The recent Congressional hearing on the scandals that rocked the 2015 Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF), has opened the eyes of lawmakers to the irregularities in the committees that manage the festival.
Though the disqualification of Erik Matti’s film “Honor Thy Father” was the main reason for the investigation in the first place, the congressmen unearthed other problems that the festival faced.
To remedy the situation, the congressmen said that structural changes need to be done, so that the integrity of the MMFF can be protected.
Congressman Dan Fernandez filed a motion to form a technical working group “that deals exactly with the rules and regulations that will govern the MMFF 2016 and thereby, abolishing all the committees that were created under the MMFF 2015”. The said motion was approved by Congressman Winnie Castelo, who heads the House Committee on Metro Manila Development.
READ: Congress approves motion to abolish MMFF 2015 Committees
The basis for the creation of the technical group can be found in R.A. 9167, “An Act Creating The Film Development Council of The Philippines”, according to Fernandez. He admits though, that this is just a short-term solution.
Ed de Leon of Pang-Masa said that abolishing the committees would be hard to do unless the law was amended, considering that an Executive Order of the late President Cory Aquino placed MMFF under the management of Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA).
But according to Rappler, the management of MMFF by a metro-wide agency started way back during the time of Marcos, when MMFF was organized by the Metropolitan Manila Commission (MMC).
The MMC was replaced by the Metropolitan Manila Authority (MMA) during the time of Cory Aquino, via Executive Order No. 392. A couple of years later, MMA was replaced by the MMDA thru Republic Act 7924 in 1994.
The operation of the MMFF was passed from one body to the other.
Now, Congressman Fernandez said that in R.A. 7924, there is no provision which states that the MMFF should be managed by MMDA. Unllike it’s predecessor MMC, the MMDA has no legislative power to operate the MMFF.
So where does this leave the MMFF, which has long been managed mainly by a public corporation headed by mostly political appointees?
If Congressman Fernandez’ points would be taken into consideration, it points to an MMFF that would be more appropriately managed by the Film Development Council of the Philippines.
Since the MMDA is a highly political body, with its Chairman appointed by no less than the President of the Philippines, can we expect Pnoy then to step in and make a decision on the matter? After all, as Congressman Fernandez said, the law is existing in the form of R.A. 9167. It only needs implementation.
That means, a decision from the current administration can transfer the management of MMFF from the MMDA to the Film Development Council, where we think it rightfully belongs. With only a few months to go before the elections, let’s see if President Benigno Aquino can make this move a part of his legacy.
