A lawmaker stands ready to support any proposed measure that would not only create a separate department for sports, culture, and arts, but would also allocate a separate budget for the development and improvement of the sports community in the country.
Pwersa ng Bayanihang Atleta (PBA) Party-list Rep. Margarita “Migs” Nograles is hopeful that if her proposed measure, House Bill (HB) No. 3597, passes into law, there would be a budget set aside for athletes and the sporting community.
"If that passes into law, and we will have a budget for that, it would be easier to do collaboration, or to speak to the Secretary of the Department to have also a budget solely for the development of athletes and sports community throughout the Philippines,” she said in a Facebook post on Monday, Oct. 24.
Nograles, a lawyer, was referring to HB 3597, or “An Act Creating the Department of Sports, Culture and Arts Defining Its Powers and Functions, Appropriating Funds Therefor, and for Other Purposes.”
The measure was tackled for first reading by the House Committee on Government Reorganization, Committee on Youth and Sports Development, and Committee on Basic Education and Culture during its first regular session last Aug. 17.
Records culled from the House of Representatives showed HB 3597 was filed on Aug. 15, to “create an inclusive body that will recognize a strong nation that focuses and recognizes our Filipino Athletes and Cultural Artist.”
The bill’s explanatory note said that “there is a need to prioritize the Philippine traditional arts and communities which on the brink of becoming extinct in terms of Filipino weaving, architecture, performing arts and its allied arts because of the proliferation of social media, television, and the internet.”
This despite the creation of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), which serves as the policy- making and coordinating body of all programs and plans related to the conservation, development and promotion of Philippine arts and culture.
In the bill, Nograles proposed an “incentives program” that will provide monetary and tax incentives to national athletes and cultural artists “in order to encourage the participation of the community in the development of sports, culture, and arts in the grassroots sector.”
The proposed Department of Sports, Culture and Arts shall also have attached agencies, such as the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), Games and Amusement Board (GAB), and NCCA, which will supervise the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP), National Museum of the Philippines, National Library of the Philippines, National Archives of the Philippines, and Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino (KWF).
The department will likewise have a secretary, undersecretaries, assistant secretaries, regional executive directors, structure and staffing partner, and secretariat.