MTRCB requires PBB to establish self-regulatory measures

MANILA — The Movie Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) required the management of “Pinoy Big Brother 737” to undergo audience-sensitivity seminars and establish self-regulatory measures.

The board is also requiring the ABS-CBN reality show to collaborate with them closely following complaints of offended viewers.

Among the possible violations are the disturbing scenes, flirtatious talks and actions and the perceived “bromance” (brotherly romance) between two male housemates.

The show draw criticisms from netizens after pictures of 18-year-old Karlo Lorenzo “Kenzo” Gutierrez and 12-year-old Bailey Thomas May showing their alleged “physical intimacy” inside the house went viral.

MTRCB ordered PBB to “institute remedial and self-regulatory measures to ensure the protection, welfare, and development of all the participants.

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It cited Republic Act 7610 and mandated the reality show to “immediately cease and desist from requiring participants to engage in activities and tasks which may be deemed to be hazardous to their life and safety, or prejudicial to their physical, psychological, emotional, moral, spiritual, and social well-being.”

The ABS-CBN earlier issued a statement condemning “irresponsible netizens who maliciously take screenshots from the program’s livestream and weave a narrative that is not only far from truth but also attempts to put the housemates in a bad light.”