Tag Archives: FDCP

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When gender allies are enemies: Liza Diño defends Duterte

It is clear now, more than ever, that President Duterte is a misogynist and chauvinist. He likes to say he loves women — just yesterday he joked that his “expertise” is women, then proceeded to objectify the GSIS employees in front of him — but it’s all just to cloak the fact of a deep-seated hatred of women that is revealed when he articulates how we do not deserve to be in positions of power, how we are to be used for entertainment, how he offers us as “reward” for soldiers, how he condones rape in a time of war (will even joke about it), how we  shouldn’t be too critical and if we are, we will pay for it.

Asking for that kiss from the Filipina migrant in South Korea, on a stage, in front of a cheering crowd, was proof positive of Duterte’s views about women: in that situation he had the woman in the palm of his hand, his position as President assured him that kiss. That we are being told now to forget it, because it was just entertainment, it’s “Filipino culture,” just rubs salt on the wound that is the shameless performance of machismo and kabastusan. 

It is clear that women have had enough, even as there are women who will expectedly defend him, because they are indebted to him, keeping them in positions of power, their salaries coming from taxpayers’ money. But while someone like Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Assistant Secretary Marjorie Jalosjos and her words supporting Duterte is expected, I take umbrage at someone like Liza Diño of the Film Development Council of the Philippines’ (FDCP) — a worker of culture as she is, a gender rights advocate too — defending Duterte by turning women’s rights on its head, discrediting the fight of generations of women against the systemic abuse of power that has oppressed us all.

(more…)

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MMFF, transparency, big words

The Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) is all of six months away, and here we are already talking with such passion about what the film industry needs and what the audiences deserve, quality versus commercial, small film producers versus big production companies, new versus old, change change change.

There is very little that we know so far, probably owing to what recently resigned MMFF Execom Member Roland Tolentino has said is a “confidentiality clause” on their work with MMFF.

What we do know is this. Four films have already ensured their spots in the MMFF 2017 roster, three of which hark back to the tried and tested blockbuster films of old. Three members of the MMFF Execom have resigned because the current committee is moving in the direction of “putting too much emphasis on commerce over art” (Statement, July 5). Those who benefited from last year’s “changes” are raising a ruckus. Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) Chair Liza Diño is being questioned for deciding to stay as part of the Execom.   

We are being told that this is a waste of last year’s gains. Yet no one wants to talk about what those gains were exactly.  (more…)

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Liza Diño, FDCP workers, martial law #culturalcrisis

Let me call it now.

With 12 members of the staff terminated in the first week of her leadership, Liza Diño has put the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) under a version of Martial Law.

And because Martial Law is about silencing critics, too, I hear that the search is on for who exactly my sources are. This, instead of Diño actually replying to these allegations — I would gladly be disproved after all. But what I’m looking at are not just 12 employees given pink slips by Diño. I’m also looking at five other staff members who have tendered resignations given how Diño’s running the FDCP .

And lest you think we’re talking about consultants with huge paycheques ala Joel Rocamora’s NAPC, what I’m seeing is a list that includes drivers and cinematheque projectionists. I’m looking at staff of the National Film Archive of the Philippines (NFAP) and the Cinematheque.  (more…)

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Notes on an arts and culture agenda: A situationer

The recent events in our arts and culture institutions have made me think about my relationship with these organizations, given how I stand in favor of its independence, and against all these questionable government appointments.

See, the discipline I grew into in the academe was one that was critical of these institutions, looking always at the ways in which these are created to perpetuate the same forms and aesthetics that are primarily (arguably) based on the padrino system – a “mentorship” system that is about who you know, not what your skills are – and has a tendency toward keeping the opportunities (fame? fortune? haha!) within the very small circle that the cultural establishment sustains.

The amount of time I started to spend writing about arts and culture as an independent cultural worker forced me to study these institutions and keep track of what they were doing, seeing that as reference point for the work happening through private efforts, regardless of access to support. (more…)

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Notes on an arts and culture agenda: Freddie, Liza, Cecile, Nick, Irene

I take back all instances in which I said I believed in the creation of a cultural department.

Because I disagree. I disagree with Freddie Aguilar, self-proclaimed, unconfirmed political appointee, who says that a culture ministry is what we need to address the needs of the cultural sector.

No. Having been a cultural worker all my adult life, studying the laws that govern our cultural institutions, and now specifically in light of the unilateral decision of President Duterte to appoint Liza Diño into an office that she has no business leading, all calls for a cultural department will only mean State control over our cultural institutions and our freedoms.

The moment that happens, there will be no fighting any decision to turn cultural institutions into state-propaganda machines, all controlled by the Office of the President – or whoever else is pulling the strings on these appointments, real and rumored. (more…)