Honor thy film
by Lawrence Lesangke
There were many questions that have aroused the public regarding the disqualification of Honor thy father from the Best Picture’s category during the
Metro Manila Film Festival Awards 2015. Both sides of the coin were heard uring the investigation probe; the contention of the MMFF was that the movie
Honor Thy Father broke the MMFF rule that “An entry film shall not have been, in any way, commercially exhibited here and/or abroad.” If the said rule
was squarely violated, then why is it disqualified only for the Best Picture Category and not all of the categories lined up in the MMFF? this question
was raised by the Producer of Honor thy Father. The rule is ambiguous since it does not specify the proper sanctions to be imposed in case there were
transgressions of the rule. When did they come up with the idea of imposing such slight penalty since it was not incorporated under the rules? Applying the
hornbook principle of inclusion unios est exclusion alterius which is a rule of interpretation that states that including one excludes another, said penalty and
ground is not expressly provided, hence, there is no room for it to be given or imposed. What is the legal basis in disqualifying the movie aside from their
reason that it was because of non-compliance of the MMFF Rules? The most important question is if they (the team of Honor thy Father) were 
afforded with
due process in imposing the disqualification? What were the remedies available to those films disqualified by the MMFF? Can they appeal said
decision? The interpretation of the rule by the MMFF committee under section 4 of the MMFF rules is ambiguous and an ordinary layman could not even
understand the point at issue. In imposing the lightest penalty as they reasoned out during the probe, what were the parameters in imposing said
lightest penalty? Was that decided based from their previous precedents? Motu propio decided by them? How about reconsideration? More importantly
the prescriptive period in informing the ground for disqualification and since when it came to the knowledge of the people behind the subject movie. Some
say there were loopholes regarding the rules, what were these loopholes? Do these loopholes already exist prior to the screening of Honor thy Father? And
finally, was the decision arbitrary? This is not to make a side between the contending parties but this were only observations that need immediate attention.
