Appeals court questions MTRCB decision to suspend Tulfo brothers’ show

Photo screengrab from T3 website.

MANILA, Philippines—“Why let a show suffer if one of the hosts goes berserk,” Court of Appeals Presiding Justice Andres Reyes asked during a hearing on the petition of ABC Television Corporation (TV5) against Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB).

Reyes, during Wednesday’s hearing, asked the Office of the Solicitor-General what are the parameters before a show gets the axe for any violation.

The representatives from the government said the MTRCB has no jurisdiction over the host and this is not the first time the Tulfo brothers had made a violation.
The MTRCB suspended “T3,” a public-affairs program on TV5 of Tulfo brothers Ben, Raffy and Erwin due to their on-air remarks against entertainment celebrity couple Raymart Santiago and Claudine Barreto who both figured in a brawl with the three hosts’ eldest brother, Ramon.

The petition sought the nullification of the MTRCB order for “being unconstitutional and for having been issued without jurisdiction or with grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack of or excess of jurisdiction.”

“TV5 has a control over the broadcastings,” the government lawyer said adding that the television network, upon learning of the utterances made by the Tulfo brothers should have done something like turning off the monitor or the microphone so that the public would not hear the remarks.

“The monitor should be turned off? Are these part of the rules of the trade,” Reyes said.

“I do now know why a program should be suspended if there is nothing that would corrupt the viewers,” he added.