On Monday, Representative Dan Fernandez of Laguna filed a resolution to investigate the disqualification of Honor Thy Father from the Best Picture race, one day before the awarding ceremony.
With him were Dondon Monteverde, the producer of the movie and his lawyer, Atty. Agnes Maranan.
While Fernandez is among the cast of the movie, he doesn’t believe there is a conflict of interest in his actions. “Nakita ko ang injustice na ginawa sa Honor Thy Father. In congress, we have the oversight power. It is my responsibility as a congressman to hear this problem. It is my duty to investigate this matter.”
Fernandez continued: “Hindi ko po hahayaan na bastusin ang pelikula o ang industriya na aking pinaggalingan. We’re not after the award anymore. We are after the disqualification.”
According to Monteverde, they received an email from the MMFF on Dec 26. “Dec 27 ang awards night. There was no way makaka-apela kami. No one from the MMFF called us.
“Nag-premiere ang HTF in CinemaOne in November. From that time to Dec 25, no one contacted us or called our attention. Di namin alam ang motibo. Humihingi kami ng kay Congressman Dan na malinawan ito.”
On Saturday, Honor Thy Father director Erik Matti announced on social media that the film was disqualified because of their “non-disclosure” of participation in another festival.
Monteverde refuted the accusation with documents proving they did inform the Metro Manila Film Festival executive committee of their participation in the CinemaOne Festival.
The MMFF executive committee said they were only informed of it two days before Honor Thy Father has its premiere, “not giving the MMFF enough time to deliberate on the matter.”
Fernandez on Monday said filing the resolution is an attempt to right the wrong, end the confusion, and set rules so this won’t happen again. “Hindi natin pupuwedeng hayaan yun na taun-taon na lang may ganitong problema. We have to set a parameter, we have to set rules and regulations.
“We are trying to find out the rules governing this disqualification Kasi kung wala naman sa rules niyo yan, why implement it?.” With a report from Pep.ph
