Rodrigo Duterte
(First of a series)
Rachel Arenas, chair of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB), says that President Duterte “fully supports” the entertainment industry.
Case in point: The President attended the launch of Cine Lokal, a pet project of the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP), last May.
According to Arenas, the President also welcomed various industry insiders—particularly, those who had campaigned for him—to his administration, by assigning them to various key posts.
In her own office, the movie and television industries are well-represented, she notes. “He chose them to help continue the government’s programs.”
She relates that the President is fully behind them, as they pursue their work in the MTRCB.
She is continuing her predecessor’s “Matalinong Panonood” program. To push it down the grassroots level, the board is bringing the campaign to the barangays.
Rachel Arenas
“We’ve conducted workshops in the communities, with the help of the LGUs (local government units),” she recalls. “We’ve also tapped the PTA (Parent Teacher Association) in each school, and we coordinate with the barangay health workers.”
The goal is to present the project straight to its target audience: the Filipino family. “We’ve reached out to daycare workers and senior citizens. The lolos and lolas and the caregivers are often the ones who are left with the kids during daytime. They should know about the rating system for television programs so they can guide the children properly.”
The MTRCB, which is under the Office of the President, is continuing its outreach programs in the regions, too.
Every year, the board also spearheads the Family Summit, another noteworthy project of the board’s previous chair (lawyer Eugenio Villareal) that she plans to pursue.
Chair Arenas hopes to team up with other government agencies soon—specifically with the FDCP, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, and the National Youth Commission.
“These four agencies can collaborate on different programs. We’ve already started our discussions. We just need to sit down and identify the specific areas where we can work together,” she says. (To be continued tomorrow)