OMB leadership vacuum delaying 'Heneral Luna' entry to Oscars

The leadership vacuum in the Optical Media Board (OMB) is turning out to be a problem for the producers of the critically acclaimed film "Heneral Luna," a report on "24 Oras" said Friday.

According to the report, the resignation of Ronnie Ricketts as OMB head has left the agency with no OIC to approve the reproduction permit needed for "Heneral Luna" to become the country's entry to the Academy Awards' Foreign Language Category.

The absence of a leader also prevented the OMB board from issueing a mission order for the crackdown on pirated copies of the film being sold on the streets.

"We are awaiting instructions from the board," said OMB executive director Cyrus Paul Valenzuela. "Hopefully, it will be resolved as soon as possible para naman makapag-function na rin yung regular functions ng OMB."

"Heneral Luna" executive producer Fernando Ortigas said although piracy was unfortunate, it is unavoidable given the country's economic status.

"In some sense, it is a tragedy to have pirated DVDs for basically any kind of movie that comes out. But reality is that it's also economics. I can see why people would buy it," Ortigas said.

"Heneral Luna" main writer Eduardo Rocha expressed disappointment at the rampant piracy of the film, adding he even heard of a university and government office that showed a pirated copy of the movie.

"What I'm angry about is a teacher in one university showed a pirated DVD to the students," he said. "And then a government office, I will not mention which one, I think you can do your own investigation there, was showing on the waiting room a pirated copy of 'Heneral Luna.' The government is encouraging piracy?" —Rie Takumi/KBK, GMA News