/* receven A
Republic of the Philippines FEB 22 2017

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City, Metro Manila

Seventeenth Congress
First Regular Session

House Bill No, 0424

Introduced by Representative Sitti Djalia A. Turabin-Hataman

EXPLANATORY NOTE

This bill seeks to promote, protect, preserve and conserve the traditional
arts in Mindanao, creating for the purpose the Institute for Traditional Arts in
Mindanao and Sulu.

Mindanao is a cultural tapestry. It is home to 18 Lumad tribes, 13 ethnic-
linguistic Moro tribes and 64 settler groups who have lived in the island for
centuries, Mindanao a group of islands with peoples diverse ethnic backgrounds
and cultural diversities. Each ethnic group has its own unique identity and
customs, manifested mostly in their traditional arts passed on and kept for
generations.

The traditional arts in Mindanao and Sulu as well as in hundreds of
adjacent islands are well understood in academic, popular and community
contexts as diverse, profoundly meaningful and deeply embedded in history
Mindanao traditional arts constitute national heritage.

However, there is a real concern that the traditional arts in Mindanao and
Sulu such as the art of hand weaving, metallurgy and methalsmithing,
architecture, music and epic chanting, are becoming extinct, The younger
generations do not have an interest in learning their parents’ arts and crafts, The
Indigenous People and Muslims, like any other indigenous groups, have been
actually influenced and affected by the modern world; their cultural
distinctiveness is slowly being erased. Because of urban influences, their unique
traditional arts are on the brink of extinction, Armed conflicts that result to



buming of properties and constant displacement, as well as poverty that force
families to sell heirlooms, contribute to the decline of the traditional arts.

A good number of Filipinos, organizations, anthropologists and art
specialists all over the world are focused on preserving and conserving the
traditional arts in Mindanao. But State intervention is necessary.

The proposed creation of Institute of Sulu and Mindanao Traditional Arts
or INSUMINTRA is urgent. The INSUMINTRA is mandated to plan, institute,
implement and monitor traditional arts, crafts, programs, projects and activities
that will institutionalize the preservation and enhancement of the traditional arts
in Mindanao and Sulu, It will also coordinate with other concerned agencies
engaged in similar and related activities,

‘Traditional arts in Mindanao and Sulu must be kept alive, not only
because they provide income for the artisans and their communities but more
importantly because they are the remaining proof of pre-colonial identity of the
people of Mindanao and Sulu, and therefore of all Filipinos.

In view of the foregoing, immediate approval of this bill is highly
recommended

SITTT D. fhe b lat A. TURABIN-HATAMAN


Republic of the Philippines

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City, Metro Manila

venteenth Congress
irst Regular Session

House Bill No. 5124

Introduced by Representative Sitti Djalia A. Turabin-H

faman

AN ACT
PROVIDING FOR THE PROMOTION, PROTECTION AND
CONSERVATION OF THE TRADITIONAL ARTS IN MINDANAO AND
SULU, CREATING FOR THE PURPOSE THE INSTITUTE FOR SULU
AND MINDANAO TRADITIONAL ARTS AND APPROPRIATING FUNDS
THEREFOR

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in
Congress assembled:

SECTION 1. Short Title. — This Act shall be known as the “Traditional Arts
in Mindanao and Sulu Act.”
SEC. 2. Declaration of Policy, — With the growing awakening of the

Filipino mas to understand, appreciate and celebrate the nation's cultural

diversity and with the call to correct historical injustice against the Muslims and
Indigenous People, it is hereby declared to be the policy of the State to foster the
promotion, protection, conservation, enrichment and dynamic evolution of the
traditional arts in Mindanao and Sulu for their cultural values and to support the
traditional artists for their contributions to the national heritage by ensuring that

their skills are passed on to future generations of Mindanaoans and Tausugs

i


SEC. 3. Institute for Traditional Arts, — Pursuant to the above-stated policy,
the Institute for Sulu and Mindanao Traditional Arts or INSUMINTRA is hereby

created to formulate, implement and monitor policies, plans and cultural programs,

projects and activities that promote, preserve, enhance and develop the positive

elements of the traditional arts and culture in Mindanao and Sulu, The

INSUMINTRA shall coordinate with other agencies engaged in similar and related
activities.

