MTRCB ruling on ‘It’s Showtime’ appeal out this week

“It’s Showtime” hosts. Image: Instagram/@praybeytbenjamin

The Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) is set to release this week its ruling on the appeal of “It’s Showtime” to reconsider the agency’s decision to suspend the noontime show for 12 airing days.

This is according to the head of MTRCB’s Hearing and Adjudication Committee, Paulino Cases, when the issue was raised by Senator Jinggoy Estrada during a budget hearing in the Senate on Wednesday.

Cases explained the suspension order was not yet final since the producers of the show had filed a motion for reconsideration (MR).

Estrada then asked when MTRCB would decide on the appeal, to which Cases replied that it would be released sometime within the week.

MTRCB head Diorella “Lala” Sotto-Antonio, who was also present during the budget hearing, pointed out that “It’s Showtime” was given 15 days to file an MR from receipt of the suspension order.

“Because we wanted to give them the chance to cooperate with us, to enter into a dialogue at least or to coordinate. But that did not happen. And we also wanted to give them due process,” she said.

The suspension stemmed from its hosts Vice Ganda and Ion Perez’s alleged “indecent acts” during one of its segments, “Isip Bata,” aired last July 25, in which the TV host-comedian could be seen licking icing off his finger from a cake offered by his real-life partner’s finger.

Sotto-Antonio, who inhibited from voting, explained the decision to suspend was unanimous as the board only had to vote whether to suspend “It’s Showtime” for six or 12 days.

When Estrada asked about the opinion of some quarters that the penalty meted by the regulatory body was “too severe,” Sotto pointed out that there were also a lot of people saying the program should have been canceled or the suspension should have been extended.

Cases confirmed this, saying there were people who wanted harsher penalty of one year suspension or cancellation of the program. EDV