MMDA sued anew over film fest funds

MANILA, Philippines—The Film Academy of the Philippines (FAP) has filed a second petition against the executive committee of the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF), this time for not turning over P11 million in amusement tax collections to beneficiaries from 2010 to 2012.

According to the new petition filed in a Quezon City court, the amount is apart from the over P80 million the committee failed to remit from 2002 to 2008, based on a Commission on Audit report.

The FAP recently submitted the five-page supplemental pleading to Judge Santiago Arenas of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 217 through its lawyer Antonio Inton Jr.

It claimed in its petition that the MMFF committee failed to release P11.2 million to beneficiaries from 2010 to 2012.

According to FAP, only P11.2 million of the P15.73-million amusement tax collected during the 2010 film fest was released. In 2011, P11 million out of P12.27 million was remitted followed by P11 million out of P16.41 million in 2012.

The intended beneficiaries, aside from FAP, included the Movie Workers Welfare Foundation (Mowelfund) Inc., Motion Picture Anti-Film Piracy Council, Film Development Council of the Philippines and Optical Media Board.

In response to the second petition, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chair Francis Tolentino said that MMFF lawyers have yet to get a copy of the document filed in court.

He later clarified in a text message that it was the treasurers of the different local government units who collected the amusement taxes, not the MMFF.

In filing the new petition, Inton said that Tolentino must also take responsibility for the shortcomings committed not only during his tenure but also during his predecessors’.

This was after the MMDA chair, in response to the first case filed against him by FAP, said that he had nothing to do with the MMFF’s alleged failure to remit over P80 million from 2002 to 2008 because he was not yet the head of the agency during the period mentioned.

At that time, the MMDA chair was Bayani Fernando.

The MMFF executive committee, through lawyer Mary Claire Hernandez, later asked the court to dismiss the suit, saying civil cases involving injury to rights have a prescriptive period of just four years.

As MMDA chief, Tolentino is also head of the MMFF executive committee as his agency is the lead organizer of the annual film festival.

The MMFF was launched in 1975 initially to raise money for low-income workers in the movie industry, mostly members of Mowelfund.—Julie M. Aurelio with Jaymee T. Gamil