Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB)

The Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) is a government body that reviews, classifies, and approves or disapproves for public exhibition films, television programs, home videos, and related or similar materials. At the moment, it does not rate video games, nor does it rate literature. Its name in Filipino is Lupon sa Pagrerepaso at Pag-uuri ng Sine at Telebisyon. The president of the Philippines appoints its chair, vice chair, and 30 board members for a renewable term of one year. At least 15 of the board members must represent the movie and television industries while at least five must be lawyers. It has been customary in the last several decades to have other sectoral representatives in the board, such as from religious groups and the field of education. Lawyer Eugenio H. Villareal was the MRTCB chair from December 2012 to 2017. The board conducts business at its building at 18 Timog Ave, Quezon City.

Since 2011, the MTRCB has been applying the classifications G (General Patronage), PG (Patnubay at Gabay, or Parental Guidance), and X (Disapproved for Airing) to television programs. In 2012, the SPG (Striktong Patnubay at Gabay, or Strict Parental Guidance) was added. A pictogram advisory with full-screen written and voice advisory precedes every program and advises the audience of its classification. The G rating signifies that the material is rated suitable for all ages. The PG rating means that, in the judgment of the MTRCB, the program “may contain some adult material that may be permissible for children to watch but only under the guidance and supervision of a parent or adult.” This is the case in such programs as Eat Bulaga! (Lunchtime Peek-a-Boo!) and It’s Showtime (formerly Showtime). The SPG rating is applied when, in the judgment of the MTRCB, the program “may contain more serious topic and themes, which may not be advisable for children to watch except under the very vigilant guidance and presence of a parent or adult.” An X rating is given a program if, “in the judgment of the Board applying contemporary Filipino cultural values as standard, it is objectionable for being immoral, indecent, contrary to law and/or good customs, injurious to the prestige of the Republic of the Philippines or its people, or with a dangerous tendency to encourage the commission of violence, or of a wrong, or crime” (MTRCB 2004).

For movie classification, there are six ratings as per the MTRCB. G rating is for viewers of all ages; PG rating requires adult supervision for viewers under 13 years of age; R-13 requires viewers to be 13 years old and over; R-16 requires viewers to be 16 years old and over; R-18 requires viewers to be 18 years old and over; and X rating is given to films that are not suitable for public viewing.

In classifying television programs and films, the MTRCB considers the theme of the show, its language, and the presence of nudity, sex, violence, horror scenes, and drugs. It reviews and classifies all programs shown by the television channels, except news and current affairs programs. However, newscasts such as TV Patrol, Bandila (Flag), Unang Hirit (First Blow), Aksyon sa Umaga (Action in the Morning), and News+ as well as regional news programs may use a PG or SPG warning depending on the content of the news stories. Moreover, in the case of live television programs where the MTRCB cannot exercise prior restraint, a violation is meted a suspension of the program or its host or both. On the other hand, while the MTRCB may suspend, reject, or cancel programs, it cannot revoke broadcast licenses.

All films, local and foreign, are classified prior to exhibition. Among the most controversial decisions of the MTRCB in recent decades was its censorship in 1989 of the film Orapronobis (Fight for Us), written by Jose F. Lacaba and directed by Lino Brocka. Depicting human rights violations, its banning provoked accusations that the popular EDSA Revolt in 1986 did not restore democracy. The 1994 foreign film Schindler’s List, directed by Steven Spielberg, was initially banned for sexually explicit content until then President Fidel V. Ramos intervened following protests, and allowed the movie to be shown with an R-16 rating. In 2006, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines objected to the exhibition of the foreign movie Da Vinci Code, based on the novel by Dan Brown, which claimed that Jesus and Mary Magdalene produced a family. The MTRCB allowed the showing of the film with an R-18 rating.

When MTRCB’s earliest predecessor was created in 1929, film was its sole object of inspection as television was not to come until 24 years later. Philippine television was born in 1953, but it was only eight years later, in 1961, that the government censors body began to put it within its scope, and only in terms of movies previously exhibited in cinema houses, that were aired on television. It took another three decades before television program producers began to feel MTRCB’s weight, although President Ferdinand Marcos created other agencies to handle the control of television during the martial law years. Since the mid-1990s, the MTRCB has been classifying television programs to advise parents to supervise their children’s viewing of certain programs.

