The rating, which prevented the documentary's "public exhibition",[4] was controversial, with Ronald Lumbao, spokesman of the People's Movement Against Poverty (PMAP), comparing the MTRCB's decision to a similar case in 1965 involving the alleged banning by Diosdado Macapagal, Arroyo's father, of the pro-Ferdinand Marcos film Iginuhit ng Tadhana (Drawn by Destiny), released prior to the 1965 presidential election which Macapagal subsequently lost.
[6] Senator Franklin Drilon, during deliberations for the board's 2007 budget, claimed that the MTRCB did not have the mandate to censor on the basis of libel, even going so far as alluding that the rating was a return to the era of martial law, when censorship was rampant.
[8] Estrada's lawyers subsequently appealed to Arroyo,[1] who convened a special committee chaired by Cecilia Guidote-Alvarez, chairwoman of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), ultimately referring the case back to the MTRCB on November 9, 2006,[9] and suggesting that the film may be shown only after cutting around two-thirds of its original length.
[2][13] The decision was criticized by Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr., who presided over Estrada's impeachment trial, saying that it violated his freedom of speech.
Immediately after the release of the MTRCB's decision, the producers announced that they intend to show the film in Plaza Miranda owing to its status as a freedom park.