Court stops 54th FAMAS Awards slated tonight at UP Theater

The 54th FAMAS Awards scheduled tonight at the UP Theater in Diliman, Quezon City, might not be pushed through after Judge Felixberto Olalia Jr. of the Regional Trial Court, National Capital Region, issued a three-day Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) yesterday, saying (the awards night) "violates Section 122 of the Corporation Code of the Philippines and disregards the Order of Revocation of the Certificate of Registration of the Petitioner FAMAS issued by the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission)."

The petition for TRO was filed by the present set of FAMAS officers led by Col. Jimmy Tiu as president.

Tonight’s affair was spearheaded by Art Padua who also claimed to be the "rightful" FAMAS president.

Two elections were held last year, with one group electing Tiu as president and the other, Padua as president. But in another election held last June 24, a STAR source said that Tiu was elected president.

Padua told The STAR that a case was filed against him, stopping him from "using the FAMAS," but he said that case was thrown out by Judge Antonio Eugenio, also of the NCR Regional Trial Court.

Tiu’s group is reportedly backed up by past FAMAS presidents, excluding Padua who had also held the position several years ago.

The SEC reportedly revoked the FAMAS certificate of registration for non-payment. The petition for TRO filed by Tiu and company claimed that during the presidency of Padua, "he did not make the slightest effort of lifting the Order of Revocation issued by the SEC." The petititoner(s) further claimed that the present officers (meaning Tiu’s group) were "elected for purposes of regaining the registration of FAMAS and its corporate existence so that it may again lawfully hold and/or conduct its regular as well as its principal activities and the FAMAS Awards."

According to Padua, he will abide by the decision of the court (which issued the three-day TRO).

Incidentally, reacting to a Funfare story yesterday, Padua said that Eddie Garcia didn’t replace Vic Sotto as recipient of the FPJ Memorial Award which, he said, was supposed to be given for the first time this year.

"Our first decision was to give the award to two comedians, Vic Sotto and Eddie Garcia," explained Padua. "But when we informed the two recipients and we got word that Vic couldn’t personally receive the award (Because he’s abroad to accompany his daughter Paulina, with Angela Luz, at a golf tournament – RFL), the body decided to just name Eddie as the sole awardee. In fact, we could have given Eddie the Circle of Excellence Awards, the highest honor given by the FAMAS." – Ricky Lo