In a rare gesture from the highest office of the land, this year’s Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) got a big endorsement. No less than President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) invited Filipino moviegoers to watch and patronize the 10 entries competing for the awards at the 50th MMFF. The Chief Executive took this initiative as he greeted MMFF on its 50th year of holding its annual festival to mark every Christmas celebration in the country’s capital region.
In a video message, PBBM asked moviegoers to bring with them their families and friends when they go to theaters to watch MMFF entries. “This Christmas, the stories of our race will again take the spotlight. This is because of the special celebration of the 50th year of the Metro Manila Film Festival, which has become part of our life and culture as Filipinos,” the Chief Executive cited.
The President’s personally promoting MMFF movies came as his wife, First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, embraced Philippine movies as part of her patronage of Filipino film arts. “Let us support the stories of the Filipinos,”PBBM urged. For the next two weeks, only MMFF movies will be shown in all Metro Manila theaters.
This brings to mind the proposal raised during our Kapihan sa Manila Bay last Dec.18 when flamboyant lawyer cum movie producer Ferdinand Topacio echoed the wish that the MMFF movie entries could be shown longer than two weeks to help the moribund Philippine movie industry.
It is only once a year, during the MMFF, that all Metro Manila movie houses observe this two-week “moratorium” of not exhibiting or showing Hollywood and other foreign-made films. Topacio believes producing quality Philippine movies will break barriers to the international market after India and South Korea penetrated Hollywood. It was after their respective governments “undertook aggressive measures” in promoting and protecting their local arts and talents in the film industry.
Thus, Indian movies earned the monicker “Bollywood” while South Korean films are now popularly called “Halyuwood.”
From “Korea-novela” to “K-pop,” Topacio learned that the South Korean government supported their movie industry by imposing no foreign film showing during a mandated “moratorium” of 180 days each year. This kind of state support, he noted, has reversed the trend in South Korea. Foreign film producers avoid showing their movies at the same time with now more popular “Halyuwood” films because they will lose out in the box office, he explained.
Since we are into movies, I could not help but liken a new government body created last year but up to now has not taken off on its mandated job to promote the Philippines as an investment destination. Clue: it was named after PBBM’s namesake late father’s favorite film, “Maharlika” the movie. It was filmed in 1969 and starred a beautiful American actress named Dovie Beams. “Maharlika was supposed to be based on the alleged heroic World War Two adventures of the late Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. who fought against the Japanese occupation in our country.
But the popular Hollywood film in my mind is the movie “Failure to Launch.” This movie is a 2006 romantic comedy about a 35-year-old bachelor who fell in love with a woman through the intervention of his parents, who hired her so that they can move him out of their house.
With its performance, or lack thereof, the Maharlika Investment Fund, or MIF for short, aptly fits this movie title.
The MIF was established under Republic Act (RA) 11954 that PBBM signed on July 18, 2023. The Maharlika Investment Corp. (MIC) was created for this purpose and was, among other things, empowered to invest in foreign currencies, fixed-income instruments, domestic and foreign corporate bonds, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, real estate and high-impact infrastructure projects.
The state-run firm is governed by a nine-member Board of Directors made up of the Department of Finance (DOF) secretary as chairperson; the MIC president and chief executive officer (CEO); the Land Bank of the Philippines president and CEO; the Development Bank of the Philippines president and CEO; two regular directors and three independent directors from the private sector.
Its initial capitalization is sourced from the national government and the country’s two largest state-run banks, namely the Land Bank of the Philippines and the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP). The Landbank transferred P50 billion and the DBP P25 billion to the MIF.
As provided for by RA 11954, the national government will contribute P50 billion from the following sources: Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ total declared dividends; the national government’s share from the income of PAGCOR properties, real and personal identified by the DOF-Privatization and Management Office; and other sources such as royalties and/or special assessments.
More than a year and a half after the country’s very first sovereign wealth fund was created, the MIF has not made a single investment to date. Headed by Rafael Consing as president and CEO of the MIC, the much ballyhooed MIF has not taken off.
PBBM appointed Consing to the MIC in November 2023. For 11 months, Consing first served as executive director at the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Investment and Economic Affairs (OPAIEA). Malacañang described Consing as a topnotch investment banker and multi-awarded chief finance officer in the private business sector before he accepted his first job in the government. Before that, he was the senior vice president and chief finance and compliance officer of the global company of industrialist Ricky Razon’s International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI).
Consing said in an interview on PTV’s pre-SONA Special in July that the MIF Board of Directors was in the process of crafting the by-laws for their respective committees. “We started in January this year… By the fourth quarter, we should be up and running already. Before the end of the year, we will make investments,” Consing vowed.
The year 2024 is ending four days from now – while the movie in my mind still plays.