Filmmakers sign pact with MTRCB

“This is mutually beneficial. It is also a first,” Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) Chair Eugenio Villareal said of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) that the ratings board recently signed with the Directors’ Guild of the Philippines Inc. (DGPI).

The MOU establishes “a framework of cooperation and continued dialogue,” Villareal said.

“We want to understand where the filmmakers are coming from,” Villareal said in an interview on the program “Inquirer Entertainment” on Radyo Inquirer 990 AM.

DGPI is currently led by Joel Lamangan as president, with Emmanuel

H. Borlaza as vice president (he is also the current MTRCB vice chair). “In our last meeting with them, we presented the MOUs we earlier signed with the Film Development Council of the Philippines and the Cultural Center of the Philippines,” Villareal related.

In a statement, Lamangan said he was “pleased” with the various programs and activities initiated by the MTRCB and its active engagement with film-related stakeholders.

Present during the signing were Lamangan and DGPI’s board of directors: Rica Arevalo, Michael Sandejas, Cesar Apolinario, Ellen Ramos and Ruel Bayani.

The MTRCB group consisted of Villareal, Borlaza, executive director Victoriano Muring Jr. and board members Manuel Buising, Mara Ines Dayrit, Mario Hernando, Bibeth Orteza, Joey Romero and Milo Sogueco.