Arts & International Affairs Volume 5, Number 1, Summer 2020 | Page 56

WHOSE GOVERNANCE, WHOSE GOOD?
welfare objectives. It is through the NCCA that the government creates the framework
for the country’s cultural development, following the policy objectives and approaches
stated in the Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan for Culture and the Arts
(MTPDP-CA). In theory, the government makes final decisions about overall cultural
policy regardless of the creation of public debates, conversations, consultations, or presentations
to the NCCA.
Section five of Republic Act 7356 pushes for people to be actively involved within a
climate of freedom and responsibility, in order to evolve and develop their culture and
identity, thereby nurturing a Filipino national culture and identity. The NCCA operates
from six guiding principles. First, the NCCA defines culture as a human right; thus, is a
manifestation of the freedom of belief and expressions that need to be accorded due respect
and be allowed to flourish. Second, the national identity of the Filipinos is reflected
and shaped by their values, beliefs, and aspirations. Therefore, the Filipino national culture
shall be evolved, promoted, and conserved. Third, culture is of the people, meaning
that the Filipino national culture shall be independent, equitable, dynamic, progressive,
and humanistic. Fourth, culture shall be evolved and developed by the people themselves
within a climate of freedom and responsibility. Fifth, the creation of artistic and
cultural products shall be promoted and disseminated to the greatest number of people,
and shall be raised formally through the educational system and informally through
extra-scholastic means, including the use of traditional and modern communications.
Lastly, the NCCA must ensure that every citizen does their duty to preserve and conserve
the Filipino historical and cultural heritage and resources.
Given this, the NCAA also follows an entity-relationship model, which is a common
approach to “mapping” government cultural administrations, wherein entities such as
agencies are actors in the cultural policy system and relationships are linkages between
them. In effect, this makes the NCCA a patron for the arts. The NCCA determines the
kind, type, and extent of support to individuals, groups, or communities and uses an
arm’s length mechanism to disburse funding support through national committees and
sub-committees and their affiliated national cultural agencies. The NCCA works handin-hand
with the Cultural Center of the Philippines, the Institute of Philippine Languages,
the National Historical Institute, the National Library, the National Museum, and the
Record Management and Archives Office.
The NCCA instituted four subcommissions working in different areas of the arts and
culture sector. First is the Subcommission on the Arts (SCA), which has seven national
committees representing each of the seven major art fields identified by the NCCA. The
main objective of the SCA is to ensure standards of excellence in projects and activities
supported by the NCCA. Through implementing policies, publishing funding information,
and conducting workshops, seminars, and conferences where conversations happen
on how best to achieve excellence and nurture Philippine art, the SCA can articulate
its achievement of the core objective.
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