Filmmakers and activists screened two films banned by the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB), "A Day in the Life of Gloria" and "Mendiola", in protest of what they called "repression" by the Arroyo administration.

The "X" rating given by the MTRCB to the two films resulted in their exclusion from a short film festival called "Kontra-Agos" .

The films were shown during a press conference on Friday by filmmakers and activists to express alarm over what they perceive to be an attempt to suppress media coverage of the failed rebellion in Makati led by former Navy officer turned Senator Antonio Trillanes and Army Brigadier General Danny Lim.

Short filmmaker King Catoy said, "Nananawagan kami sa mga kapwa natin artists, i-defy natin ang admnistrasyong ito, this is martial law (We call on our fellow artists to defy this administration. This is martial law)."

During the press conference, National Artist for Literature Bienvenido Lumbera joined other artists and activists in having their hands tied, recalling images of ABS-CBN reporters and crew who were handcuffed and detained by police in the aftermath of the Makati incident.

Lumbera said recent events, including the so-called "censorship" of an artist's collective in Angolo, Rizal, bear out a clear and present danger to artists and to freedom of expression.

"Mayroon litaw na panganib sa atin. Karapatan natin magkaroon ng layang ipakita ang katotohanan (There is an obvious threat against us. It is our right to have the freedom to tell the truth)," said Lumbera.

MTRCB reviewer Mark Castrodes however dismissed the artists' accusations as baseless conspiracy theories. According to Castrodes, the films were given an X-rating because they put the government in a bad light.

One of the films, "A Day in the Life of Gloria", is in animated format and shows a cartoon caricature of President Arroyo saying "I am sorry" after which her nose begins to grow. It is a scene that recalls the fairy tale character Pinocchio, whose nose elongates whenever he tells a lie.

Castrodes said that contrary to the artists' wild claims, there is no "institutionalized political repression" and that the film reviewers simply did their job.

"We are not in cahoots with anyone else here, for us, it was simply a day's work", he said, adding that the filmmakers could have appealed the rating and asked for a second review but they chose to no longer do so.

hxxp://www.abs-cbnnews.com/ storyPage.aspx?storyId= 100968

BY EMILY VITAL
Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 43, December 2-8, 2007

“The MTRCB will never allow the propagation of films which carries dissenting views to the current administration,” said an independent filmmaker whose work is scheduled to be shown at Indie Sine in Robinson’s Galeria December 5-11 but was rated “X” by the board.

The Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) was criticized anew for censoring two short films created by independent film makers.

Southern Tagalog Exposure’s (ST Exposure) A Day in the Life of Gloria Arrovo and Sine Patriyotiko’s Mendiola have been rated “X” or disapproved from public exhibition by the MTRCB. Said films are part of an eight-film compilation scheduled to be shown at the Kontra Agos Resistance Film Festival on December 5-11, Indie Sine, Robinson’s Galleria.

In an interview, RJ Mabilin, director of A Day in the Life of Gloria Arrovo, said that the MTRCB justified the rating by saying that the films “undermine the faith of the people in government.”

An animation, which got an honorable mention award from this year’s Gawad Cultural Center of the Philippines, A Day in the Life of Gloria ArroVo is a political satire.

Mendiola, on the other hand, is a short documentary critical of the Arroyo government’s calibrated preemptive response (CPR).

Another short film, Holy Bingo, was initially rated “X” but later got a PG-13 classification. The film,
Mabilin said, is critical of the Catholic Church.

Mabilin said, “It goes to show that there exists institutionalized repression. The MTRCB has the final say whether a film should be viewed or not. It will never allow the propagation of films which carries dissenting views to the current administration.”

In September, the MTRCB also rated “X” the compilation of films titled Rights which deals with the human rights situation in the country.

In an email that reached Bulatlat, award-winning director Carlitos Siguion Reyna said, “This is the
latest instance of broad-sided political censorship, so soon after the “X”-ing of similar political short films in the “Rights”… also, so soon after the content alteration done by the National Press Club of the Neo-Angono Arts Collective’s press freedom mural.”

ST Exposure’s Mabilin said that they will continue to resist all forms of censorship. He said they will continue utilizing alternative venues to propagate their films. In fact, A Day in the Life of Gloria Arrovo can be viewed via the Youtube since 2005 (http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=5_x6m_LDryE& feature=related)

Siguion Reyna said that this case is “merely the latest illustration of this government’s view on free expression, truth, and transparency.” Bulatlat

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines is saddened and appalled by
the defacement of the press freedom mural commissioned from the Neo-Angono Artists Collective by the National Press Club.

Absolutely nothing can justify the indignity done to a work of art that, ironically, seeks to honor the Philippine media's struggle for press freedom, a struggle, we would like to stress, that is far from over.

The alterations on the mural were not only an aesthetic outrage, they constituted censorship, an act that should have been anathema to any media organization worth its salt, and made worse by the fact that the message that was censored was one against censorship itself.

The explanations of the Club's officers have only served to bolster suspicions that the defacing of the press freedom mural was meant to please the guest of honor at its unveiling, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

We can see how unveiling the mural would have been a rebuke to a president under whose watch the most number of journalists have been murdered – 53 at last count.

However, to the National Press Club and other colleagues in media, these we have to ask:

When you say the NPC must be "apolitical", isn't this denying the historical fact that the freedom to write the truth was won through political struggles that included media and journalists? That during times of intense political crisis, journalists have taken up the cudgel and fought for the freedom to report the truth?

When you erased the statement of the International Federation of Journalists on
the dangers the anti-terrorism law posed to press freedom, the alibata K – a
fighting symbol – from the arm of a revolutionary leader, or the NUJP from the
banners of protesting media organizations; or when you changed the headline on the abduction of Joe Burgos' son and the faces of Randy David and Juan Mercado, was the outcome a more accurate picture of press freedom in the country?

Sadly, this we have to say:

Ordering the alterations is akin to rewriting a critical yet accurate report to avoid incurring the ire of the powers-that- be or appease a patron. And we, in the media community, know by what word such an act is known by. It is definitely
not truth or ethics.

"A writer is an editor of memory. In writing we make the loves we should have made, wage wars we should have waged. It doesn't always make up for the real
thing, but it does have its rewards."