Cordillera’s culture and the arts is finding its niche in the digital creative scene as key movers in government and non-government agencies work together to build and promote opportunities for digital creatives in the region.

Industry leaders in the country shared their experiences, insights, and inputs for the Cordillera digital creative scene during the “CODE: Cordillera Opportunities for Digital Entertainment” forum held recently at the University of the Cordilleras in Baguio City.

Said forum led by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) with different partners aims to open the possibilities for the creative industry as the next step for economic development in the region.

“In CAR, we have been focusing on traditional industries like bamboo, coffee, and cacao. While it’s all well and good that we have our farmers, our manufacturers, and our processors, we do understand that there are other opportunities for the provinces and the region to boost or energize their economy,” DTI Baguio-Benguet Director Samuel Gallardo explained.

Opportunities in the Digital Creative Industry

With Baguio already set up as a UNESCO Creative City in Crafts and Folk Arts, the City offers a conducive environment for digital arts to find areas for growth.

“Animation is skill-based so it’s not going to grow like what we are able to achieve in nursing or in the BPO sector but there is no reason why we couldn’t and why not Baguio. Baguio is already a UNESCO Creative City for the Arts and there is no reason why animation can’t grow here,” shared Animation of the Philippines Inc. President and Toon City Animation CEO Miguel Del Rosario.

Del Rosario  encouraged support for the digital creative industry which is continuously growing and generating income generally through service exporting. For animation alone, the Philippines generates an estimated $50-million per year with a 10 percent d industry growth.

Another growing field in the digital entertainment industry is game development which, much like in the animation sector, exports its services to mostly Western countries.

“A lot of these games, the visuals, we’re involved in a lot of different things. The games that our players around the world enjoy, they don’t know that most part of these are made here in the Philippines,” said Game Developers Association of the Philippines Co-founder and President and Taktyl Studios Inc. CEO James Ronald Lo.

As part of the efforts to grow and give avenues for game developers and other industry players all over the country, Lo shared that their group is going around the country to touch base with local talents and for local chapters in the regions and provinces. They have also formed partnerships with academic institutions to come up and implement a curriculum particularly for the digital creative industry.

Aside from animation and game development, content creation has also boomed since the pandemic up until now. The demand for content that includes character designs, video games, animation production, social media content, and merchandise is growing exponentially with an estimated revenue of $104-billion by the end of 2022.

“Investing in the creator economy is right now. People are consuming content like crazy, it started during the pandemic and it hasn’t stop,” said Creative Content Creators Association of the Philippines Vice-President Criselda Dumlao.

She also shared moves to create a sustainable digital economy by promoting, sharing and protecting original content.

Enhanced Government Support

With the enactment of the Philippine Creative Industries Development Act (PCIDA) in July 2022, DTI Undersecretary for the Competitiveness and Innovation Group Rafaelita Aldaba ensured comprehensive state support for the creative industries.

She outlined that the PCIDA is an enabling mechanism for government support to boost the creative industry through infrastructure, research and development and innovation, and digitalization assistance and incentives.

“The creative sector is an important engine for growth leveraging on our cultural richness, skilled artists and creators along with the new technologies. The creatives can act as catalyst for creative instruction and innovation to drive and fuel economic recovery and sustainable, resilient, and inclusive growth,” she said.

In the regional level, the DTI in partnership with the DICT continue to strengthen infrastructure and systems to enable the growth of the digital creative industry. DICT ICT Industry Development Bureau Planning Officer III Jeehad Tanggol shared plans to boost the road maps and offer customized intervention for Baguio City which was identified as a next wave city.

“Baguio City is one of the next wave cities. For 2023, our bureau, the IIDB, plans to strengthen the centers of excellence and next wave cities following the framework of the digital cities,” Tanggol bared.

Going outside Baguio City, the DICT has also been conducting ICT trainings in the provinces of the Cordillera. DICT-CAR Director Rey Parnacio shared that their office has been reaching out to the different communities in the region in terms of trainings on C++ Programing and Web Development among others.

Aside from setting up enabling mechanisms for the digital creative industries, the government also revved up the protection of the creative works of artists and creatives with the constitution of the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines Bureau of Copyrights and other Related Rights in 2019.

Bureau Director Emerson Cuyo emphasized that intellectual property is at the core of the creative industry.

“Put Intellectual Property at the heart of the creative industry because it provides boundaries in the treatment of the creative industry,” he explained.

Taking it One Step at a Time

Although the digital creative industry in the Cordillera is just starting to blossom with studios like the Zigzag Studios and creatives like Tor Sagud who came up with cultural and educational content using digital arts as a platform, the region particularly Baguio City looks forward for a more robust digital creative industry.

Baguio Creative Council Vice-Chairperson shared the recent inclusion of digital creative groups and players in the Council which currently receives budget allotment from the City in support to the development of the creative sector.

City Mayor Benjamine Magalong, through his representative, also showed support by sharing projects and plans underway to foster spaces where the digital creative industry can thrive.

“Developing the creative industry in the Cordilleras, we acknowledge that it is going to be a slow process. We can start with tiny steps pretty much like what we are doing now, exposing or opening up the idea of creative industries locating here in the Cordillera so that the Cordillera people can also reap the benefits of this very promising industry,” Gallardo said.(JDP/JJPM-PIA CAR)