The INSUMINTRA shall be an independent agency. It shall render an annual
report of its activities and achievements to the President of the Philippines and to
Congress of the Philippines

As used in this Act, traditional arts in Mindanao and Sulu refer to the culture
of a group of people in Mindanao and Sulu, their skills and knowledge that are

sed through generations, from the master craftsmen to apprentice, which include

pa
weaving, sculpture, painting, relief work, metallurgy and metal smithing, house and
boat architecture, culinary, poetry and epics, solo and ensemble instrumental music,
solo and ensemble vocal music, dance, theatre, and multi-media expressions such as
ritual

SEC, 4, Coverage. ~ The INSUMINTRA covers the island of Mindanao; the

Sulu Archipelago including Basilan, Tawi-Tawi and all the islands in between;

Sarangani (or Balut) Island; Siargao, Dinagat and neighboring islands; Samal and

Talikud Islands and all nearby islets; Camiguin Island; the islands off the coast of


Polloc Harbor, Capul Island located at the southern tip of Samar whose
inhabitants and their descendants speak the Samalan language.

SEC. 5. Principal Office. ~The INSUMINTRA shall have two main offices,
one in Zamboanga City and the other in the Municipality of Maramag, Province of
Bukidnon. It may establish field offices in other parts of Mindanao and Sulu, as
may be necessary, to achieve the objectives of this Act

SEC. 6. Duties and Responsibilities. - The INSUMINTRA shall exercise
the following duties and responsibilities

a) Consolidate an active database of traditional arts forms and
practices in Mindanao and Sulu, practitioners or artists, locations, relevant

genealogies, and historical, anthropological and archaeological accounts;

b) Conduct the necessary research and grassroots consultation to

develop project designs aligned with community interests and structure;

c) Determine an annual priority list of traditional arts practitioners
to engage in the recuperation or resuscitation projects based on priority-setling

metrics;
d) Underiake a pioneering role in project design that

1) Account for the highly specific, localized nature of traditional

art

2) Create economic support systems other than gross

commerciaiization;


3) Allow transition of old arts to. modernity without decay of

quality:

4) Support communities rather than individual artists, and

5) Promote traditional arts in their full complexity, without

simplification of social context

e) Include in the design of projects, the environmental dimensions

that impact the chances of survival of specific forms of traditional arts in Mindanao;

f) Implement projects in different parts of Mindanao and Sulu

based on set priorities

g) Monitor and evaluate projects based on priority setting metrics:

h) Represent traditional artists if in negotiation with regional
national and international entities in matters concerning the staging, circulation, and
the use of traditional arts, through partnership with the National Commission for
Culture and the Arts (NCCA) with regard to the Gawad sa Manlilikha ng Bayan

Awards (GAMABA) laureates’ activities;

i) Initiate or engage donor agencies and philanthropists in

designing projects to secure the future of traditional arts in Mindanao and Sulu;

i) Engage top calibre scholars, and develop scholars within

traditional arts communities, in writing, publishing and circulating information and

analyses of traditional arts in Mindanao and Sulu;


k) Commission and supervise the circulation video and digital
products on traditional arts in Mindanao and Sulu, in ways that can economically

benefit the practitioners;

!) Include design and implement projects or programs that involve
entire communities in ways that assure dignity and the communication of

complexity;

m) Nominate deserving traditional artists to GAMABA Search

Committee of the NCCA;

n) Support the NCCA-established Schools of Living Tradition
(SLT), by providing evaluation services and educational training modules for

community skills in passing on tradition to their young; and

0) Perform such other duties and responsibilities as may be
necessary for the effective implementation of this Act.

