A Creative Industry Summit geared towards transforming Bacolod City into “the creative industry hub of Western Visayas” opened at the SMX Convention Center in Bacolod City on Friday. Dec. 8.
Rep. Jose Francisco “Kiko” B. Benitez (Neg. Occ., 3rd District), author of Republic Act 11904 or the Philippine Creative Industries Development Act (PCIDA), who spoke at the summit said Bacolod City received a grant from the Department of Trade and Industry’s Lunsod Lunsad program to begin the process of creating a cultural creative economy development plan.
They are tapping stakeholder support in their initiative to turn Bacolod into creative industry hub, he said.
“The whole ecosystem of the creative industries have very real economic and value chain impacts,” Benitez said.
“One of the proposals is to make it as inclusive and as grassroots as possible,” he said.
The aim is to galvanize and further grow the creative industry and economy of Bacolod, Benitez said.
LGUs can access funds from the DTI’s Lunsod Lunsad program made available because of RA 11904 for their creative industry development programs, Benitez said.
Bacolod Councilor Em Ang, Committee on History, Culture and Arts chair of the Sangguniang Panlungsod, said the summit is a step toward the implementation of RA 11904 that strengthens the creative industry and economy.
Since Bacolod is poised to become the creative industries hub for Western Visayas it was the first to be given the DTI grant for the summit, she said.
“Bacolod is known for culinary arts, music, film, visual arts and many others,” Ang pointed out.*