Senators have called on the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) to strengthen their efforts in protecting young viewers from indecent content.
Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano noted that the MTRCB’s role in protecting young viewers from lewd and unsuitable contents has decreased.
Cayetano suggested that the MTRCB form a research arm that will study how it can expand its mandate under the law to cover various digital platforms, including Netflix.
“Since the MTRCB has the heart to be guardian of values of our today’s youth, let me encourage MTRCB to look at contemporary Filipino values that we can agree on and determine if they are allowed already, that they can see anything,” Cayetano said during the Senate’s plenary deliberation into the proposed budget of the MTRCB for 2024.
Cayetano clarified that the aim is not to censor but to ensure that young Filipinos do not consume content that is violent, lewd, or against Filipino morals, especially in today's “much more confusing time” in which illegal drugs, teenage pregnancy, and sexually transmitted diseases have become rampant.
“It’s not more of censorship, but more of giving the young people the right ideas and information, and then they can make their own choices later on,” he said.
Cayetano said putting in P10-million to P15-million for the proposed research “would go a long way” in achieving this objective.
Sen. Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada, who defended the MTRCB’s proposed budget agreed with Cayetano and noted that the board is operating on “a relatively old law” and therefore, “will not be able to address the challenges of the modern times and the digital age.”
“The MTRCB family is listening and I am certain that they will seriously consider the valid suggestions of Senator Cayetano,” Estrada said.
Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero echoed Cayetano’s suggestion, pointing out that the MTRCB can only ban subject films from public showign in theaters and television under Republic Act 1986 which created the MTRCB, and RA No. 9775 or the Anti-Child Pornography Act.
“However, it has no power to prohibit X-rated films from public exhibition in the internet,” Escudero said.
Escudero pointed out the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) has no jurisdiction ascertaining which certain sites should not be allowed.
“The point I am driving at is that it is not within the core competence of the DICT and I think at some point in time the MTRCB should be brought into the picture either via the bill of Sen. (Robinhood) Padilla or by an amendment to the law,” Escudero pointed out.
Padilla has earlier filed Senate Bill No. 1940 which seeks to strengthen the mandate and capabilities and organizational structure of the MTRCB and renewed his push for the passage of the measure during the plenary debates on the 2024 budget.
In pushing for the bill, Padilla stressed the need for the MTRCB to “address the changing demands of our time.”
“The MTRCB, as the primary quasi-judicial government agency responsible for the review and classification of television programs, movies, and publicity materials, must have the expressed mandate to effectively and adequately carry out its purpose and objectives," Padilla said.