Sen. Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada
Opening statement
MTRCB Budget briefing
30 September 2025
Before anything else, allow me to greet the MTRCB family on your 40th founding anniversary.
This morning, we will be dissecting your proposed total agency budget of P221.297 million for Fiscal Year 2026, P165.698 million of which for your Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) and Capital Outlay (CO) will be sourced from your own revenues, and provided for under the Special Provisions.
This is the third year that we are sponsoring your budget, so I am quite familiar with your operations, and we welcome the MTRCB family once more to your Senate.
During the 19th Congress, the Senate approved on 3rd Reading Senate Bill No. 2805 which strengthens and expands the mandate of the MTRCB to cover online streaming platforms in view of the digital transformation of the media landscape. Its counterpart measure in the House of Representatives remained pending at the Committee level. Meanwhile, many industry stakeholders expressed opposition to the measure saying it “impinges on a struggling film industry,” “strangles creativity” and adversely impacts “freedom of expression and artistic integrity”.
It is in this context that we shall look into your budget, together with the direction that the agency is taking with your proposed table of expenditures and programs for next year.
Finally, this representation is happy to share with the MTRCB that I filed Senate Bill No. 878 establishing the Retained Income Fund recognizing your predicament about not being able to fully manage and optimize your revenue collection in financing your operational expenses, and to do away with inefficiency of seeking approval from Congress and the DBM, but still under strict safeguards of transparency and accountability. Please let me know if you are amenable to this proposed legislation.