BONTOC, Mtn. Prov.– The provincial government, through the Provincial Tourism Office, conducted a provincial planning for culture and the arts here in an effort to bring awareness among constituents about the various cultural heritage and arts in the municipalities and tribes.
The activity was conducted last September 9-10, 2019 at the Ridge Brooke Hotel, Samoki, Bontoc, Mountain Province.
In attendance were the Municipal Tourism Action Officers (MTAOs), Indigenous Peoples Mandatory Representatives (IPMRs), the chair of municipal Committees on Tourism, and academe.
Resource speaker, Carlo Ebeo, a former commissioner, came from the National Commission on Culture and the Arts.
He talked about local cultural resources, the current state of the local culture and the arts, and then cited the need for local cultural development planning, and what can the local government units (LGUs) do to preserve and promote culture and the arts.
Workshops were conducted wherein participants identified the tangible and intangible cultural properties per municipality and how to preserve or conserve them.
George Lumiwes, representing the governor as the executive assistant for IP concerns, cited that “we are proud to have an intact cultural heritage preserved through generations”.
He further claimed that with Cordillera unity, the Cordillerans as indigenous peoples continue to struggle for self-determination which is an element towards regional and national progress. “Our rich Cordillera culture distinguishes us from the rest of the world”, he quipped.
During the evaluation, each of the participants representing the different municipalities voiced out their appreciation of the activity and the need to further enhance the need for massive planning on culture and the arts. It was then agreed that workshops in the province and municipalities will be conducted in the future.
Tyronne Glenn Lawey, a staff of the Provincial Tourism Office and the facilitator, echoed that one objective of the activity is to integrate the norms of cultural development planning in the other plans of the LGUs to also emphasize cultural development in the mainstream development plans.
The National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA) had earlier conducted the first ever orientation on Local Cultural Development Planning under the Philippine Development Plan 2017-2022 last year at the same establishment.
Memorandum Circular No. 2013-98 of the Department of the Interior and Local Governments (DILG) encourages LGUs to support the conservation of the national cultural heritage.
Another Memo Circular No. 2017-133 calls for the creation of Local Culture and the Arts Councils in LGUs to help craft and implement related projects and or strengthen existing ones. **Roger Sacyaten
