EXPLAINER: Why Is the MMDA in Charge of the Metro Manila Film Festival?
Should they be responsible for it in the first place?
(SPOT.ph) As the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) 2023 draws to a close, the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) thanked the Filipino audiences for its historic P1 billion in gross earnings. This success has never before been achieved in the annual movie event, which is especially surprising to hear in this era of online streaming.
But one question continues to poke in the minds of many: Why is a government agency like the MMDA that we often link to traffic management in charge of a film festival? We shot the question to the MMDA itself but it has yet to offer a response. Meanwhile, here's our best attempt at an answer.
Timeline: Why the MMDA is responsible for the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF)
It's important to start from the very beginning. The MMFF began as a city-level festival in Manila spearheaded by the Metropolitan Manila Commission (MMC) in 1966. It was halted for two years when Martial Law was imposed. By 1975, the festival expanded to include the entire Metro Manila region.
The proceeds from the festival go to various beneficiaries within the film industry, such as the Movie Workers Welfare Foundation (Mowelfund), the Film Academy of the Philippines, the Motion Picture Anti-Film Piracy Council, the Optical Media Board, and the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP).
Over time, the MCC evolved into the Metropolitan Manila Authority (now the MMDA) through a process of reorganization and restructuring as instructed by former Philippine president Corazon Aquino in Presidential Decree No. 392.
But lost in translation is the MMDA's supposed lack of legal authority to organize and operate a film festival when it was officially formed. Quoting a Supreme Court decision, Atty. Jesus Nicardo Falcis noted in a Rappler piece how there is no mention of the MMFF in the MMDA's founding act of R.A. No. 7924.
MMDA’s scope includes “those services which have metro-wide impact,” citing traffic management, solid waste disposal and management, flood control, urban renewal, health and sanitation, and public safety as examples of such services.
“MMC had the legal authority to create the MMFF because it was given legislative powers. When MMC was replaced by the Metro Manila Authority (now MMDA), the legislative powers given to the former were not given to the latter,” Falcis wrote. “So while the MMDA is the successor of the MMC, only MMC had the power to organize and operate the MMFF or other film festivals. The MMDA, if it looked at its own charter, should have stopped operating film festivals or asked Congress to give it such powers.”
Also read: MMFF Extension Proves PH Cinema Is Very Much Alive in the Streaming Era
Not without controversy
The MMDA has been embroiled in several controversies since it took over the MMFF.
In 2009, former Senator Jinggoy Estrada filed Senate Bill No. 2346 calling for the MMFF’s transfer to the Mowelfund and other original beneficiaries of the film festival following a “mismanagement of the proceeds.”
"MMFF should be in the hands of the people who toil in the movie industry and whose hearts are resolved to revive its golden years. And so I make this appeal to Mrs. Arroyo [then Philippine President] that she reverts the management and operation of the Metro Manila Film Festival from the MMDA to the Mowelfund so that it could start to revive itself and be competitive once more,” Estrada wrote in his explanatory note.
In 2015, then Directors’ Guild of the Philippines, Inc. (DGPI) President Mike Sandejas raised another concern, claiming the quality of films in the MMFF has turned “debatable” under MMDA's management.
“The MMFF should be taken away from the MMDA. It should not be run by the MMDA, but by industry people. Mas naiintindihan namin 'yung needs namin,” Sandejas was quoted as saying in GMA News.
Again in 2016, the MMDA was criticized for disqualifying Honor Thy Father from consideration in the MMFF’s Best Picture category. Allegations of conflicts of interest within the film festival fueled the controversy, with MMFF Executive Committee Member Dominic Du linked to Walang Forever and Buy Now Die Later—two movies that won in the festival awards show.
So who should be in charge of the MMFF?
If one is to ask Falcis, its the FDCP. He said the FDCP is explicitly “mandated to formulate and implement policies and programs to upgrade the art and craft of filmmaking and encourage the production of films for commercial purposes” in R.A. No. 9167. There were rumors that the FDCP sought to take over the MMFF by revising its implementing rules and regulations in 2020 but the organization was quick to reject this claim.
While the current arrangements don't exactly make sense at first glance, it looks like the MMDA is getting somewhere with the film festival, especially with the recent record-breaking success. We'll have to wait and see if this is indeed the beginning of the return of the festival's glory days.
Also read: The 21st Century’s Most Notable MMFF Movies