MTRCB puts spotlight on contractualization issues

FOLLOWING Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla, Jr.’s plea to the Office of the President (OP) on Friday to consider the effect of It’s Showtime’s 12-day suspension on its “no work-no pay” workers, the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) released a statement clarifying that these are “two separate and distinct matters.”

In the statement shared to the press via e-mail, the board said that the suspension only underscores “the broader and more pressing matter of contractualization within the entertainment industry.”

The MTRCB on Thursday denied the motion for reconsideration (MR) filed by GMA Network, Inc. and ABS-CBN Corp. on the agency’s earlier decision suspending It’s Showtime for 12 airing days.

“The practice by the Producer, or Management, to not regularize their employees, even when a show has been airing live for six days a week, for over a decade, highlights a much bigger problem than the show’s 12-airing-day suspension,” the board said in its statement.

“We sincerely empathize with the hard-working individuals who will be affected once the suspension takes effect,” it added.

In the meantime, the MTRCB will continue to uphold its mandate in “ensuring the ethical compliance of broadcasting content by any production company or television network pursuant to Presidential Decree No. 1986.”

The inability of the management to provide regular employment should not impinge on this duty, the board said.

Mr. Revilla said on Friday that It’s Showtime will likely appeal the suspension to the OP within 15 days from the receipt of the MR decision, so as not to “punish those working hard day in-day out just to eke out a living.”

The noontime show continues to air while the case is pending. — Brontë H. Lacsamana