this is our tax money going to try to imprison someone who, at worst, does not view the Christian God in the same way most of us do, while people who have stolen our taxes by the billions are spending even more of our taxes to pretend they’re better than Pura Luka Vega.

Who’s offensively pretending to be some kind of god in this picture again? Because it sure isn’t Pura Luka Vega at this point.

(Dis)honorable Mention: Nathan Allen

Not officially in this list because anyone who doesn’t know travel bloggers would not have even heard of this guy. But apparently, because people wanted to make mountains out of molehills, this poor blogger ended up being declared persona non grata in Bicol back in 2015 because… he asked to be texted?

Look. It’s a long and convoluted story. Let him tell it himself. It gets pretty bizarre and could be the basis of an 8List all on its own.

Any other celebrities we missed? Tell us about them in the comments!