FUNDING IBAGIW

Between May and July, the meetings in preparation for the festival were held at the Café by the Ruins Dua on Upper Session Road or at Mt. Cloud Bookshop on Brent Road, courtesy of BACCI chair and president, Adelaida Lim. Heading into the second staging of the creative festival, BACCI, the lead private-sector partner of the city government in staging the festival, had neither an office nor a bank account and zero funds.

TOEING THE GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT PROCESS LINE 

I submitted the first projected budget in July, which ran up to P5.9 Million or, with a 10% contingency fund which I usually allot to all projects I manage, about P6.5 Million. After more pencil pushing, on August 12, 2019, we submitted the final proposed budget of P5,370,000.00 to City Budget Officer Leticia Clemente, then the focal person to the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) and de facto person-in-charge of all Creative City initiatives of Baguio.

The City Government of Baguio committed P2 Million for the festival. We requested for the funds to be released to BACCI which would be then subjected to liquidation, but we were informed that the LGU cannot do this, the disbursement of the funds would be made directly by the City Budget Office. We raised the concern that much of the needs of the festival do not conform to the current procurement process of the government. For example, we intended to commission installation art pieces and under the current procurement process, each “job order” would have to be bid out in a process that’s designed to award the project to the lowest bidder. Besides, the project management team needed mobilization funds. After several meetings, we had no choice but to give in to the conditions set by the City Budget Office. We carried on without any cash on hand.

That’s two million, we needed over three million pesos more to cover all the expenses of the festival.

STARTING FROM ZERO 

The Baguio Arts Collective, Inc., formed in 2018 but only formalized and legalized in early 2019, was still in its infancy. The current organization structure includes a Board of Directors chaired by Adelaida Lim who was also president, officers which included Carl Taawan as Corporate Secretary and Rommel Marcelo as Treasurer and an Executive Committee headed by Maricar Docyogen as Executive Director. In the executive committee are artists representing certain sectors: visual arts, literary arts, woodcarving, weaving, etc.

I was essentially coming in as a third-party service provider as Creative Director and Project Manager, and with me and under our agreement, the whole project management team which included a production manager, stage managers, production assistants and a documentation team, among others. The basic arrangement was in exchange for our services, BACCI would pay us the total project management cost we submitted that was approved by the board and executive committee.

While we have learned that the organization had zero funds available at the time, the assumption was that the organization would be taking care of fund-sourcing – or that at least, it wouldn’t be up to us to source out funds to pay ourselves.

ORGANIZATIONAL, FINANCIAL ISSUES AND OTHER CHALLENGES 

In August, barely four months until the festival, we were faced with a dilemma: while the festival’s rationale, outline and calendar of activities were ready, things wouldn’t move until funds became available, and BACCI had yet to identity personnel to work on that.

Adding to our woes was the lack of an office. Aside from Mt. Cloud Bookshop and Café by the Ruins Dua which was already closing shop to move to a different location, some of our meetings were hosted by Rocky Cating at the family-owned Solibao Restaurant on Session Road. We needed to have a permanent office space soonest. Several options were considered for this, including the newly-built though unutilized museum beneath the flagpole at City Hall, but after inquiring with the City Administrator about the possibility of allowing BACCI to use the space as the festival secretariat, we were told that the city’s legal office beat us to it.

The Baguio Crafts and Productivity Center (also known as the OTOP Center) was forwarded as an option, though the building was in the process of being bid out to a lessee. But upon learning that the bidding process has not been initiated yet pending the finalization of the terms of reference, we wrote the mayor, the DTI Regional Director and the president of the Association of Barangay Captains for permission to use the 2nd floor as an office. Our request was approved, and sometime in September, we moved in.

We had an office, but we still didn’t have mobilization funds. So just to get things moving while we waited for the organization to find a solution to this dilemma, we drafted the first solicitation letter addressed to the Tourism Promotions Board (TPB), one of the major contributors to the previous year’s staging of the festival. In that letter dated August 15, 2019, we aimed for the stars and asked for two million pesos to cover majority of the events calendared in the festival. The proposal was essentially approved, albeit with several documentary requirements that BACCI needed to submit but didn’t have at the time, and also with a slightly lower net amount of below P1.8 Million.

One of the requirements for the approval and release of the TPB sponsorship was the organization’s financial statement, which, as mentioned, at the time was non-existent. Despite having a zero-balance, I pointed out the need for a financial statement because since BACCI’s incorporation, it had engaged in activities that involved financial transactions such as when it was provided with free booths during Panagbenga 2019’s week-long trade fair, “Session Road in Bloom,” which, at the time and in fact to date, along with EntaCool, have neither been liquidated nor audited. We raised the concern that without those, we may not be able to secure the sponsorship of TPB.

But even with the TPB sponsorship almost confirmed (we say almost since the contract has not been signed yet pending the required documents), we still didn’t have cash on hand. Whatever we needed, we’ve had to personally provide from representation expenses to office supplies.

Meanwhile, some BACCI officers stepped up starting with board member Brenda Villanueva who donated P2,000.00, followed by then newly-installed board member Venus Navalta who donated P20,000 which was earmarked for the opening of a bank account for BACCI. Rocky Cating lent an extra inkjet printer.

