Because General Ronald dela Rosa was running for the Philippine 2019 mid-term elections, the film was rushed for cinema release on January 13, 2019, just 13 days before the campaign period for May's midterm election starts, which states that no movie, cinematograph, or documentary portraying the life or biography of a candidate shall be publicly exhibited in a theater, on a television station, or any public forum during the campaign period.
This is the second film in which Robin Padilla plays a former chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP). In his 2013 film 10000 Hours (2013), he portrays a character based on Panfilo Lacson, a retired police officer who headed the PNP from 1999 to 2001 and later became a senator. In this film, the police general (Ronald dela Rosa, PNP chief from 2016 to 2018) he's playing aspired to become a senator.
Director Lore Reyes urged for the boycott of this film and blocked his Facebook friends who promoted the movie. Reyes said he will "persist in criticizing bad governance, plundering of the national treasury, and the pervading air of injustice, fear and intimidation, and non-accountability." Gen. Ronald dela Rosa, the subject of this film, is the chief implementer of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's bloody drug war that already killed at least 12,000, most of them poor.
Despite criticism for doing the film, actor Robin Padilla said "Trabaho lang 'to!" (just a work). Padilla admitted he supported all the administration candidates, including Ronald dela Rosa, in the 2019 midterm elections.
Actor Robin Padilla described Ronald dela Rosa as a "Cinderella Man" (someone who started poor and became successful).