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Tourists don’t go to the Philippines to dine in contrived Balinese
themed restaurants and resorts or travel all the way to witness
fiestas where dancers gyrate to brainless noontime show pop ditties.
They want what they can’t find anywhere else. They want the real
Philippines: indigenous and folk dances, handicrafts, textiles and
cuisine.
To help preserve the diverse cultural legacies
of the Philippines, the Department of Tourism (DOT) launched
Operation: Tunay na Kulturang Pinoy (TKP), a series of free
workshops that taught local communities how to maintain the
integrity of their traditional arts.
Operation: TKP began on December 4, 2007, at
Laoag City. Its subsequent workshops were held in different
provinces across the Philippines.
The project was organized by the DOT, in
cooperation with the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA),
the National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA), the
Philippine Normal University (PNU) and the University of the
Philippines (UP). Operation: TKP was conceived by the DOT’s
Cultural Director, Rene Romulo de los Reyes.
According to de los Reyes, because of
commercialism, provinces all over the Philippines have created
performances that have no historical basis. In order to appeal to
domestic and foreign visitors, some municipalities have even copied
well-known Filipino festivals and merged them with contemporary
dances and pop music.
“The Sinulog Festival, for example, has been
imitated countless times in other cities besides Cebu. Why are crude
variations of it being done in provinces that have their own
indigenous celebrations? This has to be changed so that neglected
Filipino festivals will be embraced once more,” de los Reyes
explained.
Operation: TKP amended this by teaching
communities the traditional and historical methods of holding
festivities in their regions. Special programs based on indigenous
dance techniques, festival management and planning, stage design and
musical composition were taught to more than 1153 participants.
“The reception to Operation: TKP was
overwhelming. During some of the workshops, the number of expected
attendants was doubled from 93 people to 216,” de los Reyes said.
“We were worried about the lack of space in some venues because so
many people were excited to join and learn something new.”
More than 314 participants came to the first
seminars in Laoag City and Ilocos Norte. Two hundred and two people
came to the Baguio City workshops, while 154 people came to the
Nueva Vizcaya seminars. A combined number of 466 people joined the
workshops in Albay and Tacloban City. Another 455 participants
attended the final Operation: TKP in Cagayan de Oro City and Butuan
City.
The workshops were facilitated by experts in the
fields of folk dance, music, theatre, visual arts and management.
The facilitators were Brenda Fajardo of PETA, Ria Lopez of UP, Larry
Gabao of PNU, Frank Rivera of the NCCA and Benencio Sokkong of the
School of Living Traditions.
The success of Operation: TKP can be attributed
to the Pusong Turismo, Diwang Pilipino campaign, which the DOT
advocated during the workshops. The campaign promotes a culture of
tourism that respects local traditions and preserves their unique
characteristics.
“At first, some people were reluctant to join
the seminars,” de los Reyes remarked. “We gave a brief lecture
on the importance of having authentic performances that reflect the
true spirit of our country. They started coming in droves
afterwards.”
A remarkable proof of Operation: TKP’s
effectiveness happened in Cagayan de Oro City. After completing the
workshops, the participants decided to showcase their new skills by
doing an impromptu dance parade in the streets.
“They marched through different sections of
the city. Some even brought their own costumes and bamboo
instruments. The police had to direct us to the proper avenues
because others started joining in,” de los Reyes said. “It was
the kind of creativity we wanted everyone to witness, even if it was
only a rehearsal.”
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