What's Next? Force Filipinos To Attend The Metro Manila Film Festival?!

It's November and December is SO NEAR, RIGHT? Well, I hope people will remain vigilant since disasters DO HAPPEN during the Christmas season. You can Google for it and find out some of the worst times happen DURING CHRISTMAS SEASON. With Christmas, another thing that Filipinos may associate with is the METRO MANILA FILM FESTIVAL (MMFF). This reminds me that I actually wrote an article called the NAKED TRUTH about the MMFF. The MMFF is a celebration of MEDIOCRITY. 

There was a proposal back during the Noynoy Administration to ban Filipinos from bringing home imported media. Thankfully, the late Noynoy Aquino didn't sign such a stupid law! Noynoy was also partly responsible for the ABiaS-CBN franchise issue. ABiaS-CBN could've had its franchise before the Duterte Administration but didn't. The whole issue also made me think if lawmakers such as Rep. Carlos "Heneral Lunatic" Zarate of Bayad Muna, Antonio Tinio of the Alliance of Complaining Teachers, and Rep. Sarah Jane I. Elgago of Kayabangan Partylist, would actually pass a law to force Filipinos to support the lousy local media.

The MMFF had an online festival due to the pandemic. However, with COVID-19 starting to decline, we've had limited gatherings. We had Senator Unggoy Estrada who ended up proposing (at first) to ban K-Dramas then monkeyed around his argument. This is really dangerous because a new bill could end up getting passed. Sure, Noynoy didn't sign the silly proposal. Neither did former president Rodrigo R. Duterte. Hopefully, neither would President Bobong Marcos. Still, I can't imagine if a law were submitted that Filipinos support the MMFF.

Maybe, we can call this the MMFF Act of 2022. I could imagine that will give the following policies in regards to the MMFF:

• Filipinos must watch at least one film from the MMFF or suffer a penalty of PHP 10,000.00 or higher. 
• Anybody who badmouths any film from the MMFF can be charged with cyber libel. A heavy fine of PHP 100,000.00 or even higher, imprisonment for a minimum of six months (or even higher depending on how bad the review is), or even both depending on the severity of the review.
• Additional penalties will be placed if ever a film is compared to any foreign film.
• Cinemas must only air nothing more than locally made films throughout December. Any cinema that shows an imported film will suffer a penalty by giving up all ticket sales for that certain movie as a penalty.

If ever this law is submitted - it would prove one thing. The Philippines is a country of losers. What Filipino artists need is NOT MORE PROTECTION. Instead, it's all about more innovation. Just think that the movie Madrasta starring Sharon Cuneta-Pangilinan made it big in film festivals. I still think it's one of the best films of the past. It was shown on Cinemax with English subtitles before. The MMFF has been celebrating mediocrity for several years now. It's no surprise that Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno had a huge crowd that any MMFF entry could dream of. If they want to have that kind of entry - why not take the challenge instead of asking for more protection?