Still dreaming NO HOLDS BARRED Armida Siguion-Reyna 09/24/2010

Still dreaming

NO HOLDS BARRED

Armida Siguion-Reyna

09/24/2010
So the world’s a stage and we are all players with our exits and entrances, with specific role assignments. While not all of us will be president, or jueteng lord, and there is only one Charice Pempengco, there’s a growing number of us now dreaming of having something close to the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA)’s voluntary film rating system established here.

Our Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) does television, and in the past, under a different name, handled advertising as well. The MPAA is purely a rating system for films shown in the US and its territories, covering “thematic and content suitability” for particular age-group audiences. And it is purely voluntary.

I can hear my detractors snicker this is what I want, a voluntary system of film classification so that those who don’t want to submit can get away with it. The ignoramuses must be told that in the US, all signatory members of the MPAA submit to the ratings system, with very few daring to buck it. Unrated films are not allowed to advertise in theaters, television and print media, so producers would rather be rated than risk revenue potential.

Even under a similar voluntary film ratings system, there’s no way local producers can get away with what is truly pornographic, not with the Revised Penal Code’s Article 201 on immoral doctrines, obscene publications and exhibitions and indecent shows. Of course the pro-censors will insist by the time the law is imposed, some people will have been exposed to “pumping” scenes and by then it will be too late to save their souls. I will not bother to contend with this; the problem with pro-censors is they refuse to allow even married adults to watch “X” films, as if married adults in the privacy of their bedroom just sit and stare at each other..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100924com4.html