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MANILA, Philippines – Despite this year’s record-breaking sales in the annual Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF), a long-standing conflict on the handling of funds is casting a shadow over the festival’s success.
Over a week after the end of the MMFF, actor and Film Academy of the Philippines (FAP) director general Leo Martinez filed a petition in court against festival organizers the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) for allegedly holding back P82 million from its beneficiaries from 2002 to 2008, reported the Philippine Star.
According to newspaper, Martinez on Wednesday, January 15, asked the Quezon City Regional Trial Court to issue a temporary restraining order against the MMDA, preventing the direct payment of the tax proceeds to the MMFF organizers. Martinez also asked the court to order MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino to conduct a full accounting of MMFF funds from years not included in the COA report.
Martinez told Rappler he had been raising his concern for several years. In October 2013, Martinez wrote a letter addressed to Tolentino, citing a Commission on Audit (COA) report from 2002 to 2008, which detailed several violations in the handling of funds.
In the letter, the actor explained how MMFF organizers have allegedly been using profit from the festival’s amusement tax to fund other festival activities. This, he said, violated MMC Executive Order 86-09, stating that amusement tax gathered from the festival shall be forwarded to beneficiaries.
Furthermore, he noted that the proceeds received by the beneficiaries have grown smaller despite the growth in MMFF revenue each year.
MMDA responds
Shortly after Martinez went public with his concern in December, Tolentino told Rappler that the actor had been “misinformed” because his computations are based on national earnings. The MMDA Chairman claimed that amusement tax proceeds are gathered only from the 17 municipalities in Metro Manila.
He said that MMFF organizers have spoken with Martinez to clarify the misinformation.
In a statement released January 16, MMFF Execom spokesperson Marichu Maceda said the MMFF Execom has complied with mandated rules regarding profit remittances
“The MMFF Execom is mandated to allocate and remit to the designated beneficiaries the net proceeds of the amusement taxes after deducting all operational and incidental expenses of the MMFF,” she said.
Beneficiaries of the MMFF include the FAP (20%), the Movie Workers Welfare Foundation, Inc. (50%), the Motion Picture Anti-Piracy Council (20%), the Optical Media Board (5%), and the Film Development Council of the Philippines (5%).
Changes in tax structure
Maceda added changes in the amusement tax structure, and the closure of several theaters have reduced the gross revenues from Metro Manila theaters.
Maceda explained that local government units Quezon City, Manila, Caloocan, Malabon, and San Juan reduced their amusement tax from 30% to 15% in 2003. In 2006, Quezon City went down to zero percent, while other LGUs reduced their tax to 10%. In 2011, Marikina followed suit bringing its amusement tax down to zero percent.
Maceda also noted that the Resorts World Cinemas in Pasay are tax-free under the Philippine Economic Zone Authority law.
The spokesperson said Martinez’s claims have no basis and that the MMFF Execom will answer the charges in court.
According to the statement, the recent MMFF earned close to P1 billion in revenues, making it the highest-earning festival in its 39 years of history. – Rappler.com
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