The Building of my Dreams

The Manila Film Center... the building of my dreams. The first time I set foot at the Manila Film Center was when I was a student at a nearby University. During those days, it was widely known as the Experimental Cinema of the Philippines which featured mostly indie and experimental films both by local and foreign filmmakers. That was about 1985 or so.

The next visit as I remembered was as a faculty member of an exclusive girl's school nearby when we had the showing of "Cry Freedom". I met my ex-girlfriend (he, he, she's now my wife) from that three-year teaching stint and I remembered that we were both in this building at the time...

I have always been fascinated by this place. The grandeur, the majesty, the size and the feeling of awe as it sits right smack the middle of where the sun sets so... well I'm lost for words at the moment... since my office seems to be the best location in this building for viewing the sunset, and I've ran out of words to describe the beauty I see everyday.

The Manila Film Center covers almost a hectare in ground size with seven levels and about 80,000 sq.m. in floor area. Damn, it's a big building.

In the 90's, this building became famous for ghost stories and tales about being condemned and eventually, the government seemed to have lost interest in it's upkeep and ultimately it was to be abandoned for almost a decade.

(I had no idea that one day, I would hold office in this place. Little did I know that I would have to live inside this "ghost building" for almost three months with the Art Department people, the construction crew and the local "residents".)

My next visit....was in October of 2001... I was then the musical director of the show, the art director and the art department manager. The building was in total disarray, the carpet was almost powder, there was a stench to the building that made me feel dizzy, there was no electricity, no water, no urinals, and no toilet bowl. The stage had gaping holes everywhere with the underside filled with dirty water as well as the orchestra pit. There were rubbish everywhere and at the time I was thinking... this would take a lot of man-hour to simply clean up, not to mention, fix.

But the place was delightfully pleasing... it seemed at the time an adventure and a challenge to make the building habitable in a month's time. Make office spaces, rehabilitate the theatre, set up the sound system, lighting system and most importantly organize a company.

The initial lease of the building covered three years, then it was followed with a yearly renewal of the lease. Three years ago, we pursued our dream of keeping the building to ourselves for a longer lease period and a couple of days ago, we finally signed a long term contract with the government... (and that is why, at this time, I may start a blog)

April 11, 2007 signing of the MOA between

Amazing Philippine Theatre and

the Cultural Center of the Philippines

(present were, front -- CCP Administration Director

Tess Rances, CCP President Nestor Jardin,

APT Chairman of the Board Lee Jong Hyun,

APT President Iron Chang, 2nd row -- CCP's Oscar Villanueva,

APT Vice President Casie Villarosa & APT Executive Secretay William Lee)

Gettin this building was more than difficult, it was a tedious amount of work and patience for almost two and a half years. The waiting game was what almost killed us and our interest. But that is why I always say that patience is a virtue... and that to dream is free, so make sure that we dream big!

On our fourth-year show anniversary, I delivered a speech to the employees in behalf of management to which I said...

Four years ago, they said that we were crazy...
Four years ago, they said that we will surely fail...
Four years ago, they said that in 6 months of operations, we will have to fold
Four years ago, everybody expected us to lose face...

Four years.... and we are still here.

Not only did we survive the last four years but we have expanded our operations from one company to nine companies nationwide... because despite the hardships, the challenges, we never planned on making just a company or a corporation... we shall someday build an empire... and this building, is the symbol of that empire.