Reactions to the Director’s Notes

In one of the first meetings of the newly formed Council for Baguio Creative City, I was asked to present a general terminal report on Ibagiw. We were still working on the comprehensive terminal report at the time, and what I presented was just an overview. In that same meeting, I mentioned my intention of sharing relevant portions of that report publicly in the interest of transparency and to serve as a guide in succeeding editions of the festival, which was welcomed by the body, particularly its chair, Ms. Adelaida Lim.

When I published the first two sections of the Director’s Notes which touched on the issue of lack of sufficient funding for EntaCool and the sentiment expressed by an artist on being asked to perform pro bono, I received a call from Dr. Raymundo Rovillos during which he informed me that the views expressed in the articles did not sit well with some members of the BACCI Board and Executive Committee. I explained that articles merely presented issues and challenges that we as a community faced in the past and continue to be confronted with today.

This has clearly and undeniably put a dent in my professional relationship with BACCI. And yes, I had a choice – I could have just ignored these issues and pretended that they did not exist. It was perhaps the “safer” path.

Ignore the issue of lack of funding for cultural endeavors and allow it to plague succeeding festivals, exhibits, productions.

Ignore the issue of organizational inefficiency and allow it to continue to get in the way of responding to the needs of artists and artisans.

Ignore the difficulties the creative community experience in getting the government to be more responsive to its needs.

Make the report more palatable, more politically correct.

But this is not the time to stay within our comfort zones. The sincere attention that the current administration is giving art and culture – it’s been a long time coming. Now, with the LGU’s full support behind us, is the time to confront and find solutions to these issues.

With this, I reiterate my position - as long as we continue to gloss over these issues, sweep them under the rug instead of acknowledging them, pretend they don’t exist, we would never find solutions for them and these will continue to hound succeeding initiatives in the future.

And as concerned artists and citizens of Baguio who have been placed at the forefront of these initiatives, it is our shared responsibility to bring these issues to the fore and find solutions for them.



*The above is part of the full terminal report for Ibagiw 2019 that was submitted to the Mayor, the City Budget Office, the Council for Baguio Creative City and BACCI. The full report is published here.