Policy, objectives, and intent
- The State policy is to preserve and promote traditional folk arts—whether visual, performing, or literary—for their cultural value, and to honor and support traditional folk artists for their contribution to national heritage.
- The State policy ensures that artistic skills painstakingly cultivated and preserved are encouraged and passed on to future generations of Filipinos.
- The objectives include acknowledging traditional folk artists as a singular conduit between past and future skills.
- The objectives include revitalizing community artistic tradition to protect a facet of Philippine culture.
- The objectives include providing mechanisms for identifying and assisting qualified traditional folk artists to transfer their skills to the community.
- The objectives include creating opportunities for popularizing works locally and internationally.
Core definitions of terms
- “Manlilikha ng Bayan” means a citizen or group of citizens engaged in any traditional art uniquely Filipino, with distinctive skills that have reached a high level of technical and artistic excellence, and that have been passed on to and widely practiced by the present generation in the person’s community with the same level of technical and artistic competence.
- “Traditional Folk Art” refers to expressions of distinctiveness and artistic quality created to serve decorative and/or utilitarian or sociocultural functions of traditional folk artists, commonly known for such works.
Qualifications and eligibility criteria
- To become a Manlilikha ng Bayan, the candidate must satisfy the following minimum criteria:
- The candidate must possess mastery of the tools and materials needed by the art and must have an established reputation as a master and maker of works of extraordinary technical quality.
- The candidate’s work must be outstanding aesthetically and the candidate must have consistently produced over a significant period works of superior quality.
- The candidate must have transferred and/or be willing to transfer to other members of the community the skills in the folk art for which the community has become nationally known.
- The candidate must have engaged in a folk art tradition that has been in existence and documented for at least fifty (50) years.
- The candidate must command the respect and admiration of the country for character and integrity.
- The implementing agency may require additional criteria and qualifications in furtherance of the Act’s purposes.
Award, incentives, and benefits
- The award to the Manlilikha ng Bayan is called “Gawad sa Manlilikha ng Bayan.”
- Each awardee receives a commemorative plaque and/or medal, and a duplicate set is donated to and permanently displayed in the pertinent provincial museum or the largest cultural center to broaden community awareness and recognize the value of traditional folk arts.
- Each awardee receives an initial grant of P100,000.00 and P10,000.00 a month thereafter for life, unless the Commission, after due hearing, finds good reason to discontinue the grant due to violations of pertinent terms and conditions stated under the Act.
- The grant may be increased whenever circumstances so warrant, provided the increase is not retroactive.
- All surviving samples of the awardee’s works are to be catalogued and photographed, and the awardee’s work methods are to be documented.
- A vocational course using the awardee’s materials, tools, methods, and designs may be offered at the nearest arts and trades school through cooperative efforts of the Department of Trade and Industry, the Department of Education, Culture and Sports, and a private foundation and/or private corporation to effect skill transfer and preservation of folk art tradition.
- A feasibility study on converting the awardee’s art into a specialized cottage industry in the awardee’s province—preferably in the recipient’s barangay or town—may be undertaken by the Department of Trade and Industry in collaboration with private investors.
- The recipient is invited to Manila-based and regional cultural events that salute the importance of traditional folk arts in the Filipino cultural heritage.
Duties and responsibilities of awardees
- The Manlilikha ng Bayan serves as a link between the past and the future of traditional folk art, and therefore must:
- Transfer the skills of the traditional folk art to the younger generation through apprenticeship and other effective training methods.
- Cooperate with the implementing agency in the promotion and propagation of traditional folk arts as provided in Section 7.
- Donate to the National Museum a sample or copy of the awardee’s work.
Implementing agency powers and functions
- The implementing agency is the Presidential Commission on Culture and Arts (PCCA), created under Executive Order No. 118 dated January 30, 1987.
- The PCCA must develop and adopt a program to implement the Act and promulgate rules, regulations, and selection criteria governing the award of Manlilikha ng Bayan.
- The Commission constitutes and appoints panels of experts, including nominees of the Office of Muslim Affairs, the Office of Southern Cultural Communities, and the Office for Northern Cultural Communities in each traditional folk art category, to assist in thorough search for and fair award of traditional folk artists.
- Traditional folk arts categories include weaving, woodcarving, metal-working, jewelry-making, embroidery, furniture making using indigenous materials, dance, song, instrumental folk music, folk literature, drama, boat-making, pottery-making, and other indigenous technology and architecture such as rice-terracing.
- The PCCA has power to increase the monetary grant whenever circumstances so warrant, subject to the same rule that the increase is not retroactive.
- The PCCA must design, monitor, and evaluate programs ensuring that Manlilikhang Bayan transfer skills to others and coordinate with pertinent agencies, both public and private, for program implementation.
- The PCCA must undertake measures that protect the awardees’ intellectual/cultural property rights.
- The PCCA must promote the widest utilization and improvement of awardees’ designs and patterns and their materials, tools, and techniques in coordination with pertinent agencies, public and private.
- The PCCA must undertake information dissemination programs to broaden community awareness and instill pride in the awardees’ achievements.
- The PCCA must facilitate or undertake activities in coordination with the Department of Trade and Industry, the Department of Science and Technology, and the Department of Tourism to make awardees’ efforts aesthetically rewarding and economically profitable.
- The PCCA must generate funds from the Government and the private sector for implementing the Act.
Appropriations and funding
- The amount necessary to carry out the Act is included in the General Appropriations Act of the year following enactment into law and thereafter.
Tax privileges for donations
- Donations or gifts made to or for the use of the Philippine Commission on Culture and Arts (PCCA), exclusively for Manlilikha ng Bayan, qualify for tax privileges under applicable rules of the National Revenue Code (NRC) and Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines (TCCP).
- Gifts or donations enjoy exemption from donor’s tax pursuant to Section 94(a)(3) of the NIRC, as amended.
- Donations are deductible from the donor’s gross income for purposes of computing taxable income in accordance with Section 29 and Section (h) of the NIRC, as amended.
- Gifts or donations from foreign countries enjoy exemption from taxes and duties under Section 105 of the TCCP, as amended, and Section 103 of the NIRC, as amended.
Repeal and separability, effectivity
- All laws, issuances, decrees, or parts inconsistent with the Act are amended or repealed accordingly.
- Republic Act No. 7355 takes effect fifteen (15) days after publication in the Official Gazette or in a newspaper of general circulation.