Legarda Bats for Creation of Dep’t of Culture and Arts

Senator Loren Legarda has filed a bill seeking to reorganize the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) into the Department of Culture and the Arts in order to enhance the promotion and preservation of the country’s cultural heritage.

A Department of Culture and the Arts, said Legarda, would give the culture and arts sector more focus and attention and a stronger fiscal position to recommend and implement government’s policies and programs for the promotion of arts and culture.

“We need an empowered agency that will adequately support the preservation, enrichment, and dynamic evolution of a Filipino national culture based on the principle of unity in diversity in a climate of free artistic and intellectual expression,” the Senator said.

Legarda, said the proposed measure under Senate Bill No. 31 addresses the need for a clear policy framework and a lead agency that will preserve and sustain traditional arts, crafts and local industries deeply ingrained in the Filipino culture.

The Bill provides that the Department shall continue to exercise the powers and functions of the NCCA. It shall consist of a Secretary and five Undersecretaries—for the Arts, Cultural Heritage, Cultural Dissemination, Cultural Communities and the Traditional Arts, and International Linkages.

Among the agencies that will be under the Department are the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP); Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB); Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP); National Museum; National Library of the Philippines; National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP); National Archives of the Philippines; and the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF).