MANILA, Philippines – Metro Manila Development Authority Chairman Emerson Carlos said that disqualifying “Honor Thy Father” from the Best Picture category of the 41st Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) was a “tough” decision.
The MMFF Executive Committee decided to disqualify the Erik Matti film from the Best Picture category after it has been screened in Cinema One Originals as its opening film on November.
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“Walang personalan. Walang pulitika,” reports quoted Carlos as to saying in a recent interview during the MMFF awards night on Sunday. “It was a painful decision for us, but we had to do it to send a message across.”
“We’re just upholding the rule of law so that there will be fair treatment among all the entries,” he added.
He admitted that the release of the decision was placed on the bad light since it came out a day before the awards night.
However, he pointed out that the committee believes “we had to decide because if we didn’t, then a precedent might be created by allowing this film to participate.”
He also pointed out that “we have to abide by the rules. The execom fears that it might come to a point when our film festival becomes a festival of reissues.”
Meanwhile, Carlos said that the committee is also ready for any investigation in relation to the House Resolution filed by Laguna Representative Dan Fernandez before the Congress.
Fernandez wants the Congress to investigate the disqualification of “Honor Thy Father” from the nominees of best picture award of the film festival.
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