MTRCB signs MOU with Pasig bishop

After reaching out to schools and private companies, the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) has now turned its attention to faith-based organizations.

With the aim of “empowering the Filipino audience toward discerning viewership,” the MTRCB recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Diocese of Pasig.

“The goal is for faith-based groups to be a conduit of the MTRCB’s ‘Matalinong Panonood nina Juan at Juana’ campaign,’” explained MTRCB Chairman Eugenio Villareal, who signed the MOU with Diocese of Pasig representative, Bishop Mylo Hubert Claudio Vergara.

According to the memo, the MTRCB’s mission is to educate viewers, particularly parents, to make informed decisions in choosing films and TV shows that children may watch. For its part, the Diocese of Pasig “wants to acquire more knowledge and skills for its faithful in the area of film and television classification.”

Villareal described the partnership as “a public-private sector understanding of cooperation to attain mutual objectives.”

The memo stated that “both parties recognize the mutual benefit to one another of their respective objectives and the important role each one has to play in the value formation of the Filipino family, especially in the moral development and character well-being of the youth.”

The Diocese of Pasig promised to provide “adequate venues and resources” to enable the MTRCB to reach out to the public “to raise awareness on the importance of proper discernment of the different classification ratings, as well as the dynamics of film and media literacy and of audience empowerment,” read the MOU.

Seminar for priests

In connection with the tie-up, Villareal said the board has already conducted a “mini media-literacy seminar” for the bishops and priests in Pasig. “It was a get-together to discuss TV and film ratings and the nature of the MTRCB,” he explained.

The MTRCB chief will be the key speaker in a diocese-initiated event in August. A “Matalinong Panonood” seminar in one of the parochial schools in Pasig is also being arranged, Villareal reported.

“We’ve done this in the past,” said Villareal, referring to a media literacy seminar at the Quiapo Church (Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene) organized by current rector, Rev. Msgr. Clemente Ignacio, and the Archdiocese of Manila.

Villareal explained that the Pasig diocese MOU was significant because Vergara is also the chair of the Episcopal Committee on Social Communication. “He reports directly to the Vatican,” Villareal said. “This means the Church is interested in helping cultivate and promote values in media.”

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