On Jan 11, film industry insiders and supporters turned up in droves at the Batasang Pambansa in Quezon City for the congressional meeting about Metro Manila Film Festival and the disqualification of the movie Honor Thy Father from the Best Picture race.
At one point, the Belmonte Hall turned into a full-house standing-room-only venue. Present were Heneral Luna cast members Mon Confiado and Alvin Anson, Honor Thy Father‘s Meryl Soriano, as well as Coconuts Manila columnist and social activist Juana Change.
The four-hour meeting, which wrapped up past 5pm, revealed some terribly surprising things. Below are five that made us fall off our chairs.
1. MMFF Chair and MMDA Chairman Atty. Emerson Carlos only learned of the disqualification issue on Dec 25. While he’s been at the Metro Manila Development Authority for about four years now, Atty. Emerson Carlos was never involved in past Metro Manila Film Festivals. So when it came to pass, Carlos, who was only appointed as MMDA chair in November, was obviously unfamiliar with the annual event. He said he did not have any prior knowledge about the disqualification of Honor Thy Father. He was only informed about it when a certain Atty. Ona texted him on Christmas day about it.
2.MMDA Chairman Carlos stated that the MMFF funds are not subject to government audit. Rep. Anthony del Rosario of Davao del Norte, one of the congressmen probing the MMFF issue, asked Chairman Carlos if the MMFF funds were subject to audit by the government’s Commission on Audit (COA). The Chairman flatly answered, “No” drawing surprise from the attendees.
Atty. Carlos reasoned that the funds are donations and not public funds.
A backgrounder: Among the goals of the MMFF is to raise money for the Movie Workers Welfaire Fund (Mowelfund), a social welfare program to help indigent and unemployed movie workers most of whom are small players in the industry. The MMFF also raises funds for the anti-film piracy Optical Media Board, and the Film Academy of the Philippines (FAP).
During the two-week run of the MMFF, the amusement taxes collected by the local governments are given to the MMFF and its beneficiaries.
Congressman Lito Atienza of the Buhay partylist insisted that the MMFF funds are still subject to COA audit, saying “(A tax) can never be changed in character. It remains to be an amusement taxing. (The beneficiary) does not change the sourcing. Therefore the MMFF is still subject to accounting.”
Rep. Winnie Castelo, who presided over the meeting, cited a 2009 Executive Summary from the COA citing that “the COA took cognizance of the taxpayers’ money.” Rep. Castelo further directed, “Put on record that he (Chairman Carlos) stated a false statement.”
3. MMFF Executive Committee member and MMFF Playdate, Sales and Monitoring Committee (MMFF PSMC) Head Dominic Du is affiliated with a producer of two MMFF 2015 entries. Rep. Dan Fernandez asked MMFF Execom member and MMFF PSMC Head Dominic Du if he is affiliated with any of the producers of the 2015 MMFF films. Du, a longtime booker and distributor of foreign films under his own company called Axinite Digicinema, categorically answered, “no”.
But Rep. Fernandez refuted Du’s statement. He showed a 2014 letter addressed to Film Academy Philippines’ (FAP) head Leo Martinez and signed by Atty. Josabeth “Joji” Alonso. In the letter, Alonso referred to Du as a client. Why is this important? Because Atty. Alonso happens to be the producer of two MMFF 2015 entries: Buy Now, Die Later and Walang Forever.
According to Rep. Fernandez, both movies were even promoted on Axinite Digicinema’s Facebook page. Du did not comment further.
4. The jurors were only informed of Honor Thy Father’s disqualification from the Best Picture category on the third night of judging. Perhaps the most shocking revelation of the congressional probe came from Movie and Television Review and Classification Board member Carmen “Keats” Musngi, one of the awards jurors.
Musngi, a former head of the art department of Ateneo Grade School and four-time MMFF juror, said that on the third night of judging, on Dec 21, the jurors were already talking about the Best Picture. She recalled: “Dominic Du and Marichu ‘Manay Ichu’ Maceda (two members of the MMFF Execom) said, ‘By the way, you cannot judge Honor Thy Father because it is disqualified.’
We asked, ‘For all (categories)?’ They answered, ‘No for best picture.’ She further clarified: ‘Are you telling us or are you asking us?’ To which they said, ‘We’re telling you.’”
Musngi reiterated that “from the voting itself, we can’t anymore put it [HTF] there.”
Musngi’s testimony was corroborated by two other male jurors who were present, one of which was photographer Atty. Paul Resurreccion.
5. MMFF Execom Member Marichu “Manay Ichu” Maceda admitted that there was a lag in the decision to disqualify HTF. No stranger to the filmmaking industry, Marichu Vera Perez Maceda (who produced the Mike de Leon obra Batch ‘81 and is a daughter of famed Sampaguita Films’ producer Dr. Jose Perez) admitted that there was a lapse on the part of the MMFF Execom on the decision to disqualify HTF from the Best Picture race and inform the film’s producers.
Her reasons? She cited two: The turnover from MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino to current Chairman Emerson Carlos and the APEC convention, which pretty much put on hold a lot of things.
Said Maceda: “We could only call the meeting of the special committee on Dec 14. And that’s when we felt the complaints that been piling up through the weeks that several people were informing us, ‘bakit isasali pa yang Honor Thy Father e nilabas na yan sa ibang festivals?”
She said it had always been in the back of their minds but “we did not act on it because we thought compassionate nga, nakapagastos na sila.” On Dec 14, she said they realized violations had been made “and so we acted on it.”
Another congressional meeting is scheduled on Jan 13, with John Lloyd Cruz, lead actor of Honor Thy Father, in attendance.
