ONLY three out of 61 areas have benefited from the Matalinong Panonood or Intelligent Viewing program of the Movies and Television Review and Classification Board in 2016 with a dismal rating of 4.92 percent, according to the Commission on Audit.
The agency’s performance audit on the MTRCB, released on April 18, showed Pangasinan, Bukidnon, Abra, Cotabato, Marinduque, Ilocos Norte, Sarangani, Guimaras, Sulu, Basilan, Siquijor, Camiguin and Sorsogon were among the provinces included in the draft plan for 61 priority areas.
“However, out of the 61 areas, only three, Pangasinan, Bukidnon and Ilocos Norte, representing 4.92 percent were covered in accordance to the draft plan, CoA’s report said.
“The Matalinong Panonood program was not held in areas included in the draft plan due to reasons such as time conflict with the resource person, no communication with the contact persons and unpleasant weather.”
The censors board went doubling back repeatedly in several areas that were not even in the draft plan, such as Aklan twice and Ateneo de Manila University eight times.
Despite a very low coverage, the MTRCB still spent P3.27 million out of its P5.68-million budget appropriation in 2016.
The program has three principal objectives: To empower parents and responsible adults, determine the media and entertainment that their children should have access to, and help viewers have a clearer understanding and appreciation of the ratings and classification system for film and television.
The draft plan called for the MTRCB to coordinate with a contact person in the targeted location before the conduct of a regional forum in select areas.
But the implementation departed from the plan at the start of the year.
While the MTRCB claimed an accomplishment of 158 activities for the program, only three of the targeted areas were reached.
“The places selected by the agency were not those which needed the program most. Hence, [the] information campaign could not have been effectively communicated to concerned areas,” the commission said.
Based on CoA’s recommendations, the MTRCB agreed that a review of the planning strategy for the program was necessary to ensure coverage of the targeted areas to benefit a wider section of the population.