MANILA, Philippines - All’s well that ends well.
After a second review yesterday, the MTRCB (Movies and Television Review and Classification Board) gave Father Jejemon, the controversial Dolphy movie for the 2010 Metro Manila Filmfest, a “G” rating (for General Patronage).
That was after the two controversial scenes, shown in the trailer, were deleted, one showing the Holy Eucharist accidentally dropping into the cleavage of a woman communicant and the other with the Holy Eucharist caught in the dentures of another woman communicant.
Some sectors, including priests, denounced the scenes as “sacrilegious” and called on the public to boycott the movie.
Zsa Zsa Padilla, who serves as the movie’s producer for the family-owned RVQ Productions, volunteered to cut the scenes even before the MTRCB did a second preview.
“After RVQ agreed to remove the two short, sensitive scenes,” MTRCB chief Grace Poe-Llamanzares told The STAR, “Father Jejemon got a G (General Patronage) rating. We had a Jesuit priest as one of the voting committee board members and we invited Fr. Fernando Suarez, the healing priest, to be the adviser. The five-man committee voted unanimously.”
The STAR gathered that Fr. Suarez found the movie “wholesome and entertaining.”
Dolphy said it could be his last movie. He’s suffering from pneumonia which landed him in the hospital a few weeks ago.
“I meant no harm nor malice with those scenes,” said Dolphy who is, according to Zsa Zsa, “sarado Katoliko.”