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The movie industry now wants to take-charge of the Metro Manila Film
Festival (MMFF) after noting the continuing decrease in the amount
given by the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) to its
beneficiaries.
“The gross income of the film festival has
been increasing, but the share of beneficiaries has been increasing.
From 1986 to 2000, MMDA gave beneficiaries 9 to 11 percent of the
gross but in 2005, the beneficiaries got only 4 percent and in 2006,
3 percent,” movie director Leo Martinez said during the public
hearing conducted by the Senate committee on Mass Media headed by
Sen. Bong Revilla.
Film Development Council of the Philippines
chairman Rolando Atienza and actor Rez Cortez said that he favors
the Mowelfund to handle the MMFF. Revilla also wants the management
of film festival to be taken away from MMDA, but he wants it
transferred to the Film Development Council instead.
“I prefer the Mowelfund to handle the film
festival because it is the only remaining welfare program in the
industry, which is urgently needed at this time,” Cortez said.
“The film festival was conceived to benefit the movie people
through the Mowelfund.”
Mowelfund Executive Director Boots Anson Roa
said that the Film Festival has been helping the fund by giving it
the proceeds from the entertainment tax, and that Mowelfund is now
considering the increase in the benefits to the movie industry.
“The share of beneficiaries could have been
reduced because of their increased number. Noting that while only
Mowelfund was the only beneficiary of the film festival in 1986, its
share went down with the entry of the Film Academy of the
Philippines, the Anti-Piracy Council, the President’s Social Fund,
the Optical Money Board and the Film Development Council in later
years,” Roa said.
The MMDA sent representatives but turned out to
be unprepared to answer questions and did not have any stand on the
proposed transfer of the MMFF to the movie industry. The MMDA
representatives also knew nothing about the presidential decree
authorizing the then Metro Manila Commission to undertake the annual
film festival.
-- Efren L. Danao
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