Suppressing Erap's story

DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
8/23/2006



President Joseph E. Estrada has been under incarceration for five years now, but for all intents and purpose all charges lodged against him by GMA have been invalidated. Yet, throughout this time and up to last Friday blatant acts of keeping his right to public ventilation of his voice has not only been curtailed but increasing in severity to the point now of blatant suppression. Last week, a documentary histo-biography of President Estrada’s saga as the Man for the Masses was ridiculously rated-X by the MTRCB in its unashamed effort to suppression the truth that the public has a right to know.

The video documentary, or what is technically classified by Philippine jurisprudence as “newsreel” or “a short motion picture film portraying or dealing with current events”, and President Estrada and the issues relating to him are as current as today newspaper and the latest news report on TV. It is entitled “Ang Mabuhay Para sa Masa”, To Live for the Masses, and traces the history of Estrada from his movie career to his Mayorship of San Juan, the pioneering social programs he initiated such as the first squatter relocation project in the country, the free burial program and his establishment of the “police fund” for education, housing, uniform and other needs of San Juan policemen.

The documentary continues into a less an hour portrayal of his struggles through the crucial political periods of the country such as being arrested by Marcos’ military for opposing the imposition of Martial Rule to his forcible removal as Mayor by Cory Aquino for refusing a DILG order to give way to an unelected OIC for San Juan. It tells of his rise to the Senate and then the Vice-Presidency where he glistened as chief anti-crime buster by subduing the kidnap-for-ransom wave, and finally his rise to the Presidency and the treacherous power grab that abruptly interrupted his mandate.

The Constitution guarantees the freedom of expression, the right of the people to information, particularly those that ensure the enabling of every citizen to bring the government and any person in authority to the bar of public opinion. The MTRCB is a rating and classification board tasked to review movies and TV fare for obscenity, blasphemous material, profanity, derogation or vulgarity. The “newsreel” genre or documentary is beyond these as it is depiction or portrayal of actuality and this genre is one of only two exempted from review of any agency, the other being government produced materials.

The MTRCB rated the VCD “Ang Mabuhay Para sa Mara” with a big X, which was called to the offices of the production outfit Public Asia. The caller informed the secretary that the reason for the X-rating is that the video is “anti-Gloria”. So they found nothing lewd, vulgar, exceptionally violent or anything that would scandalize public morals or decent taste except that it’s “anti-Gloria”, and could it be that the MTRCB sees it as “anti-Gloria” because it brings her, her power and her government to the bar of public opinion? This is blatantly unconstitutional, shameful, unethical, arbitrary and capricious to say the least.

It is a clear attempt at suppression of the showing of a truly important video documentary depicting the evolution of events leading to the current crisis and turmoil: President Estrada as a man for the masses, serving the psychic-human and social needs of the vast majority of the Filipino people who are invariably poor and unnoticed by the powerful elite but dotingly catered to by President Estrada all their life and all his life; then this unique relationship of love between leader and people cast asunder by a conspiracy of power and profit mongers to exploit the government and the people for selfish ends.

The video documentary needn’t have to be submitted to the MTRCB even for any procedural consideration, it was absolutely unnecessary. That body is not empowered nor is it incompetent to rule on such material even for TV, although the impulse of private production outfits to go through it ritually is understandable. The MTRCB’s inept handling of the matter raises our hackles and should similarly enrage every Filipino who loves his freedom and his right to information, thus we write this piece to tell the producers to “go ahead and air it” for all Filipinos to watch and judge the truth of the matter for themselves.

All these is a sad commentary on the MTRCB members who voted to X-rate the documentary of President Estrada’s life and struggles, but most especially for Pablo Bautista, a faded movie director who enjoyed the beneficence of Estrada’s social and entrepreneurial magnanimity in the movie sector. Aside form the probability that Bautista knows or cares nothing about the right of the people to information or to bring the powerful to the bar of justice, he was probably contemplating how his bread is buttered and Malacañang’s power of appointment or directors and other key personnel to the MTRCB as he watched the documentary.

At this writing we are told that the MTRCB is holding another review of the video documentary “Ang Mabuhay Para sa Masa”, which is already superfluous. The producers must be compelled by the public to air the documentary to as wide a national audience as possible so the people may know and decide for themselves.

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