In the latest episode of “Stupid Laws”: Congress recently passed a bill mandating the playing of Filipino music in several key tourism venues, including hotels, resorts, airlines operating in the Philippines, and tour buses.
The authors of the bill claim that the measure aims to showcase the country's culture and promote Philippine music.
And the fines are particularly heavy: P20,000 to P50,000 to every airline, tour operator, hotel or resort who breaks the measure.
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The problem, in my opinion, is not that Filipino talents are not that talented enough to reach the kind of global sensation that, for example, K-Pop has enjoyed throughout the years.
It’s the lack of support our government has given to our singers and artists in past years.
In South Korea, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism plays an active role in promoting K-Pop as part of efforts in generating economic growth in the country.
After the 1997 Asian economic crisis, the government apparently decided that simply promoting its competitive manufacturing sector isn't enough to pull South Korea out of the recession.
Thus, the government set up the Korea Creative Contents Agency and injected funding into the Korean Film Council to promote pop culture, all while urging universities to churn out the next batch of talent.
Thanks to this aggressive promotion of South Korean culture, Korean pop groups (the boy band BTS is a very good example for this) have become global sensations, which in turn fueled a booming entertainment and tourism industry for the country.
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The lack of government support for our artists is one issue one of my bosses here at OpinYon, Ms. Michelle Nikki Junia – who is also one of the members of the board of trustees of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) – has been actively solving in her tenure.
One flagship program of the CCP is the "Kanto Kultura," which seeks to encourage Filipino talents to create artistic content that showcases innovation and creativity, as well as seeking ways of putting original Pilipino music (OPM) on the global spotlight.
Here in Laguna province, local government officials have also been actively promoting their own local talents – singers, actors, dancers and the like – as part of their efforts to promote culture and tourism in the province.
But one main fact remains that, except for the CCP, government officials have not exerted a serious effort in promoting our local talents, especially during the pandemic.
In fact, as one of our editors remarked recently, the only time the government contacts artists is when the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) charge them with tax evasion.