At the Kapihan sa Sulo in Quezon City Saturday, forum participants set aside politics and shifted their attention to culture and arts?a field where Filipinos are rich and in which they take pride.

  One aspect of artistic endeavors where we are very prolific is music.  Filipinos have a reputation for being among the most musically inclined and -gifted people.   Our impressive treasure-trove of songs, dances and other musical compositions dating back to the pre-colonial era is the envy of the world. The density of talented singers and musicians per square kilometer in the country is so high that they are among our leading manpower exports. In fact they are a permanent fixture in night clubs, theaters and other entertainment places all over the globe.

But what Filipinos of the older generations lament is why native ballads and ditties especially the kundiman are no longer being sung and heard over radio and television. Certainly, music lovers in their 40s and above have not forgotten these romantic songs in Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilocano and other vernacular languages. But why have they practically disappeared from the airlanes?  One could only shake his head in despair that the youngsters do not know and do not appreciate these old but beautiful homespun melodies.

Presidential Adviser on Culture Cecille Guidote-Alvarez, executive director of the National Commission on Culture and the Arts, assured journalists, media practitioners and politicians in the forum that efforts are being taken by the government to promote interest and appreciation for the kundiman, as well as traditional artistic  forms like balagtasan and zarzuela.

Guidote told the crowd that the Mabuhay Singers, perhaps the most durable singing group known for its superb interpretation of Filipino songs, recently guested at the weekly ?Sining Gising? program over state-run NBN-4 of which she is the regular host.

The culture and arts czarina fully agreed with the suggestion of Tribune columnist Rod Kapunan to require all broadcast networks to play at least one Filipino song every hour and to help in resurrecting the kundiman  In the 1970s, all radio stations were required to regularly play local compositions, in compliance with an order from the Marcos authoritarian government.  Kapunan recalled that this practice helped bring about a renaissance of Filipino songs, the birth of what came to be known as OPM or Original Pilipino Music. This was the golden era when singing icons like Rico Puno, Hadji Alejandro, Basil Valdez, Imelda Papin, Claire de la Fuente and Eva Eugenio made their mark.

In truth, the sad phenomenon about our forgotten folk songs is just one aspect of how our cultural treasures have been neglected. Acknowledging the problem, Senator Edgardo Angara remarked: ?Our cultural heritage has not been protected, preserved, conserved and promoted adequately and effectively.?

Angara cites several disquieting examples throughout the land where our cultural heritage ?has been repeatedly desecrated desecrated and defaced:?

Beautiful baroque churches, mostly in the Ilocos, Cagayan Valley and the Visayas, have been systematically renovated and relieved of significant materials such as exquisitely carved religious images of ivory and wood. Archeological sites have been destroyed and scientific data that could have helped complete the picture of Philippine prehistory have been irretrievably lost. Among those destroyed were the Huluga caves in Cagayan de Oro containing rare metal age artifacts, and the Isumbo neolothic cave and Arku metal age cave in Nara, Palawan, The culprits were mining firms and treasure hunters.

Paintings and sculptures have found their way to auction houses abroad.. A typically lovely Fabian de la Rosa painting just recently went on sale at auction but the National Museum could not even bid for it for lack of money.  Many works of national artists and the Gawad ng Manlilikha ng Bayan, the country?s living treasures, are not protected at all by law and therefore not subject to indiscriminate trade and always at the risk to damage by indifferent hands.

Right in Manila, a historic structure, the Metropolitan Theater, has been lying idle and almost unattended. The National Library and National Archives have seen little improvement, funding and support. Stored in National Archives are bundles upon bundles of rare and priceless colonial period documents?unexamined and unread.

?This is our intangible heritage. It comprises our language, oral traditions and expressions, music, poetry and dance, social practices and rituals of our ethno-linguistic communities. We are in danger of losing them unless we now begin to be conscious that this is an important part of our culture and our life,? the veteran legislator from Aurora said.

Upon Angara?s initiative, the Senate has approved this week a bill providing for the protection and conservation of the national cultural heritage, strengthening the NCCA and its affiliated cultural agencies. Also sponsoring the bill were Senators Loren Legarda, Mar Roxas and Richard Gordon. Underscoring the importance of the landmark legislation, Angara stresses that ?our national cultural heritage is the only way we can sustain our identity in the face of globalization and the unprecedented speed and scale of scientific advances.?

The passage of the National Cultural Heritage Act was an auspicious and inspiring step to usher in the National Arts Month this February which the country has been celebrating annually for 18 years now. The NCCA has organized a series of festivities and events to showcase the Filipino artistry, and takes a leap by going international under the name ?Philippine International Arts Festival? and its theme ?Ani ng Sining.?

Featured in the dizzying lineup of events are talents and performances of numerous artists and groups in the seven arts on whose trainings, competitions and creative expressions the government and private patrons have invested and taken care of. ?More than a way of looking back at past accomplishments, the festival will be a celebration of the fruits of the creative efforts for the past year and looking forward to a richer, more fertile ground in the coming years for the evolution of artistic modes of expressions available to the Filipino creative imagination,? the NCCA says.

The activities include, among others,  the Pang-Labas, a composite of traveling exhibition, lecture-forum and film showing which examines both the medium of film and the form and style of architecture; Sayaw Pinoy, a touring dance concert that brings together different dance forms and features local dance troupes of host cities and municipalities performing back-to-back with professional dance companies; Taboan: Philippine Writers Festival, which assembles writers from all regions and across generations who will interact with one another and with their audience on issues pertaining to their craft; Organic Musik, a series of four concerts showing the metamorphosis of elements of Philippine music from village roots to urban manifestations; and Philippine Visual Arts Festival, a convergence of selected Filipino and international artists from the country?s different regions.

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