A photo of the Kapisanan ng mga Social Media Broadcasters ng Pilipinas Inc. at MTRCB’s office. Image: Facebook/Commander Red
Weeks before a group of so-called “social media broadcasters” filed a cybercrime charge against “It’s Showtime” hosts Vice Ganda and Ion Perez, photos of its “special meeting” with Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) chairperson Diorella “Lala” Sotto-Antonio last August surfaced on social media.
In a Facebook post of a certain Commander Red last Aug. 24, members of the Kapisanan ng mga Social Media Broadcasters ng Pilipinas Inc. (KSMBPI) can be seen at the MTRCB’s office at what appeared to be an agreement ceremony and “special meeting” with Sotto.
“Signing of the Memorandum of Agreement between SPIN MEDIA and the Kapisanan ng Social Media Broadcasters ng Pilipinas, Inc. at the National Office of MTRCB last August 24, 2023 followed by a special meeting with MTRCB Chairperson Lala Sotto,” the post read.
SPIN Media, according to its Facebook page, refers to Secure the Philippines Initiative Network, a media organization launched in 2020, and which claims to have a network of correspondents in several provinces. The group appeared to be allied with KSMBPI.
Image: Screengrab from Facebook/Commander Red
The meeting was said to be a discussion of the “proliferation of immoral contents in some of the noontime TV shows,” in which the group expressed support to the MTRCB in “raising the public awareness and action to address moral decay in the entertainment industry.”
Photos of the Kapisanan ng mga Social Media Broadcasters ng Pilipinas Inc. at MTRCB’s office. Images from Facebook/Commander Red
Vice Ganda and Perez were charged with violation of Republic Act 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, “both in the online and offline platforms” last Sept. 11, according to KSMBPI president Atty. Leo Olarte.
In a phone interview with INQUIRER.net, Olarte claimed that the organization is an “independent private advocacy organization,” while pointing out that the criminal charge “was never triggered nor influenced in any way by the MTRCB.”
“Contrary to the loose talk maliciously circulating around the grapevine: The KSMBPI criminal case versus Vice Ganda and Ion Perez was never triggered nor influenced in any way by the MTRCB or its 12-day suspension of the ABS-CBN television show ‘It’s Showtime,’” he further added.
KSMBPI earlier said Vice Ganda’s act of licking icing off the finger of Perez was an “emulation of a sexual activity,” thus, broadcasting its video on television and uploading it on several social media platforms of ABS-CBN is detrimental to the general public, and in violation of the cybercrime law.
“What they did (Vice Ganda and Perez) have a psychological impact on children, especially they were in front of children. It opens the mind of children who can easily be persuaded to emulate sexual activities. Ini-introduce sila. They (children) are gullible, madaling maimpluwensya. Musmos pa ang mga iyan, so hindi maganda,” Olarte said. (The children are being introduced to [sexual activities]. They are gullible, easily influenced. They are still young, so that doesn’t look good.)
The MTRCB, as well as Vice Ganda and Perez have yet to comment on the cybercrime charge by the KSMBPI, as of this writing. EDV