I can only shake my head at what is happening to Joker Arroyo. He has transformed from this to that in blink of an eye.

Typical of his current state of mind, Arroyo called Attorneys Argee Guevarra and JV Bautista “cry babies” when they filed illegal detention charges against several PNP officers. Not only is Arroyo’s comment uncalled for, it is rather sad, showing Arroyo is really losing it, as if showing us he’s going senile. It is as if he is telling us that we should no longer seek justice when our rights are trampled upon. It is as if he’s telling us to just let things be. Like let Gloria Arroyo be. Heh.

Now, I think it is safe to say that I am justified in not voting for someone whose convictions are transferable.

—

For several instances, I have claimed that Gloria Arroyo does not need to declare martial law, as we are already living in a virtual one.

One proof is the use of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB), that vintage Marcos antique, as censorship tool. For this year, the MTRCB has rated several anti-Gloria propaganda pictures as X – not suitable for viewing, for various reasons. The most common one was used in rating two documentaries and a compilation of public service ads with X. The reason: the movies tend to “incite rebellion and sedition.” I remember a documentary about Joseph Estrada earning the same rating for the same reason. The compilations “undermine faith and confidence [in] the government and duly constituted authorities.” Another reason is that they are “too libelous and too one-sided.”

I never thought that MTRCB is a quasi-judicial body. Hell, it is not. It has no right to usurp powers that the Constitution grants to the courts of law. It has no right to say that a movie incites to sedition or rebellion. It has no right to determine if a movie is libelous. Heck, it has no right to say that a movie is one-sided. Propaganda is one-sided, and documentaries can be propaganda. The MTRCB is going out of bounds when it gave X ratings to movies that MTRCB board members see as anti-Arroyo.

Heck, I will not be surprised if it gives a GP-rating to any movie praising Arroyo even if the movie contained explicit pornographic scenes.

Remember: censorship was one of the tools Ferdinand Marcos used to silence his critics and impose his will on the Filipino people. He had to declare martial law in order to do that. This regime – well, people don’t care anyway, so there’s no need to declare martial law.

I suggest that these people post their movies on YouTube and start a viral campaign. Let’s see if there’s anything the censors can do.

PS: Here’s what a former Supreme Court justice says about the MTRCB’s X ratings.