In 1929, during the American colonial period, the Board of Censorship for Moving Pictures (BCMP) was created by the Philippine Legislature, reportedly in reaction to a protest by the Spanish community against Julian Manansala’s film Patria Amore (Beloved Country), which was perceived to fan anti-Spanish sentiments. While the BCMP did not ban the movie, it began to examine all films—spoken or silent, local or foreign—and prohibit the screening of those the board deemed immoral or contrary to law and good customs or injurious to the prestige of the government and the people. In 1930, its first year of operation, it approved the exhibition of 1,249 films, with cuts in only six. Two other films were banned. Teodoro M. Kalaw served as president of the BCMP, with Lawrence Benton as secretary and 23 others, mostly American, as members, all appointed by the American governor-general Dwight Davis.

In 1938, the First National Assembly under the Commonwealth government changed the board’s name to Board of Review for Moving Pictures (BRMP) and expanded its coverage to locally produced films distributed abroad. Kalaw remained as president until 1940, when Jorge Bocobo took his place. More Filipinos were appointed to the board as its membership was reduced to 17. During the first two years of the Japanese occupation, there was no censors board, but the Japanese Military Administration’s propaganda corps, called the Hodobu, strictly monitored and controlled radio, stage shows, and printed media, in addition to film. Censorable materials were those considered by the Hodobu to be anti-Japanese and tended to advocate democracy, alienate the Axis powers from one another, repudiate war, oppose the educational reforms designed by the Japanese, and expose alleged improper conduct of the Japanese military administration. In 1944, the Japanese reconstituted the BRMP under its watch, with Gabriel L. Mañalac as president. Marciano Roque served briefly as president in 1946 following the war’s end, but Mañalac was reappointed in 1947 until 1950, again succeeded by Roque until 1953, Enriqueta Benavides until 1954, Teodoro F. Valencia until 1957, and Alfredo Lozano until 1960. The BRMP’s prewar function and premises were restored.

In the following decades, crime, violence, and sex became a recurring concern in film content. In 1961, with the new name Board of Censors of Motion Pictures (BCMP), the 25-member body’s jurisdiction was expanded to include movies for television, whether in film or videotape. However, other television shows were not covered by the BCMP’s powers. It also had Lumen Aspillera as new head, a position now called chairman (henceforth, chair). Aspillera was succeeded by Jose L. Guevara until 1965, Feliciano J. Ledesma until 1966, then by Guevara again until 1968. The following year, Marcos appointed Guillermo de Vega chair of BCMP. He served in this capacity while also serving as assistant to Marcos, positions he kept as Marcos declared martial law in 1972. Following de Vega’s assassination in 1975, Marcos appointed his widow, Ma. Rocio de Vega, chair of the BCMP. She resigned in 1976, unable to endure the pressures from the military and other self-appointed guardians of morality and national security, who were close to Marcos and First Lady Imelda. From then until 1981, an ad interim BCMP was run mostly by military personnel.

In the meantime, Marcos contained the media through various agencies. Television and radio were controlled by, among other agencies, the purportedly self-regulatory body Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster sa Pilipinas beginning in 1974. (This body would operate independently of government after Marcos’s ouster in 1986.) It was Marcos himself, however, who stopped the showing of the Japanese anime Voltes V on television, due to its violent and supposedly rebellion-inciting content, and also due to pressure from the Catholic Women’s League.

In 1981, Marcos reorganized the board and renamed it Board of Review for Motion Pictures and Television (BRMPT). He expanded its composition to 32, including a chair and a vice chair, at least 15 of whom represented the movie and television industries and at least five lawyers, all appointed by the president of the Philippines for a renewable term of one year. The BRMPT covered all television programs, videos, and similar media, in addition to film. He appointed Teodoro M. Kalaw’s daughter, Maria Kalaw Katigbak, its chair. Until the end of her term in 1985 on the eve of the EDSA Revolt that ousted Marcos, Katigbak was in the middle of controversial censorship of movies that were either considered too sexually suggestive, and thus supposedly undermining morals, or too subversive, thus threatening national security, or, more accurately, threatening to Marcos and his martial rule. At least one case, the banning of the movie Bayan Ko: Kapit sa Patalim (My Country: Gripping the Knife’s Edge), reached the Supreme Court and created a legal impasse. Given the public mood that was increasingly anti-Marcos, the movie was shown. Marcos then changed the BRMPT to the MTRCB in late 1985. But it took place on the eve of the revolt that would end his regime and install Corazon Cojuangco Aquino as president.

