FAP
SEEKS SENATORS’ HELP TO MAINTAIN
OPERATIONS
The
Film Academy of the Philippines may
close shop or reduce its operations
to the minimum at the end of the year.
It has sought the help
of three actor-senators to bail it
out of its financial predicament—brought
about by the substantial slash of
its annual share from the Metro Manila
Film Festival earnings-- as FAP Director
General Leo G. Martinez sent letters
to the legislators who have been pillars
in the local film industry as actors
and producers.
The letter addressed
to Sen. Ramon ‘Bong; Revilla
Jr. is reprinted hereunder (the same
letter was also sent to Sen. Lito
Lapid and Sen. Jinggoy Estrada):
November 13, 2006
Senator RAMON
REVILLA, JR.
Senate of the Philippines
Dear Senator Revilla,
This is to inform you
that the Film Academy of the Philippines,
due to the drastic budgetary cut initiated
by the Office of the President, is
no longer capable of maintaining its
regular operations and is seriously
considering closing the office by
the end of the year.
As you well know, FAP's
regular budgetary source is the share
it gets from the Metro Manila Film
Festival earnings. This year, the
President reduced FAP's share from
30% to a mere 10%. Consequently, we
received only P1.3M from the P7.5M
we used to get, a fund which proved
to be even more difficult to manage
as they were released in trickles.
This was even compounded
by the decision of producers and theater
operators not to remit anymore to
MMFF the P5.00 income from each ticket
price in Metro Manila. This income
which totals about P11M is not add-on
but part of the admission price which
they contend belong to them. The resentment
is that the money when remitted to
MMFF will give them back only a small
share. The bulk of the fund goes instead
to the President's Social Fund, the
FDCP and the OMB which are suddenly
recipients of 50% of the MMFF fund.
The FAP tried very hard
to stretch the P1.3M budget for the
year. Educational programs of the
various guilds were put on hold. The
Luna Awards had to
be postponed to September while looking
for funds to produce it. The guilds'
subsidies and all honoraria were stopped,
FAP officers had their salaries slashed
to half, others waived theirs, and
we even had to sell our one and only
service vehicle to generate money
for the staff's reduced salaries.
Right now, the staff is working without
salaries and we have rental arrears
of three months. The 10% budget is
just too inadequate.
We have vigorously and
repeatedly appealed, lobbied, pleaded
and fielded requests with persons
and government instrumentalities,
including your office and those of
other actor-senators to help us in
our financial predicament. We have
written letters to Malacañang
and the MMDA requesting for budgetary
reconsideration. We have asked help
from people we think can make representations
with the President to hear our plight.
But obviously, the film industry merits
not much importance to government
because no help has been forthcoming.
We do not even get a rational reply
to our questions.
In a few months, the
Luna Awards will
be celebrating its 25th Anniversary.
It saddens us that we will be celebrating
such a momentous event by closing
our operations.
Be this as it may, we
would still like to request if your
office can explain to us the workings
of MMFF. Who really determines the
recipients of the fund? Who decides
the sharing scheme? Does the Office
of the President have arbitrary power
to change the Metro Manila mayors'
choice of beneficiaries? Who audits
the MMFF funds? We have repeatedly
requested MMDA for a financial report
but in the three years we have been
asking, we have not received any.
What would it take for MMDA to bring
back our 30% share?
We hope you can still
help us because we have reached our
limit. We are writing you this letter
as a last-ditch effort to seek whatever
assistance you can still extend to
the Academy.
Thank you.
Very truly yours,
(Signed)
LEO G. MARTINEZ
Director-General
