Filmfest beneficiaries not getting fair share of MMFF revenue

The president of the Film Academy of the Philippines (FAP) on Wednesday told a congressional panel investigating the alleged anomalies in the Metro Manila Film Festival that the organizers of the annual movie industry event have reduced the share in the box office revenue of its intended beneficiaries.

Actor-director Leo Martinez claimed that despite a steady increase in revenues, remittances to the festival's beneficiaries dropped from an average of 10 to 19 percent to just 1 to 2 percent of gross receipts.

“From 1986 to 2002, the share of the beneficiaries versus the gross receipts range from 10 to 19 percent. In the last five years, the gross receipts have doubled but only one to two percent went to the beneficiaries,” he said. 

“The MMFF-P should explain the phenomenon of the festival’s gross income getting bigger every year yet the share of the beneficiaries keeps getting smaller,” he said.

A VERA Files report in December 2015 quoted government auditors and MMFF critics as saying that proceeds from the festival are not reaching their intended beneficiaries on time, and that an accounting of the festival proceeds is long overdue.

"The main issue is the amusement tax collected from Metro Manila theater owners who screen only MMFF entries for 10 days from Dec. 25 until Jan. 5. For that period, the local government units waive amusement taxes in favor of movie industry beneficiaries.

"But the MMFF has still to remit some P108 million in amusement tax revenues to its intended beneficiaries. Of that amount, P82,787,440 is from proceeds from the 2002 to 2008 festivals, according to a special audit of the Commission on Audit in 2009. Also still unremitted is some P26 million for the years 2009 to 2013," the report said.

Martinez said FAP should receive 20 percent of MMFF’s collected amusement tax revenues.

FAP is one of the five beneficiaries of the MMFF. The other beneficiaries are: Mowelfund, 50 percent; Motion Picture Anti-Piracy Council, 20 percent; Film Development Council of the Philippines, 5 percent; and the Optical Media Board, 5 percent. 

“Iyong pong 2014, ang total po ng [share ng] beneficiaries ay P18 million. Twenty percent po sa amin [FAP], so P3.6 million,” Martinez said.

MMFF should receive 10 percent of the amusement tax in Metro Manila. 

Dominc Du, MMFF executive committee member and head of the festival’s Playdate, Sales and Monitoring Committee (PSMC), said that the MMFF films earned a total P1 billion in 2015. But the beneficiaries are only entitled to P23-24 million of the collected amusement tax, he said. 

In the previous congressional hearing on Monday, Laguna First District Rep. Dan Fernandez who is one of the cast members of the film 'Honor Thy Father' and the one who sought a probe on the disqualification of Erik Matti’s “Honor Thy Father” from the MMFF’s Best Picture category linked Du to Quantum Films, the producer of “#WalangForever” and “Buy Now, Die Later”. #WalangForever eventually won the Best Picture award and Honor Thy Father got the Second Best Picture award.

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/550793/lifestyle/artandculture/solons-see-bias-injustice-in-mmff-dq-of-honor-thy-father

In Wednesday’s hearing, Martinez said that Du is the chairman of one of the beneficiaries of the MMFF, the Motion Picture Anti-Piracy Council. 

To their defense, MMFF representatives that the expenses for the festival also increased in the past few years.

MMDA Finance Head Edenison Fainsan said some of the expenses include awards’ night, media appreciation dinner launching the festival’s next edition, and a P1,500 per meeting honoriarium for each member of the MMFF. MMFF also donated to the victims of Typhoon Ondoy in 2009.

Another MMFF executive committee member, actress Boots Anson-Rodrigo that there were also other expenses such as those for MMFF New Wave, the independent film category of the festival.

Benefits in tranches

Martinez also lamented how the MMFF give the beneficiaries’ get their share – in tranches.

“The amusement tax should be paid to the beneficiaries in full a month after the festival and not in four to seven tranches in a span of a year as being practiced,” he said citing a report by Commission on Audit on the MMFF’s 2002-2008 finances in 2009. 

Martinez said that FAP is currently being paid in seven tranches.

“It cannot be  said that the tax collection is being paid all year round kasi po nasa batas rin na proprietors, lessees, or theater operators remit their taxes directly to the execom not later than 20 days after the last day of the festival, hence they are exacted penalties,” he explained.

To this, Rep. Lito Atienza addressed Du and the MMFF representatives, “Hulugan po ba ang pagbabayad ng ticket?”

Fainsan and Du replied that some of the theater operators also delay their payments.

Later, Metro Manila Development Authority chairman and the overall chairman of the MMFF Atty. Emerson Carlos agreed with the beneficiaries that their share should not be given in tranches.

"My personal opinion, this should not be given in traches to the beneficiaries," he said. — APG, GMA News