MANILA — Despite a number of concerns about the selection process, National Artist for Film and Broadcast Arts Ricky Lee promised that all candidates will receive equal treatment when his scriptwriting workshop returns.

He emphasized in his formal announcement, which was made public on Tuesday, December 9, that his long-standing “mixing” system and qualifications will be used to choose participants for each batch of his free workshop.

According to Lee, the course was purposefully made available to everyone in order to provide a chance for novices who wish to begin writing in addition to pros in the field.

Lee clarified that because industry professionals were so helpful at the course, he had already made it a point to bring together novices and professionals.

“Lahat ito, in the belief na mas inclusive ang ganitong sistema. Dahil sa karanasan ko ay hindi maganda ang homogenous o pare-parehong baguhan o pare-pareho ng pinanggalingan ang mga nasa batch,” Lee added.

Lee claims that a careful selection process was used to choose the workshop participants.

“Kung workshop ito na may bayad ay mas madali siguro ang pamimili dahil ang maging batayan ay ang kakayanang magbayad. Maraming natanggap na taga-pelikula at marami ang hindi natanggap. Marami ang kaibigan at anak ng kaibigan ang hindi rin natanggap. Sa huli, ang pinairal ay kung qualified ba, at angkop sa mix,” said Lee.

“Sa naging final results, halos kalahati pa rin ng bawat batch ay mga baguhan.”

According to Lee, there were more than 200 eligible candidates, so even before the list of Batches 30 and 31 was made public, they chose to create Batch 32, the majority of which were novices. He claimed that in addition to preparing a full-day session at a larger venue for everyone who was unable to attend, as well as an online workshop for those outside of Manila, they emailed the 2,600 applicants to let them know about the new batch.

Lee launched the free workshop in 1982, claiming it was his means of returning to the field that had worked well for him.

After running the workshop for more than 40 years, Lee aspires to be trusted with each batch’s mixing system.

Lee is insistent that he pay attention and absorb the lectures.