Slumdog's Oscar win, a chance for Pinoy films!

Call it providential that Slumdog Millionaire ran away with eight Oscars, notably the Best Picture and Best Director, at the 81st Oscar Awards because we can say that finally Bollywood gets recognized by Hollywood! I watched the replay of the Oscars’ night and it is indeed a pleasant surprise that an Indian film that critics said would have gone straight to the DVD market would instead win a string of Oscars when pitted against the best American movies that were also presented that evening. Perhaps this win would be a watershed in film history… that henceforth films from outside Hollywood would finally become mainstream. This means there is some kind of future for Philippine-made movies. 

What really struck me about this win by Slumdog Millionaire is that it came in the midst of the global financial crisis. We know for a fact that people go to the movies to escape from today’s sad realities. So when the American movie-going public would watch Slumdog Millionaire, which was filmed in the squatter colonies of Mumbai, then perhaps the crisis-weary Americans might just realize that even in times of crisis, they are much better off than the Indians or us Filipinos because the slums of Mumbai and Mactan are very similar to each other.     

If Bollywood can best Hollywood, it also gives an opening to us Cebuanos to get our act together and take the opportunity presented to us with the presence of the International Academy of Film and Television (IAFT) owned by the Bigfoot Company that has established its studios in Mactan and at the South Road Properties (SRP) in Cebu City. We can never predict the future… perhaps someday Cebu-made movies would be able to compete with Bollywood and eventually take a crack at Hollywood! Once we develop our own film industry, then many talented Cebuanos will be going places! Of course today, it is merely a dream, but who knows what would happen tomorrow?

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First, it was the Sinulog Foundation that the Commission on Audit (COA) questioned and targeted, almost causing the cancellation of the country’s and Asia’s biggest festival. But since the Sinulog Festival still went on despite the threat from COA, now it is the Cebu Investment Promotion Center (CIPC) that’s getting the heat from COA. Again we question, why is COA only doing this now when the CIPC has been around for 15 years? We asked the same question on why they questioned the Sinulog, but we didn’t get any reply from COA officials.

If they didn’t know, one of the reasons why Cebu has truly grown and developed can be directly traced to the CIPC whose mission and objective is to promote Cebu as a business destination because no one else would do it for us! If there is anything that those officials in COA ought to understand especially in these difficult times, it is that all the more we need the CIPC to promote Cebu so we could have new foreign investments that would create jobs for our people at a time when so many people have lost their jobs!

But it seems that COA is hell-bent in implementing Circular No. 2007-001 that prohibits the granting of financial aid to some non-government organizations (NGOs) or people’s organizations whose incorporators, organizers, directors or officers are agents of or related by consanguinity or affinity to the fourth civil degree to government officials involved in the approval and release of the financial aid.

Of course, I can understand why COA issued this circular because perhaps it has been abused elsewhere. But here in Cebu, the Parian Drop-in Center or the Task Force Street Children have done a very commendable job in helping street children find a better future because our government has failed to provide for their needs. Hence, these NGOs were created by the local government units (LGUs) to address what the national government has failed to do. Now another national government agency will take it out once more… and deny the poor what is due them.

Perhaps it is time to challenge COA officials whether they have any evidence or proof that government funds released to these NGOs concerned were found to have been spent by the public officials involved. Of course, these COA officials know that these NGOs are being run professionally and efficiently, that is why for all the years they have spent helping Cebu, they were never involved in any scandals or ugly incidents. At this point, let me suggest that when Cebu City gets too many street children in the streets, then the police should round them up and drop them at the COA offices!

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.philstar.com. He also hosts a weekly talkshow, “Straight from the Sky,” every Monday, 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.