Monstrous and never-ending gridlock like the video shown above is the bane of both Metro manila residents and foreign visitors alike. Throw in garbage and flooded streets during the monsoon season, and it is no wonder that Metro Manila despite the Philippines being a beautiful country is low in quality-of-life indices of different agencies.

American author Dan Brown, in his latest novel titled Inferno, described Manila as the gates of hell, angering a number of Filipinos, including the chairman of the body the oversees the 17 cities and municipalities that comprise the Philippine national capital region.

The book tells the story of Robert Langdon and Dr Sienna Brooks who visited the Philippines to provide humanitarian care in the rural areas. But the two instead stayed in the capital city which caused Brooks, an English doctor, to gape in horror over the scale of poverty she saw.

Beyond the hungry faces, the book describes the six-hour traffic jams, deadly pollution level and sex trade in which young boys and girls are sold by their parents to pimp to feed the rest of their children.

Metro Manila Development Authority Chairman Francis Tolentino, alarmed at the impact of the book on tourists and investors, protested the inaccurate portrayal of the city life and the country, which also has many beautiful places to offer local and international tourists.

In his letter dated May 23, Mr Tolentino told the author of The Da Vinci Code that "Metro Manila is the central of Filipino spirit, faith and hope. Our faith in God binds us as a nation and we believe that Manila citizens are more than capable of exemplifying good character and compassion towards each other, something that your novel has failed to acknowledge."

He insisted that Metro Manila, home to 12 million people, is "an entry to heaven."

Mr Tolentino pointed out that the famous author, based on immigration records, has never set foot in the Philippines and he wants Mr Brown to correct the wrong impressions the novel would create even if it is only fiction.

He dared Mr Brown to visit Metro Manila to experience the hospitality of the Filipino people. One local restaurant named Adobo Connection - which refers to a very popular Filipino meat dish cooked with soy sauce and vinegar - even offered to send the author a roundtrip ticket and would cook for him a new version of the popular dish to be called Adobo Diablo.

Filipino Twitter members retweeted the chairman's reaction to how Metro Manila was portrayed in the novel, but there were no violent reactions.

Jay Pee Warning said, "Well, no big deal!" while Noem Lardizabal-Dado said she was not offended by Mr Brown's description.

Aries Austria agrees that there is no need for Filipinos to overreact, and Lloyd P Flores pointed out that while "ths s fiction but I bliv that fiction s fragments of reality."

Even local movie producers have frequently used the theme of poverty in the capital city for their indie films which have won awards in international film festivals.

Among the films that have capitalised on the problems of Metro Manila are

Maynila sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag (Manila, in the Claws of Light)

City After Dark

and Ang Babae sa Septic Tank (The Woman Inside the Septic Tank).

Actress Claire Danes has similarly spoken ill of the Philippines after she shot a film in the Asian country, while recent visitor Sarah Jessica Parker of Sex and the City described the Philippines as "one of the most exciting places I've been in a really, really long time."