In Conversation With NCCA's New Chairman Rene Escalante

This July, NCCA celebrated Original Pilipino Music Week with a live concert, lecture series, and virtual concerts in partnership with the Filipino Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (FILSCAP), featuring esteemed personalities in the music industry like Fr Manoling Francisco, Edwin Marollano, Yael Yuzon, Ebe Dancel, Joey Ayala, Soapdish, UP Singing Ambassadors, and many more.

Meanwhile, NCCA is now accepting project proposals for its 2023 Competitive Grants Program and nominees for the Philippine Heritage Awards until the end of August. It also invites artists and curators to submit exhibition proposals until August 15 for its NCCA Gallery, which is committed to giving space to young and emerging artists.

NCCA's 2020 drama series aired on GMA News TV, Project Destination, returned last July 24 for its new season. Focused group discussions were facilitated to define the Filipino values the series would discuss during its initial run. This 2022, consultations with the Ifugao community were made to further enhance the series and stay true in its pursuit of promoting our rich intangible culture and inherent Filipino values.

Lastly, NCCA released an album featuring some of our National Artists' works. Titled ALPAS: Awit at Letra ng mga Pambansang Alagad ng Sining, it contains 12 songs by National Artists for Music and Literature such as Francisco Feliciano, Levi Celerio, Antonio Molina, Lucresia Kasilag, Lucio San Pedro, Felipe de Leon, Ramon Santos, Ryan Cayabyab, Andrea Veneracion, Virgilio Almario, Bienvenido Lumbera, and Rolando Tinio. The songs were interpreted by the Philippine Madrigal Singers.

Read more: ALPAS: National Artists' Gift to Philippine Music and Literature

Escalante will continue these projects of the previous administration while also evaluating the commission's challenges and best practices to discover better ways to promote the country's arts, culture, and heritage.

With his limited tenure, the following are his priorities:

• Finish the full restoration of the Metropolitan Theatre (MET). What remains pending right now are the ground floor of both Arroceros and Burgos wings, as well as the courtyard.
• Projecting a sustainable plan for the MET as a venue for stage plays, concerts, and more. One possibility they are looking at is opening its commercial spaces for casual dining, cafés, convenience stores, and more to generate internal revenues.
• Escalante seeks to meet with the CCP to discuss matters concerning its resident companies in order to avoid confusion in the schedules of performances. However, the CCP eyes to restore its own main theatre, which might take three years or so. This leaves the MET open to all companies of the CCP, not to mention other esteemed professional institutions in the performing arts scene both here and abroad as well as those of nearby universities.
• With the MET being a state-of-the-art theatre that can screen films, Escalante is also trying to further develop its partnership with the Film Developmental Council of the Philippines, now headed by acclaimed actor Tirso Cruz III. The MET takes pride as the second largest theatre in Southeast Asia, in terms of seating capacity, that is equipped with Dolby Atmos.
• Escalante seeks to revisit the deliberation process for the National Artists. After the 2022 National Artists proclamation, the NCCA chair said that things in the process needed to be tweaked, added, and removed. The deliberation committee has already created an ad hoc team tasked with reviewing the deliberation process and suggesting ways to enhance it.
• Finally, Escalante will be preparing the election process for the new NCCA Chair in December. As of now, he is not aiming to prolong his tenure in the commission and trusts the heads of the major cultural agencies of government under NCCA, whatever their decision would be later this year.

Being also the chairman of the NHCP, he led the National Quincentennial Commemorations from 2020 to 2022. He said that after that, he felt relieved that he will now have time to slow down. But fate had other plans.

"I think there will be adjustments with regards to my schedule. I would be splitting my working days between NHCP and NCCA. An advantage here is that the NHCP office is just less than two kilometres from NCCA. Another is that most of the people I would be working closely with now, I have already known them as chair of the NHCP," he says, claiming there would be no major problems with his work moving forward.

Escalante also debunks the idea that NCCA would be gearing now to focus on history as he will keep the balance of his attention to the two offices. What he wants to achieve is for NCCA to be effective on all its fronts: arts, cultural heritage, cultural dissemination, cultural communities, and traditional arts, and its 19 committees.

"I think there should be a dialogue between the commission and its stakeholders because we need to hear how the pandemic affected their respective industries, the adjustments they have made so that we can address their needs," Escalante says. Moving forward, Escalante would be leading the policy-making institution in updating its solutions post-pandemic.

Read also: The State of the Philippine Art Scene During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Another role of Escalante as the new NCCA chair is to defend the budget of the commission in Congress this fourth quarter. Note that the funds for the country's arts and culture depend on travel tax revenues. Unfortunately, both the tourism and arts sectors were badly hit by the pandemic and government-issued quarantine measures in the past two years. This issue was also echoed by President Bongbong Marcos in his SONA last July 25:

"They say that each brand has a story. As for the Filipino brand, ours is deeply rooted in our rich cultural heritage, and the tourism sector plays an invaluable role in the promotion of the Filipino brand. . .To foster the Filipino brand is to spark our sense of pride and reaffirm our strong sense of identity.

"It is time to welcome the rest of the world with an enhanced Filipino brand that is unique, attractive, and creative. 

"The creativity of the Filipino is truly world-class. We excel in arts and culture, new media, live events—avenues which generate primary and downstream jobs for our creative and talented countrymen. Unfortunately, ang mga hanapbuhay na ito ang unang pinadapa ng pandemya at ang pinakahuli namang makakabalik sa normal. 

"The creative industry likewise faces many challenges, including workplace conditions, working hours, intellectual property rights, and the welfare of our beloved freelancers who were left vulnerable during the height of the pandemic. 

"We require an institutionalized creative industry that will advance the interests of its stakeholders—sila na nagbibigay ng kaluluwa at [pagkakilanlan] sa ating pagka-Pilipino. Protektahan natin sila."

Now a question remains from our discussion with Escalante: Will there finally be a Department of Culture? The NHCP and NCCA Chair affirms that there are duplications and overlaps in the jurisdictions of the two commissions and other cultural agencies. He supports the idea of having one, but Escalante says that it's up to Congress. Admittedly, Escalante fixed his vision until the completion of his term in December, vowing his utmost attention to his new position given the limited time. What lies beyond remains unknown.

Author's note: The interview with NCCA Chair Rene Escalante happened on July 18 while the State of the Nation Address (SONA) was on July 25.

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