By Sonny Angara
The Pulitzer Prizes are considered among the most prestigious, if not the most prestigious awards for the fields of journalism, books, drama, and music. This year we saw three Filipinas who were among the finalists of the Pulitzer for journalism: New York Times contributor Hannah Reyes Morales for feature photography; and The Washington Post’s Ren Galeno and Nicole Dungca for illustrated reporting and commentary. We congratulate these brilliant journalists for their accomplishments that have brought honor, not only to their respective news organizations, but to the Philippines as a whole.
A product of the University of the Philippines, Morales graduated with a bachelor’s degree in speech communication, cum laude. The Pulitzer recognized Morales for her creative series of photographs documenting a “youthquake” occurring in Africa where, by 2050, the continent will account for one quarter of the world’s population and one-third of its young people. Galeno also graduated from the University of the Philippines with a degree in fine arts, magna cum laude. Together with Dungca, who is a Filipina-American investigative reporter and president of the Asian American Journalists Association, and Claire Healy, the Pulitzer named them a finalist for their masterful and sensitive use of the comic form to reveal the story of a great injustice to a group of Filipinos exhibited at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, where some of them died.
In the broadest sense, these Pulitzer Prize finalists, while affiliated with prominent news organizations, could be considered as being part of the creative sector. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) includes advertising, architecture, arts and crafts, design, fashion, film, video, photography, music, performing arts, publishing, research and development, software, computer games, electronic publishing, and TV/radio in the creative industries. The very nature of creatives makes it hard to put them all inside a box. Just like UNCTAD, I understand that the concept of the creative economy is constantly expanding and evolving. This is what makes this sector and the people who comprise it unique. They epitomize creativity and dynamism. They have the potential to fuel economic growth.
Recognizing the importance of the creative sector as a way to showcase Philippine ingenuity and creativity and a means to offer the world a peek into the culture and history of the country, we have continuously strived to promote its growth and development. For instance, we have been filing our proposal for an Artists Incentives Act in the past two Congresses. For the current 19th Congress, we re-filed the measure as Senate Bill No. 325 to pave the way for the grant of cash incentives to members of the creative sector who win in international competitions, festivals and other exhibitions.
Under the bill, the grant of incentives shall apply to filmmakers, film production entities, literary writers, artists, and performers in the creative sector whose works merited the highest recognition for technical or artistic excellence in internationally notable and prestigious competitions, film festivals, and other exhibitions as may be determined by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, Film Development Council of the Philippines, and the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
In pushing for this bill, we want to encourage more Filipinos in the creative sector to come up with more quality work that can be showcased, not only in the Philippines, but around the world. When we filed this bill, several Filipino artists had just won awards in some of the big international competitions. These include actor John Arcilla who won the Coppi Volpi for Best Actor at the 78th Venice Film Festival; director Diane Paragas, whose film “Yellow Rose” won the 2019 Reel Asian Best Feature Film Award in the Toronto International Film Festival; vocalists Marlon Macabaya and Denise Melanie Du Lagrosa, who won first and second place respectively at the Stars of Albion Grand Prix 2019 in London; and painter Worth Lodriga, who as a seven year-old, won first place at the 2017 Student Mars Art Contest in the United States.
The recognition garnered by these artists also benefits the country and it is for this reason that we thought about rewarding them with cash incentives. This demonstrates our appreciation for their accomplishments and at the same time, hopefully, they and other members of the creative sector will be incentivized to work even harder to produce work that will receive similar honors.
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Senator Sonny Angara has been in public service for 20 years — 9 years as Representative of the Lone District of Aurora, and 11 as Senator. He has authored, co-authored and sponsored more than 330 laws. He is currently serving his second term in the Senate.
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Email: sensonnyangara@yahoo.com | Facebook, Twitter & Instagram: @sonnyangara/WDJ