SEC. 7. Board of Trustees. — The governance and policy-making powers of
INSUMINTRA are vested in, and its powers exercised by, the Board of Trustees,
hereinafter referred to as the Board, composed of eleven (11) members as follows

a) Chairperson of the Mindanao Development Authority;
b) Chairperson of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts:
c) Secretary of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos;

d) Chairperson of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples;


©) A representative of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao;

f) Executive Director of INSUMINTRA; and

2) Five members of the private

tor who are of known probity and who
have professionally studied or practiced traditional arts in Mindanao and Sulu, or

who are graduates of anthropology, education or social science.

The members of the Board coming from the private sector shall be appointed
by the President of the Philippines upon the recommendation of their respective

organizations,

The chairperson of the Board shall be elected by the members from among

themselves.

fs]

iC. 8. Powers and Duties. The Board shall exercise the following

powers and duties:

a) Prepare and adopt such rules and regulations as may be necessary for

the effective discharge of its responsibilities:

b) Constitute the organizational structure and appoint INSUMINTRA’s

executive director, assistant executive director, officers and employees;

c) Review INSUMINTRA programs periodical

d) Receive donations from local or international donors, in cash or in
kind, and appropriate such sum as maybe provided by law for the support of the

(ITAMS) INSUMINTRA; and


e) Perform such other powers and duties as maybe necessary to carry out
its powers and duties.

Ss

°.9, Meetings. — The Board shall meet, preferably at its principal office,
at least once a month to discharge its duties and responsibilities. A meeting of the
Board may be called by the chairperson or upon written request of majority of its
members.

The votes of the majority of the members consisting a quorum are sufficient
for the adoption of any rule, regulation, resolution or decision of the Board.

SEC.10, Secretariat, — The Board shall organize a secretariat headed by an
executive director,

The Secretariat consists of the following component offices:

a) Office of the Executive Director,
b) Monitoring and Evaluation Office;
c) Field Work Team; and

d) Library and Archives

The Board shall fix its staffing pattern, determine the duties, qualifications,
responsibilities and functions as well as the compensation scheme for the position
to be created upon the recommendation of the executive director. The staffing
pattern shall be approved and prescribed by the Board within one hundred twenty
(120) days from the approval of this Act

SEC. 11. Functions of the Executive Director. — The executive director shall

exercise the following functions


a) Prepare the staffing pattern of the INSUMINTRA which includ

qualifications and compensation of official

s and personnel in as may be neces

for the proper discharge of the functions of INSUMINTRA;

b) Control and supervise the operation and internal administration of the

¢) INSUMINTRA in accordance with existing laws, rules and

regulations;

d) Recommend to the Board such policies and measures which are
deemed necessary for the effective exercise and discharge of the powers and

responsibilities of INSUMINTRA:

e) Submit an annual report to the Board on the status of the programs and
the financial condition of INSUMINTRA, including a recommendation for its

budget for the ensuing year, and

fy Perform such other functions as may vested herein by the Board

SEC. 12. Appropriations, ~ The amount necessary for the establishment of

the INSUMINTRA shall be set aside from any available funds of the National

Treasury not otherwise appropriated. Thereafter, such sum as may be necessary for

the continued operation of the institute shall be included in the annual General
Appropriations Act
SEC. 13. Implementing Rules and Regulations. — Within ninety (90) days

from the approval of this Act, the chairperson of INSUMINTRA shall, in

coordination with the other government agencie
8

mentioned in Section 7 of this


Act, formulate the necessary rules and regulations for the effective
implementation of this Act

SEC. 14, Repealing Clause. ~ Any law, presidential decree or issuance,
executive order, letter of instruction, administrative order, rule or regulation
contrary to

or inconsistent with, the provisions of this Act is hereby repealed, modified,
or amended accordingly

SEC. 15. Effectivity. — This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its
publication in the Official Gazette or in a newspaper of general circulation

Approved,