DAVAO CITY — The Department of Trade and Industry and the Davao City local government, through the Office of Culture, Arts, and Heritage (OCAH), are collaborating to support the empowerment of the creative industry in Davao City.
Joffreylle Opiano Plasabas, senior trade industry development specialist of the DTI in Davao City, said that the partnership with the Davao City LGU through the OCAH will help them assist the creative sector in the city.
Plasabas said that based on the recently held Lungsod Lunsad, a DTI program empowering local creative industries, they have discovered that Davao City has many creative talents in various creative sectors, and their outputs have very promising economic potential.
“Sa DTI ang mandate naming under the Philippine Creative Industries Development Act is to help our creative players integrate into the formal economy ma-parehistro natin yung businesses nila so that kami sa DTI will have tangible assistance towards market access (At DTI, our mandate under the Philippine Creative Industries Development Act is to help our creative players enter the formal economy by registering their businesses, so we can provide them with concrete assistance in accessing markets),” Plasabas said.
She said this year their partnership with the newly created Office of Culture and Arts and Heritage (Ocah) under the City Mayor’s Office-Davao City LGU, will help the artists and creative talents in accessing relevant programs under the PCIDA.
“This year, finally, may counterpart na kami office sa creative industries development, the office of the culture and the arts and heritage. With that, we intend to promote pa yung assistance (This year, we finally have a counterpart office for creative industries development, the Office of Culture, Arts and Heritage. With that, we intend to further expand the assistance we provide),” Plasabas said.
Oscar Casaysay, head of the Ocah, said their office will help gather and consolidate the creative players in the city. He added that when the Lungsod Lunsad was established a few years back, there was no dedicated office yet for the city’s creatives.
Despite the workshops done, the vision of the Pcida law was not clearly inculcated in the artists and cultural workers, as there was no dedicated agency that dealt with the arts.
“With the partnership naa nay guidance on the ground mas napasabot. Napaintindi naming sa bawa artist na involved sa visual arts, sa digital arts, filmmakers, arts and crafts. Na yan dapat pagkakitaan ninyo sa tulong ng balaod na ni (With the partnership, there is now clearer guidance on the ground. We were able to explain to every artist in visual arts, digital arts, filmmaking, and arts and crafts that they can earn from their work through the help of this law),” Casaysay said.
He added that when they started to connect with the artists, the creatives were skeptical and wary at first.
“Naa na pud ning gobyerno, magsugod-sugod then mawala ((There is the government again; they would start, then disappear),” Casaysay recalls their initial interaction with the artists.
Casaysay said the city government under Mayor Sebastian Duterte wants to push forward with programs to assist the creative sector.
“I told them with this office, let’s give it a chance, magtulungan tayo (let’s help each other),” Casaysay said.
Last Sept. 26, the Ocah, alongside the DTI, the National Commission for the Culture and the Arts (NCCA), Alsons Development and Investment Corporation (Alsons Dev), and the Conrado Ladislawa Alcantara Foundation, Inc. (CLAFI), conducted the first-ever Davao City Arts and Culture Summit held at the Holy Cross of Davao College.
The event, held in celebration of the Philippine Creative Industries Month, gathered around 200 artists in the city, which served as a platform for dialogue and collaboration, aiming to shape the culture, arts, and heritage direction of Davao City. (PIA/RGA)