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Republic of the Philippines 
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
Quezon City, Metro Manila 
NINETEENTH CONGRESS 
First Regular Session 
House Bill No. _________ 
Introduced by Honorable Richard I. Gomez 
EXPLANATORY NOTE 
Recently, the restored versions of the Filipino film classics 
Maynila sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag (Lino Brocka) and Genghis Khan 
(Manuel Conde) have been in the news. It is a known fact, however, that 
many other Filipino films in the past have not been so fortunate, and 
some may have been irreversibly lost. It has been estimated that 
thousands of films have suffered this fate due to lack of systematic 
identification, preservation and restoration efforts. What is curious though 
is that time and again a copy of a film deemed lost accidentally turns up 
at the United States Library of Congress or elsewhere. This bill therefore 
is premised on that hope or chance, no matter how slim and diminishing, 
that some copies of “lost” Filipino classics may still be traced, acquired 
and preserved for the benefit of our present and future generations.     
Under our present laws, film archiving is mentioned in Section 3 of 
Republic Act No. 9167, the law which created the Film Development 
Council of the Philippines. Under the said provision, one of the powers 
and functions of the Council is “to ensure the establishment of a film 
archive in order to conserve and protect film negatives and/or prints as 
part of the nation’s historical, cultural, and artistic heritage.” Other than 
this passing mention, however, of a film archive not much has been done 
along the line of protecting and conserving our film reservoir, 
understandably due to the usual problems of funding constraints and lack 
of technical expertise and storage infrastructural facilities.  
The 1987 Philippine Constitution (Article XIV), however, 
mandates that insofar as our arts and cultural heritage is concerned     
“The State shall foster the preservation, enrichment, 
and dynamic evolution of a Filipino national culture based 
July 1, 2022
3:08 pm
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Republic of the Philippines 
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
Quezon City, Metro Manila 
NINETEENTH CONGRESS 
First Regular Session 
House Bill No. _________ 
Introduced by Honorable Richard I. Gomez 
AN ACT 
CREATING 
THE 
NATIONAL 
FILM 
ARCHIVE 
TO 
BE 
MANAGED BY THE FILM DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL, AND 
APPROPRIATING FUNDS THEREFOR 
Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the 
Philippines in Congress assembled: 
SECTION 1.  There is hereby created a National Film Archive of 
the Philippines to be managed and maintained by the Film Development 
Council. 
SEC. 2. The National Film Archive of the Philippines shall have 
the following powers and functions: 
1. Plan, formulate and implement an archival administration
program 
for 
the 
efficient 
recovery, 
restoration, 
conservation, 
preservation, maintenance, utilization and disposal of cinematographic 
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films including the adoption of security measures and film protection 
program; 
2. Review and approve films nominated for inclusion in the 
National Film Archive; 
 
3. Conduct archival researches using materials here and abroad, 
including background studies about films considered for inclusion in the 
National Film Archive, and; 
4. Acquire through transfer, donation, purchase or any other means 
film prints and digital masters of films which have enduring archival 
value; 
5. Ensure the preservation and conservation of existing and future 
film archival resources of the government; 
6. Reproduce and authenticate copies of cinematic films, subject to 
copyright laws; 
7. Facilitate the acquisition of a permanent and suitable building 
for the National Film Archives to house the country’s film archival 
holdings; 
 
8. Promote appreciation of and build cultural values from the 
cinematic films in the National Film Archive; 
 
9. Provide for access to the Film Archive for scholarly and research 
process, subject to reasonable guidelines; 
 


 
 
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10. Make Filipino films readily available for educational, 
historical, and cultural purposes to all segments of Philippine society, as 
well as the international community; 
 
11. Give technical assistance to all government offices, 
instrumentalities, and agencies, national or local, in the planning, 
implementation and evaluation of their film archives administration 
program; and 
12. Conduct training programs on film archives management, 
including the establishment of an archival system for both public and 
private sectors. 
 
SEC. 3. The National Film Archive of the Philippines shall be 
headed by an executive director with a rank equivalent to a bureau 
director and who shall be assisted by two deputy executive directors. 
 
The President of the Philippines shall appoint the executive 
director and the two deputy executive directors of the Film Archive from 
a list of nominees submitted by the Film Development Council: Provided, 
That said officials to be appointed to the Film Archive shall be 
knowledgeable of the artistic, historical, cultural and/or technical aspects 
of film-evaluation, restoration and/or archiving along world-class 
standards.   


 
 
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The executive director and the deputy executive directors shall 
serve for a term of two (2) years and shall be eligible for reappointment 
for a second term: Provided, That no director shall serve for more than 
two (2) consecutive terms: Provided further, if any director fails to 
complete a term, the person appointed to fill the vacancy shall serve only 
for the unexpired portion of the term of the director whom he/she 
succeeds, unless re-appointed: Provided finally, That such service of the 
unexpired portion shall not counted as a term. 
 
The National Film Archives shall establish its own staffing pattern, 
and salary and compensation scheme, within six months from the 
effectivity of this Act, subject to the rules and regulations of the 
Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and the Civil Service 
Commission (CSC).  
SEC 4-a. Philippine National Archive Building. The National Film 
Archive of the Philippines shall be tasked to design, construct and 
manage the Philippine National Archive Building, which shall be the 
physical repository of archived films. Said facility shall be an edifice that 
is capable of providing archival conditions, such as, temperature, 
humidity, lighting, protection from weather and disasters, and other 
requirements.  


 
 
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SEC 4-b. Location of Philippine National Archive Building. Since 
the heaviest cost in maintaining the archival edifice would be electric 
power supply, this Act mandates that the Philippine National Archive 
Building be located in Ormoc City, due to its proximity to low-cost, 
carbon-negative and renewable power in the form of geothermal energy. 
Furthermore, this Act mandates the Energy Development Corporation, to 
supply power to the Philippine National Archive Building at the lowest 
cost.  
SEC. 5. Film companies or individual producers are hereby 
required to submit, at reasonable cost, a copy of their film to the National 
Film Archive within three (3) months from its official release.   
 
SEC. 6. The Film Development Council shall, in consultation with 
the National Historical Institute, National Commission on Cultural and 
Arts, and the National Archives of the Philippines, issue the necessary 
rules and regulations to implement the provisions hereof. 
 
SEC. 7. The amount necessary to carry out the provisions of this 
Act shall be included in the General Appropriations Act of the year 
following its enactment into law and thereafter.  
 


 
 
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SEC. 8.  All acts, decrees, executive orders, rules and regulations 
and other issuances or parts thereof inconsistent with the provisions of 
this Act are hereby repealed, modified or amended. 
 
SEC. 9. If for any reason, any portion or provision of this Act be 
declared unconstitutional, other parts or provisions hereof which are not 
affected thereby shall continue to be in full force and effect. 
 
SEC. 10. This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its 
publication either in the Official Gazette or in a newspaper of general 
circulation. 
 
 
Approved,