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House panel to probe MMFF controversies next month


The 2015 Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) will come under Congress’ scrutiny upon the resumption of sessions next year after a lawmaker on Monday vowed to investigate the alleged irregularities that took place in the annual film competition.

Quezon City Rep. Winston Castelo, who chairs the House committee on Metro Manila development, said his panel will immediately schedule hearings in January 2016 on the MMFF.

In particular, the lawmaker wants the investigation to focus on the following issues:

-- "Honor Thy Father’s" disqualification from the selection of the film fest’s Best Picture selection, and
-- Reports on the alleged modus involving the swapping of tickets for the movies “My Bebe Love” and “Beauty and the Bestie”

Castelo said he will invite MMFF officials, as well as producers of the concerned movies, to the investigation to explain their sides on the issuesthat have been widely discussed on social media since last week.

“The intention [of the investigation] is to strengthen the industry, make it more viable, and evolve it to become responsive for education and entertainment,” he said.

Earlier in the day, Laguna Rep. Dan Fernandez asked Castelo’s committee through a House resolution to investigate the MMFF executive committee’s decision to take “Honor Thy Father” out of contention from the Best Picture race because of its producers’ alleged failure to inform the body of its participation in another film festival.

The film’s producer, Ronald Stephen Monteverde, however, said that he had duly informed the MMFF executive committee that it will be screened in the Cinema One Originals Festival 2015 a month and half before the Christmastime film fest kicked off on Dec. 25.

Monteverde said he only received the MMFF executive committee’s letter informing him of the disqualification of “Honor Thy Father” from the Best Picture selection less than 24 hours before the awards night was held Sunday.

Some netizens, meanwhile, have claimed that certain cinemas have been issuing tickets for “Beauty and the Bestie” for screenings of “My Bebe Love” starring the phenomenal love team of Alden Richards and Maine "Yaya Dub" Mendoza.

On Twitter, “My Bebe Love” director Jose Javier Reyes confirmed incidents of ticket swapping during the film's premiere last Friday, and advised the movie’s fans to double check the information printed on their tickets so that the supposed irregularity will be exposed and stopped.

Castelo said he decided to include the supposed ticket swapping modus in the agenda of his committee’s hearing because of the attention it has garnered online and from the media.

"This is a lingering issue that has not been appropriately addressed and clarified," he said. —KBK, GMA News

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