MTRCB wants to regulate Netflix

For our special presentation on our talk show “Straight from the Sky”, we bring you newly-appointed Department of Trade & Industry (DTI) Assistant Secretary Aster Caberte, who until now due to the COVID-19 crisis hasn’t really assumed her new position as we are still under the threat of a global pandemic.

Caberte was DTI-7 regional director for many years. She joined the DTI when my good friend, Joel Mari Yu was regional director 30 years ago. We know for a fact that 2019 was a great year for Region 7 because so many good things were happening to the economy. Unfortunately for the whole world this global pandemic came, so now we have to try to revive our tattered economy.

In the meantime, due to the lockdown we all suffered, at least the DTI implemented a price freeze for basic necessities in Region 7. To restart our economy, DTI is planning to launch the Great Cebu Sale from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, 2020 to restart our tourism, which experienced a record growth last year. These are done to support the micro-entrepreneurs in tourism like what DTI has done in Moalboal so the various businesses there can slowly recover. While our frontliners in the medical field played a key role in fighting COVID-19, now it’s the DTI’s turn to help bring our business entrepreneurs back to pre-COVID-19 levels.

So watch this very interesting interview with Assistant Secretary Aster Caberte on SkyCable’s channel 53 at 8 p.m. with replays on Wednesday and Saturday same time and channel. We also have replays on MyTV’s channel 30 at 9 p.m. Monday and at 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Wednesday and Friday.

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As Cebu City and its environs have been placed under a Modified General Community Quarantine it was time for my family to hold a physical meeting for the first time in many months rather than continue with our Zoom meetings. So off we went to the office and it was indeed high time for me to read our newspapers, many of which I have not read in months under lockdown.

It was then that I read The Philippine STAR Friday edition and immediately noticed a piece of news worthy of making commentaries as our businesses falls under their supervision. I’m referring to the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) that regulates anything and everything be it movies or television shows that is shown or produced within the Philippines.

As what I read in the news report, it seems that the MTRCB wants to regulate the content of Netflix and other online streaming services to ensure their compliance with Philippine laws. I also read that Jonathan Presquito, MTRCB legal affairs division chief, told The Philippine STAR that even in South Korea, Netflix content is reviewed to ensure it is age-appropriate and contains no prohibited material. He added that “Netflix are media-on-demand platform and we have to regulate those platforms, we have to be sure that materials being shown on those platforms are in compliance with the MTRCB law.” Apparently Presquito said this at a virtual public hearing by the Senate committee on trade, commerce, and entrepreneurship.

As early as 2018, Presquito said the MTRCB has been already engaged with its counterparts in different regions as well as with different stakeholders regarding the regulation of motion picture content distributed through Netflix, Amazon Prime, and other video-on-demand platforms. He added, “There is a necessity for us to proceed with the regulation, especially during the lockdown. Most of us, our sanity was maintained with streaming services like Netflix. The regulation will ensure three things, age-appropriate, no prohibited content and the movies or series were released with authority.”

First of all, I’m just wondering why we do not see the chairman of the MTRCB appear before the Senate. Why leave these issues with the legal affairs division? Anyway this matter is difficult to resolve since Netflix and the others could claim they are not physically doing business in the Philippines. Indeed, this is the whole problem with providers like Netflix or HBOGO. I’m a subscriber to both and without them life in our homes would be totally boring.

Sure, I submit that under the laws governing the Securities and Exchange Commission, Netflix or HBOGO are doing business here. But I dare say that Filipino films are lucky that Netflix have included them in their lineup. What if Netflix decides to remove them? Who will be at a loss?