Must FAMAS exit…pronto?

FAMAS or the Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences did it again.

Therefore, the allegations of corruption are piling up year after year.

This time, it might not be obviously a case of corruption but the details speak of it in more ways than one.

We are talking here of the incident where veteran actress Eva Darren wasn’t able to go onstage as presenter of an award she was previously assigned.

Two months before the awards night on May 26, 2024, a FAMAS errand boy went personally to Eva’s residence in Las Pinas City to send her the good news of making her a presenter together with Tirso Cruz III.

She was handed in a script to get familiar with the segment and the flow of the program.

Without mincing words, Darren granted the invitation.

On the side, though, she was sold dinner tickets to the FAMAS night for a whopping P5,000.00 each.

In good will and thanksgiving to FAMAS where she clinched the Best Supporting Actress award from the group in 1969 for the film “Ang Pulubi (The Beggar)” she starred in with Charito Solis from Nepomuceno Productions, Eva obligingly bought four tickets.

Days passed by.

Darren intently prepared for the big show.

She went to her designer to make her a gown worth P34,000.00+ which was so chic for her age.

On the night of the awarding, Eva tagged along her grandkids to the Fiesta Pavilion of the Manila Hotel not only as a grandma and presenter but to excitedly reunite with her colleagues, many of them, she hasn’t seen for ages.

Inside the hall, Darren seated with contemporaries and friends Divina Valencia and Marissa Delgado right in front of the stage while her kin were on the same table.

What was surprising, though, was the fact that Eva wasn’t a recipient of the Movie Icon Award which she perfectly deserved not unlike Tirso, Marissa, Divina, Pilar Pilapil, Dante Rivero, Tina Loy, Romeo Rivera, Charo Santos-Concio, Vilma Santos, Christopher de Leon, among others.

When it was turn for Cruz III to come up onstage, Eva noticed she wasn’t called out but saw a girl who stood side-by-side with Pip on the rostrum.

She wondered why but she let it pass until it dawned on her the FAMAS snobbery.

The FAMAS fair-haired boy could only utter apologies to Eva.

Finally, with her grandchildren in tow, she decided to leave the venue unceremoniously.

Immediately after her walkout, Divina was fuming mad against FAMAS.

Then Eva’s son Dr. Fernando de la Pena took the cudgels for her mom and posted on social media his disdain over FAMAS.

Dr. de la Pena’s point was that her mother wasn’t informed beforehand that she wasn’t part of the show anymore.

Fernando accused FAMAS of rudeness, unprofessionalism, unethicalness and plain disrespect. 

These accusations against the FAMAS are true and correct.

In its defense, FAMAS apologized to the Darren family and said that the TV production of the event couldn’t locate Eva in the audience.

“Katarantaduhan ‘yan. Magkakatabi kami nina Eva sa unahan (That’s bullshit. Eva was seated with us in front of the stage),” blurted out Valencia feistily and defyingly.

We can easily identify the corruption in this case.

Why sell dinner tickets to the guests of the event, especially the awardees and nominees?

The 72nd FAMAS was supposedly a treat to the honorable contributions to the movie industry of these recipients of plums.

FAMAS is simply commercializing in connivance with other stakeholders of the business of awarding.

In other words, selling dinner tickets to icons and guests are just trimmings to the sickening malignant disease FAMAS is suffering from.

Why not abolish it totally for lack of credibility and honor in order not to be contagious to other awarding pursuits?

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On the other hand, why can’t stars of the biggest magnitude like Piolo Pascual, Coco Martin, Kathryn Bernardo, Marian Rivera, Enchong Dee, Dingdong Dantes and a lot more, boycott FAMAS?

Sadly, they were the first ones to flock to it simply because they were recognized by the agency.

Do they still need the endorsement and validation of FAMAS on their craft when they were already adjudged best actors and best actresses outside FAMAS.

Superfluity could ruin one’s stability.