CONFIRMING TPB’S SPONSORSHIP AND BACCI’S LACK OF FINANCIAL HISTORY 

Towards the end of September, while the Tourism Promotions Board has confirmed its intention to sponsor the festival, formal arrangements have yet to be made. I offered to personally meet with Ms. Rona Olaivar, Events Services Specialist of TPB and the person assigned to coordinate the sponsorship at their office in Manila to finalize the sponsorship. One of the concessions I requested TPB was that in lieu of the usual financial statement, could we just submit a bank statement in its place? With the opening of the official BACCI bank account, it was the only document relating to the collective’s financial circumstances that was available at the time. The meeting was held on September 27, 2019 at the TPB office during which we were able to finalize the details of the sponsorship, and I came back up to Baguio with the primary list of documentary requirements that we needed to provide. I say primary because items would be consequently added to that list by TPB.

In one meeting with members of the executive committee, Ms. Maricar Docyogen committed to preparing a financial statement, and also mentioned that BACCI may have around P30,000.00 in revenues from the Panagbenga event.

A meeting was called to form a “Finance Committee” composed of officers of BACCI. In that meeting, Rocky Cating was assigned as head of the committee along with BACCI Treasurer Rommel Marcelo and a report was also finally submitted by Ms. Docyogen detailing the financial circumstances of BACCI’s previous undertakings. She also turned over the amount of P10,000.00 representing, according to the financial statement she submitted, revenue derived from the aforementioned activity.

Executive Ms. Docyogen would eventually beg off from being directly involved in the operation of the organization for the month October due to personal commitments, and many of the other members of the executive committee could not commit to helping with BACCI’s administrative and financial concerns. Rocky Cating would eventually travel abroad. This left Mr. Rommel Marcelo (BACCI Treasurer) who committed to supervising the cash flow of the organization and Mr. Carl Taawan (BACCI Corporate Secretary) whom we have also included in the project management team as Logistics Coordinator. Then there was Ms. Brenda Villanueva, member of the board of BACCI, who volunteered to help with the staging of Jamming on a G-String, one of the major events calendared in the festival and Ms. Adelaida Lim, BACCI President, who made herself available to officially sign documents on behalf of the organization as much as possible.

But BACCI still didn’t have a dedicated marketing or fund-sourcing team. It became apparent that the responsibility of sourcing funds not only for the festival but also for our own professional fees would fall on our shoulders.

MORE FUND SOURCING EFFORTS, PRIVATE SPONSORS RESPOND 

Between the City Government’s and the Tourism Promotion Board’s commitments, we’ve covered roughly 80% of the festival’s financial requirements. We drafted more letters addressed to potential sponsors.

The first to respond was Victory Liner Inc. who agreed to be a major sponsor. And thanks to Ms. Lim’s efforts, this was followed by the entry of HABI – The Philippine Textile Council also as a major sponsor. Then, to our surprise, Boysen Philippines, which usually provided sponsorship in kind (usually in the form of paints and other related products), signified their intention to come in as a major sponsor providing both cash and paints. The regional office of the Department of Tourism committed to covering our printing and other promotional needs, while Converge, a new internet service provider making their presence felt in Baguio, offered connectivity on-site for the duration of the festival.

Towards the end of September, we were still short by two or three hundred thousand, and the team have been consumed by fund-sourcing efforts that the actual execution of the festival’s programs have taken a backseat. We decided to make do with what we had by that time, streamline the line-up of activities, set fund-sourcing aside already, and finally begin pre-production work on the events and activities of the festival.

THE NEED FOR BRIDGE FINANCING 

Time flew in October, but things were finally moving. And then we received word from the Tourism Promotions Board that their sponsorship would be released in the form of reimbursement, meaning after the festival. By this time, all major events were already in motion, financial commitments were piling up and the limited funds available to us from our major sponsors were dwindling fast.

We needed bridge financing, I informed the board of directors and members of the BACCI executive committee. We, members of the project management team, have already advanced over a hundred thousand to cover various expenses. Loaning the needed amount from either banks or private individuals was proposed and approved.

But the lack of financial history proved to be difficult for BACCI to secure a loan.

Board Member Venus Navalta offered to help with this problem by directing her company, IPG Media Brands Chief Financial Officer Nette Samson to assist us in getting a loan. But she could only assist us in getting a loan either from Security Bank or Cashalo, which both required numerous legal documents and collaterals to secure, both of which BACCI did not have. Carl Taawan offered to negotiate with a known event financier for a loan of 200K to 300K, but eventually that financier didn’t have available cash at the moment. Maricar Docyogen would eventually offer to loan the festival 100K – we put that on stand-by because as much as possible, we wanted to secure financing for the full amount we needed so we wouldn’t have to deal with several lenders.

By the time the Undas weekend holiday ended, we were only able to secure an initial loan of P500,000.00, and it wouldn’t be enough to get the festival through its 9-day schedule. It was already November 4, and the opening ceremony was a mere 12 days away.

*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. 

We started the project with the organization having no funds, no office, no assets.

We close the books on Ibagiw leaving BACCI with close to P200,000.00 in cash, two officers of the organization compensated, three months’ worth of retainer for an accountant/lawyer, and a functional office.