MTRCB chief defends ‘X’ rating for Jonas docu

MTRCB Chair Lala Sotto-Antonio —Photo from MTRCB FB page

MANILA, Philippines — The head of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) on Tuesday stood firm on the body’s decision to keep the documentary on the disappearance of farmer-activist Jonas Burgos from being shown to the general public, despite the praise it had received from a recent indie film festival.

In the course of defending the board’s proposed 2025 budget P164 million in the Senate, MTRCB Chair Lala Sotto-Antonio said the award-winning movie “Alipato at Muog” (Flying Embers and a Fortress) was given an X rating by the board in its application of Presidential Decree No. 1986, the law that established the body during the first Marcos administration.

READ: ‘Dear Satan’ offends me as a Christian, says MTRCB chief Lala Sotto

“We all know that freedom of expression is not absolute or limitless. That is why there is a law in place,” Antonio said in response to Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, who raised the matter in the budget hearing.

“That is why there exists the MTRCB… Laws and rules are important in order to put order,” she said.

The MTRCB found that the documentary “tends to undermine the faith and confidence of the people in their government or duly-constituted authorities,” Antonio sad. “Therefore, the first review committee rated it ‘X’.”

‘Exemption permit’

The official, a daughter of former Senate President Vicente Sotto III, did not provide and was not asked to cite specific scenes or aspects of the film that made it deserving an X rating in the context she stated.

The hearing touched on the film after Estrada, the Senate president pro tempore and a former actor, noted that several groups, including the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, had criticized the MTRCB’s decision.

Antonio explained that the MTRCB earlier issued an “exemption permit” to the documentary, as requested by the Cultural Center of the Philippines, for it to be shown and compete in the latest Cinemalaya film festival, where it was rated “Parental Guidance” and later named one of the winners of the Special Jury prize.

“That is not curtailing freedom of expression or creation,”she stressed.

A second look

She also reported that a five-member review panel would be taking a second look at Alipato on Sept. 5, after Jose Luis ‘Burgos’, the younger brother of Jonas and the director producer of the film, filed an appeal.

The 96-minute documentary tackles Jonas’ abduction at the Quezon City shopping mall in 2007, a still-unsolved case which the Burgos family believed to be the handiwork of soldiers. The military denied any role, and in 2017 an Army lieutenant charged with the abduction was acquitted by a local court.

The Burgos brothers are the sons of the late journalist, press freedom advocate and martial law detainee Jose “Joe” Burgos.

Aside from the NUJP, the human rights watchdog Karapatan has assailed the MTRCB rating, calling it “the latest example of state censorship” and “a blatant afront to freedom of expression.”