The Metro Manila Film Festival, which comes to a close on Jan. 5, 2008, has had its usual share of controversy.
Last year, actress Celia Rodriguez accused the festival of placing commercialism above art. This year, the issues have been the excessive number of sequels (sounds just like Hollywood) and the fact that in Jose Javier Reyes' Sakal, Sakali, Saklolo a couple of lines have been deemed ethnically insensitive.
In the film, a sequel to Reyes' successful Kasal, Kasali, Kasalo, a character played by Gloria Diaz scolds the nanny of her four-year-old grandchild by saying, "Why are you bringing up my grandchild as a Bisaya?" Elsewhere, a character says, "You should speak to the child in Tagalog otherwise it's not Filipino." (Bisaya aka Cebuano, is the native language of about 15 million Filipinos.)
Those bits of dialogue have outraged some in the Philippines, a country with a sizable minority of non-Tagalog speakers. See commentaries in the Manila Times and the Cebu Daily News, and a report on Senate Minority Floor Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr.'s protest at Inquirer.net.
Thus far, the 2008 Metro Manila Film Festival's box-office winners are, as per the Philippine Daily Inquirer:
Sakal, Sakali, Saklolo, with P68.3 million (approx. US$1.655 million); Enteng Kabisote 4, P66.6 million (US$1.614 million); Shake, Rattle & Roll 9, P41.6 million (US$1.008 million); Resiklo, P15.6 million (US$378,000); Bahay Kubo, P12.6 million (US$305,000); and Katas ng Saudi, P2.8 million (US$68,000).
As of December 30, the festival's total earnings were P208 million (US$5,042 million).