Aquino appointed Manuel Morato chair of the MTRCB in 1986. Her successor President Fidel V. Ramos then appointed Etta Mendez to succeed Morato in 1992. The two are considered among the most conservative and stringent of the board of censors’ chiefs, but television, deemed not yet controversial, escaped their stern guidelines. It was Mendez’s successor, Jesus C. Sison, whom Ramos appointed in 1995, who required that all television programs aired between 6:00 am and 7:00 pm have to achieve a rating of general patronage (GP) or suited for all ages; programs classified PG could only be shown from 8:00 pm to 6:00 am. The PG rating was meant to encourage parents to supervise their children while watching television. Programs were then submitted to the MTRCB for rating. In 1998, newly inaugurated President Joseph Estrada appointed veteran movie and television actor-singer-producer Armida Siguion-Reyna chair of MTRCB. Like her predecessors, she faced controversy. A review committee disapproved ABS-CBN’s December 2000 television special A Christmas Prayer, which was critical of Estrada. She was accused of having a hand in the decision. She then set up a second review committee, which allowed the airing of the special with a PG rating. When Estrada left Malacañan in January 2001 following massive demonstrations against him, Siguion-Reyna submitted her resignation to the next president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Arroyo then appointed on 12 February 2001 theater and film scholar Nicanor G. Tiongson the next chair of the MTRCB. His was the shortest term, exactly 37 days. Tiongson resigned on 21 March 2001 following pressure from Malacañan and conservative elements of religious groups for MTRCB to stop and ban the showing of the film Live Show, which depicted the struggles of dirt-poor live sex performers in night clubs. The movie, which received an R-18 rating from both the MTRCB and the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines CINEMA (Catholic Initiative for Enlightened Movie Appreciation) Education Committee, angered moral conservatives of the Catholic Church, the Jesus Is Lord congregation, and other religious groups, so Arroyo ordered its recall. Tiongson argued that he could not recall the permit for the movie to be shown without cuts given by Siguion-Reyna’s board, because the movie had not violated any of the MTRCB’s implementing rules and regulations. Failing reason on the part of the Archdiocese of Manila and Malacañan, Tiongson resigned. Arroyo appointed Alejandro R. Roces, who towed the moral conservative’s line. He resigned in 2002, followed by the brief stints of Marilen Dinglasan and Dennis G. Manicad.

In February 2003, Arroyo appointed Consoliza Laguardia MTRCB chair. Hers was one of the longest terms, which lasted until October 2010. She was also the first to pay much more attention to television, implementing strict guidelines and reprimanding several television performers and suspending some. For instance, in 2004, the daily show Ang Dating Daan (The Former Path) was suspended for 20 days for the offensive language used by its host, televangelist Eli Soriano. A wardrobe malfunction in the daily noontime show Wowowee earned the show a three-day suspension in 2007. Another daily noontime show, It’s Showtime, was suspended for a month in 2010 for the inappropriate comment of one of its judges to Filipino teachers. Laguardia received mixed reviews of her performance. Critics argue that some of her projects were not consistent with the mandate of the board, such as the MTRCB Awards for TV and Film. However, she is credited for some lasting benefits to the MTRCB, such as the construction of the board’s permanent home on Timog Ave in Quezon City, for introducing the R-13 film classification, and for strengthening provincial monitoring of film and television through local regulatory councils.

On 23 October 2010, President Benigno Simeon Aquino III appointed Mary Grace Poe-Llamanzares MTRCB chair and veteran film director and longtime board member Emmanuel Borlaza vice chair. Poe-Llamanzares reformed the MTRCB ratings system by developing one that is applicable to both movies and television, which are still in effect today, guided by age-appropriate classification. She also introduced the concept of “intelligent media viewership” by holding the first MTRCB Children’s Summit in 2011, which discussed and planned improvements in television programming for children and the treatment of child actors and entertainers and their families. She struck an agreement with bus franchises and interisland ships to show only GP and PG materials. She institutionalized media literacy forums and “Matalinong Panonood” (Intelligent Viewership) seminars in universities and local communities to disseminate information on the MTRCB classification system. It was during her watch when Willie Revillame, host of the daily noontime show Willing Willie, was suspended for a month for making a young boy perform the sexually suggestive “macho dance” while the boy was weeping and appeared to be in distress. In 2012, Poe-Llamanzares left the board to run for the Senate, upon Aquino’s urging. She subsequently topped the race.

Aquino then appointed Eugenio H. Villareal to succeed Poe-Llamanzares. Villareal continued her initiatives, focusing on campaigns to promote the MTRCB’s role in protecting minors from what are deemed age-inappropriate shows, and the role of parents in supervising their children when watching television and films. Villareal, who served until Jan 2017, sustained cooperation and dialogue with the film, television, and now also the cable and optical media industries (DVDs and similar media), stressing not only the premises of the MTRCB rules and regulation but also new laws that should guide the production of content, which should lead to material that are gender sensitive and mindful of the rights of children, persons with disability, senior citizens, and others.

It has often been said that MTRCB’s judgment of the morals of a film or a television program depends mainly on the person heading the body, considering that morality is culture-bound and society’s moral ideals are constantly evolving.