The owner of a well-known Bohol chocolate brand has publicly disavowed any support for a Metro Manila-based independent film that used her family business as a filming location, saying the production failed to honor commitments made during a 2023 collaboration.
Dalareich Polot, proprietor of Dalareich Chocolate House, issued a statement on social media saying neither she nor her family business authorized the use of the Dalareich brand, trade name, or business facilities in connection with the film, which was screened at a Metro Manila festival last month.
“Any use of the Dalareich brand, trade name, or related proprietary or business material, or the exploitation of the business identity, goodwill, look, and reputation of Dalareich Chocolate House and its products and facilities were not authorized by me and our family business,” Polot said in her post.
Polot said she had assisted the unnamed production outfit in good faith — connecting it with local sponsors, government officials, resorts, and talent, and coordinating shooting locations in Bohol and as far as Antipolo in Luzon — all without monetary compensation and without a formal agreement.
She said a draft contract was eventually discussed as the production’s demands on her time grew, but that the document did not reflect what had been agreed upon in principle, and her proposed revisions were not considered.
She declined to sign it.
Polot said she and the sponsors she had secured were neither informed nor given an opportunity to screen the film before its Metro Manila festival showing.
She also alleged that acknowledgments in the film appeared incomplete and that certain depictions of the province were disturbing.
“Consistent with the above, neither I nor Dalareich Chocolate House am supporting any publicity or screening of this film in Bohol, or in any place or through any media for that matter,” she said.
Polot added that she had instructed legal counsel to monitor the film’s screenings and related publicity to protect her and her family’s rights and interests.
She did not identify the film production outfit or the title of the feature film.
An advocacy tied to the production — described as “one movie ticket, one cacao seedling” — has yet to be fulfilled, Polot said, adding that she had received no clear accountability or acknowledgment from the outfit following the Metro Manila screening.
“My family, the others who were caught up in the turmoil, and I nonetheless do not seek recognition; we simply ask for respect,” she said.
RESPECTED NAME AND BRAND
Polot is one of the Philippines’ most decorated young entrepreneurs.
Dubbed “Bohol’s Chocolate Princess,” she is the founder of Ginto Fine Chocolates and co-founder of Dalareich Chocolate House, the first chocolate factory in the province.
In 2022, she made history as the first-ever Filipino recipient of the Goldman Sachs & Fortune Global Women Leaders Award, honored at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit in Laguna Niguel, California.
The annual award recognizes outstanding individuals who have completed the Fortune-U.S. Department of State Global Women’s Mentoring Partnership and the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women Initiative, which Polot completed in 2011.
Her drinking chocolate won the top gold award at the Academy of Chocolate Awards in London in 2019, and the brand now exports its chocolates to Sweden, Australia, Japan, and other parts of the world.
That same year, Dalareich Chocolate House also received the Takeda Young Entrepreneurship Award at the University of Tokyo and won the APEC Business Efficiency and Success Target Best Family Support Award, besting nominees from 21 other APEC economies.
Polot was selected as a scholar to study bean-to-bar chocolate making at the Cacaolab of Ghent University in Belgium in 2014, where she trained under some of the world’s top chocolate makers.
She was also invited in 2016 to participate in the International Visitor Leadership Program funded by the U.S. Department of State, focused on fostering growth and promoting women entrepreneurship in the Philippines.
Dalareich Chocolate House traces its roots to a small family enterprise started by her parents, Ricardo and Elsa Polot — a former tricycle driver and street cleaner — who built the business from an initial stock of just five kilos of cacao beans.