MANILA, PHILIPPINES — It’s 2021, 30 years since Lea Salonga won Broadway’s Tony Award for her iconic portrayal of the central role in Miss Saigon. Throughout those 30 years, Filipinos have breached many previously impenetrable global art milieux: from breaking price ceilings at prestigious auction houses to awards for film, advertising, and digital at
Cannes; from well-received fashion statements on Hollywood’s Red Carpet to designer furniture in celebrity homes.
Filipino artists and creative industries talents are by now veterans on the global stage. Walk into Pixar Studio and you’ll find several Filipino illustrators and animators sharing a showcase of Oscars. Board a cruise ship in Romania or Honolulu, or check out a nightspot in Seoul or Singapore; chances are you’ll be entertained through the night by Filipino singers and musicians. And for how many years have Pinoy performers been stunning judges and audiences on America’s Got Talent?
The Philippines’ wealth of creative talent is almost a definition of nation. This wealth is also literal. Through job and Intellectual Property creation, exportable talent and revenue generation, and content creation for traditional and now social media, the creative sector is among the most lively in the Philippines, despite the pandemic’s considerable impact on its work and well-being.
Now the artists are asking: why has their important sector remained unrecognized, its compensation structures and benefits uneven, its role in nation-building untapped?
As a growing alliance of industries in diverse creative endeavors, Creative Industries Philippines (CIP) banks on our legislators’ support in turning the creative sector into the next major economic force for the country – in much the same way the Business Process Outsourcing industry took off in the 1990s and is now one of our most profitable sectors.
Created by Tony Award-winner Lea Salonga, National Artist for Music Maestro Ryan Cayabyab, theater actor Audie Gemora, furniture designer Kenneth Cobonpue, filmmaker Lav Diaz, Beatriz designer Carissa Cruz Evangelista, Aranaz designer Amina Aranaz Alunan, TdLG designer Tweetie de Leon-Gonzalez, image enhancement speaker Patty Betita, marketing and communications professional Carmina Sanchez Jacob, lawyer Margarita Guiterrez, fashion designer JC Buendia, and events producer Jackie Aquino, CIP has asked that the Philippine Creative Industries Bill be prioritized and made part of the legislative agenda for the third (and final) regular session of the 18th Congress.
The bill itself explains that despite Filipinos achieving international fame and receiving accolades for showing off their talent in different creative fields, they have had little to no reinforcement from the Philippine government. Citing the lack of one singular agency that is tasked with the planning, direction-setting, and implementation of any effort to promote Philippine creative industries, this dearth in leadership aims to be addressed by this act.
And perhaps, there is no better time than now for the nation to look to the Filipino creative community for the turn-key ideas to jump-start our COVID-weary economy. The now quickly organizing creative sector—which includes the film, built environment, live entertainment, music, design, and fashion industries, joined by academia, individuals and groups of visual and performing artists, food culture avatars, and many more—is poised to work with legislation to enable them to step into their historical moment as the new economic engine.
CIP’s battlecry expresses this resolve best: “Create the future now.” And with proven creative prowess from all corners of this alliance, the possibilities arising from this bold new initiative are boundless.
