by NOEL D. FERRER
The Philippines’ Box Office Entertainment Awards, known as the Guillermo Mendoza Memorial Scholarship Foundation (GMMSF) Box Office Entertainment Awards, was an annual award ceremony held in Metro Manila. The award-giving body honors stars and performers simply for their popularity and commercial success in the Philippine entertainment industry, regardless of their excellence in their particular fields.
It has been reported that Ferdie Syquia Villar, the person who launched the Miss Republic of the Philippines contest, came up with the Box Office King and Queen Awards in 1960s, and formally launched his idea in 1970. By the ’70s, after then President Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law in 1972, he turned the responsibility over to Corazon Samaniego, a former businesswoman in Bulacan who continued the presentation and officially inaugurated the Guillermo Mendoza Memorial Scholarship Foundation Inc. in 1971. The organization is named after a former Bulacan town mayor and philanthropist and her late father, Guillermo Mendoza. It became an annual event, recognizing the most popular people and their works in the Philippine entertainment industry. The proceeds from the television rights and gate receipts are used to send underprivileged Bulacan students to school.
Questions arise from the very nature of the organization that gives the awards. What authority does a scholarship foundation have in mounting an entertainment industry award in the first place? While we learned that later, the foundation took the services of industry insiders to decide on the winners, the awards, which was supposed to be based on empirical data such as box office gross and sales, became controversial because of its introduction of supposedly merit awards and some very questionable board decisions.
Case in point: In 1986: Maricel Soriano should have won “Box-Office Queen” for “Batang Quiapo.” Her co-star FPJ was named “Box-Office King.” But she was named Ms. RP for Movies instead. She didn’t attend the awards ceremonies and after that, she was never awarded the Box-Office Queen title ever.
In 2003: Many questioned the board’s decision in making Aga Muhlach as the Box Office King after the official list of winners were released. The fans of the late Rico Yan argued that since his last film “Got 2 Believe” was the highest-grossing film of the year, it would have been proper to give him such honor. But that never materialized.
In 2006, the organization chose Kristine Hermosa as Box Office Queen for “Enteng Kabisote 2: Okay Ka Fairy Ko The Legend Continues” amidst other quarters saying that some other actresses had solo movies that earned a lot in the box office too – not only as a partner of the famous franchise King.
The next one is close to home: young superstar Judy Ann Santos, whose films “Don’t Give Up On Us” and the MMFF topgrosser of 2006, “Kasal, Kasali, Kasalo” never got to win the Box Office Queen title or any of the award permutations like Popular Actress, Actor (for Ryan Agoncillo) or Director (for Joey Reyes) for that year, and the succeeding year even if the MMFF sequel “Sakal, Sakali, Saklolo” lorded it over the box office in 2007 all because Juday was not able to make it to the 30th Awards Ceremonies for “Isusumbong Kita sa Tatay Ko” (2000) because she had a scheduled taping for her teleserye.
It is believed that the award-giving body disqualified Juday as they took her (and FPJ’s) absence in their awards ceremonies personally.
The question is : isn’t the basis of the awards clearly the box office record or is there an added criteria for the honoree be present to receive the award or else it will be forfeited?
Even before the pandemic, the business of awards-giving has gone low; meaning, it was no longer financially viable as big advertisers have pulled the plug in sponsoring these events which are marred by issues of credibility, lack of star value and support from the industry, dwindling resources and even viewership. Worst, major networks have stopped buying rights and airing awards nights unless blocktimers pay the steep airtime rates or would assure commercial spots and other concessions.
So, as one ka-Troika colleague Sol Gorgonio Rula would say in jest, “Kailangan nang magkaroon ng box office awards na hindi magmukukhang fans day ng mga taga Bulacan.”
We really need to re-evaluate and recast our award-giving practices. We should also ask questions like : is this what will revive an industry that needs resuscitation? How will we make our awards credible and much more coveted and respected? Or the more basic question that entities or organizations should be able to answer is why are they giving out awards at all?
We hope the answers now will no longer be for television rights, or gate receipts; and beyond fundraising and clout chasing.
And we would now even venture into saying that, if and when the awards for Box Office King and Queen for 2023 be given at all (calling the all-new Multi-Media Press Awards), the rightful winners should be Dingdong Dantes and Marian Rivera of “Rewind.”
