Waste of taxpayers’ money

As a moviegoer with my husband every weekend, I write to call attention to two infomercials of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB), which is shown before the main feature. They are supposed to educate us about things we need to know when we go see a movie and relax.

The first relates to the anti-camcording law (Republic Act No. 10088). Two police undercover agents, acting on a tip, are shown preparing to apprehend someone about to record or copy (“pirate”) a film on the big screen. And while the crime is being done, the male agent accosts the violator, introducing himself as a cop.

But just as we think that the guy’s goose is cooked, he gets away from the male cop and past the latter’s female sidekick so very easily. “Hot pursuit” ensues for quite an extended period of time until the culprit is finally collared—thanks, not to the agility of his pursuers, but to a steel fence that gets him cornered.

It makes us wonder:  Was that portrayal of undercover cops—so clumsy, dumb and inept—realistic? Why could those agents not have subdued the guy right where he was sitting and camcording without creating a ruckus? They made preparations for that arrest, didn’t they?

Why prolong the moviegoers’ agony with that senseless chase? That infomercial could have been done with in less than half the distance it went, and could have spared us the further annoyance.

The second infomercial relates to a mere advisory on film classification. Why the MTRCB has to go through the useless expense and exercise of showing another long video clip, when a simple announcement done in seconds would have sufficed, beats the heck out of us. It does seem that the MTRCB is so hungry and desperate for public attention in the midst of perception that its existence is a waste of taxpayers’ money.

But if the moviegoing public has really no choice but to endure MTRCB’s many-splendored, silly-matic atrocities, can the MTRCB please come up with less crappy scripts? If we, ourselves, have to rate those video clips, it’s a no-brainer: For Idiots Only!

To MTRCB, stop insulting our intelligence, please.

MARIA MARGARITA AYTONA, [email protected]