Bacolod City – An ordinance establishing the Bacolod Film Festival, creating the Bacolod Film Festival Council, was approved recently by the Bacolod Sangguniang Panlungsod on third and final reading.
The ordinance, authored by Councilor Em Ang and co-authored by Councilors Celia Flor and Cindy Rojas, will be known as the Bacolod Film Festival Ordinance.
Bacolod City and nearby cities in Negros Occidental have been producing films that made their mark in Philippine Cinema where several of the same even made it through the Metro Manila Film Festival, it said.
Bacolod City city aims to further develop the film production scene in Bacolod City by creating a venue where Bacolod/Negros produced films are shown in major cinemas in the city, it added.
The ordinance provides for the creation of the Bacolod Film Festival Council, to be chaired by the city mayor, with the SP Committee on History, Culture and Arts chair as vice chairperson, and members composed of the chair of the SP Committee on Tourism, City Tourism Officer, City Legal Officer, City Budget Officer, Local Economic Development and Investment Promotion Officer, DepEd Superintendent, and representatives from SM Malls Cinema, and three from the local film industry.
It also provides for the creation of the Bacolod Film Festival Trust Fund from the General Fund to be called the Bacolod Film Festival Fund. The purpose of the fund is for the development and promotion of the Bacolod Film Festival.
All proceeds of the film festival will be subject to 100 percent tax exemption as provided in Section 192 of the Local Government Code of 1991 or the Authority to Grant Tax Exemption Privileges, the ordinance said.
The funding for the implementation of the ordinance will be in the amount of P6 million to be taken from the General Fund or any available funds of the city, it added. (Chrysee Semillano via The Visayan Daily Star (TVDS), photo courtesy of TVDS)
