Because you never really hear from the MTRCB unless something goes wrong again, they just recently decided to ban the One News TV program Private Convos With Doc Rica from airing, supposedly due to sexually explicit content. This seems to be a bad idea. Here are just 8 reasons why.

8. Why not start with a stern warning first?

Does this show not perform a public service? Even if we assume they may have gone overboard (which is a matter of debate), should they not have merited a warning instead of an outright banning? After all, this show serves a purpose and is not just for salacious value. We’ve given noontime shows so many chances, so why not a program clearly meant for education?

7. What constitutes “prurient content”?

Sex is a reality – and it’s a reality that an actual expert is willing to discuss in a candid way. What might come across as “prurient” to a board of censors is really nothing more than a matter-of-fact discussion for people who are actually mature enough to have such a conversation.

Is this programming meant for kids? Obviously not. But we have way too many adults who don’t even know how their bodies work, so our work is clearly cut out for us.

6. We need to destigmatize talking about sex

It’s one thing if this were softcore porn meant to excite the senses than to educate. The thing is, this program wants to discuss sensitive topics as clinically as possible while still being rooted in the reality of our situation. That consideration needs to be given leeway — because surely, we can’t just bleep out a conversation when it has something important that needs to be said — and again, this program is clearly not aimed at kids. So why treat the audience as if they were kids? They can handle it.

5. Our teenage pregnancy rates are still high

A drop from 8.6% to 5.4% is indeed a lot, but that still translates to more than one in every 20 teenage women in the Philippines getting pregnant. This is a significantly high percentage, and it points back to the fact that sex education in this country is laughably bad – at best. Removing a program that educates people about sex in a no-nonsense manner is a huge disservice considering that the alternative is learning about sex from sources like PornHub or, worse, Carlos Agassi. We collectively deserve better.

4. This sets a nasty precedent (as if they haven’t already)

There are a lot of topics that are sensitive but need to be discussed. Sexuality is just one of them. Given the sanction Vice and Ion got over the icing incident, it’s also very clear that our review board has issues with depicting anything but straight sexuality onscreen, even if not only are these things existent in real life, but there are also no laws against their existence whatsoever. If they are so quick to pull the trigger on this program, then it only stands to reason they will be very quick to pull the trigger on anything that is offensive by their standards, even if it goes against all common sense and sensibility.

3. This discourages similar approaches to public education

Forget about debating abortion — this is a country that debates even the concept of contraception. When you have a populace that is so far behind the curve on reproductive health knowledge, any and all attempts to bridge that gap need to be given a fair chance because, clearly, the government is far from doing its job at this point to get the general populace there. We have such a long way to go.

2. Can the censors even pitch an appropriate alternative?

So, they removed a program that was rendering a genuine public service from the air. Can the censors even pitch an appropriate alternative by their standards? If they can’t, then all they did was hamper the country’s development on this aspect further and keep us from ever getting there even longer.

1. We really need to re-examine the MTRCB in the first place

The MTRCB is a relic of an ancient time and has never really evolved past its original purpose of being a censoring and classification board. They may deny that first function, but it’s clearly still there. From overstepping their boundaries to imposing morality that does not even reflect what our constitutional understanding of it should be (as we do not have an official state religion), the MTRCB simply imposes a moral paradigm that does not consider the existence of other people, creeds, and even persuasions, as safeguarded by our laws and constitution. And that’s a problem.

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