• THERESA MAE DULMAN
The Film Academy of the Philippines (FAP) urged film and audiovisual workers across the Visayas region to form formal associations and guilds.
FAP director general Jose Paolo Villaluna stressed in a media meet June 23 the necessity of unified regional organizations, noting that approximately 80 percent of film industry personnel lack traditional employer-employee relationships and cannot legally form standard labor unions.
Villaluna said that accredited guilds and associations provide the necessary collective structure for independent workers to effectively voice sectoral concerns, protect their rights, and establish a professional working environment outside of Metro Manila.
He added that formalizing these regional groups serves as the primary gateway for local practitioners to access national government programs, including welfare assistance and specialized grants for educational or supportive programming.
The academy also highlighted its institutional support mechanisms, specifically Sine-Sandigan, which functions as the legal and grievance platform.
The legal section provides workers with a structured framework to report contractual disputes, work-related grievances, and violations of the Eddie Garcia Law.
The call for mobilization precedes the formal opening today, June 24, of the Visayas Guild Summit in Talisay City, Negros Occidental.
The event brings together 35 industry representatives from Western Visayas, Central Visayas, Eastern Visayas, and the Negros Island Region.
“After the guild summit, we are hoping that the guild sector in the Visayas will grow. The idea is that we want to create a professional environment for the entire country. We did one in Luzon, we are doing it now in the Visayas, and then we will head to Mindanao next,” Villaluna said. | TMD
