Loren Legarda
MANILA, Philippines – Senator Loren Legarda referred to as on embracing cultural preservation as an indispensable funding within the nation’s future throughout her keynote handle at Cultural Ideas and Trajectories, held at Manila Home on Monday, February 26, 2025.
The occasion, organized in partnership with the Nationwide Fee for Tradition and the Arts (NCCA) in celebration of Nationwide Arts Month, introduced collectively policymakers, diplomats, cultural leaders, and teachers for a thought-provoking alternate on safeguarding and advancing Filipino identification in an period of speedy international change.
“We can’t presumably absolutely grasp the world that awaits two thousand years forward, however what we select to protect right this moment—our data, our traditions, our tales—will ripple by time, shaping lives lengthy after we’re gone, simply because the knowledge of the previous continues to information us now,” Legarda declared.
The four-term senator opened her handle with a vivid picture of the traditional Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras, emphasizing how ancestral ingenuity affords options to up to date challenges. “These terraces endure due to the quiet brilliance of a individuals who, lengthy earlier than the world had the language for it, understood sustainability, engineering, and steadiness,” she defined. “Now, as trendy societies grapple with local weather crises, meals insecurity, and ecological resilience, the world appears to be like again to those historic marvels—to study.”
A recipient of the celebrated Dangal ng Haraya Award, Legarda reframed cultural preservation as each a pillar of nationwide resilience and a supply of innovation. “In an period the place energy is measured in financial may, the Philippines carries a special wealth: a smooth energy that endures reasonably than conquers, that evokes reasonably than imposes,” she asserted. “Inside the classes of our ancestors could also be discovered the solutions to questions future generations have but to ask. And in that, maybe, lies our biggest benefit.”
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A staunch advocate for cultural preservation, Legarda, who chairs the Senate Committee on Tradition and the Arts, has authored landmark laws such because the Nationwide Cultural Heritage Act of 2009 (RA 10066) and the Cultural Mapping Legislation (RA 11961), mandating a complete stock of Filipino tangible and intangible heritage. Her advocacy extends past coverage into tangible influence: from community-driven applications, sustainable livelihood tasks, and worldwide cultural diplomacy. From publications and media productions to museums, galleries, gastronomy, music, constructed heritage, and indigenous languages, her work has elevated cultural preservation right into a nationwide improvement technique.
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“However let me be clear about our goal: tradition just isn’t mere adornment; it’s a important engine of livelihood and financial progress. The arms that preserve it alive should be outfitted with the mandatory infrastructure, sources, and market entry to maintain their craft as a viable occupation. Something much less is a betrayal of the very legacy we search to guard,” Legarda harassed.
The occasion additionally highlighted how Legarda’s cultural diplomacy has elevated the Philippines on the world stage. From main the nation’s triumphant return to the Venice Biennale in 2015 after a 51-year absence to securing its function as Visitor of Honor on the Frankfurter Buchmesse 2025, she has ensured international recognition for Filipino artistry and scholarship. Her initiatives, corresponding to Sentro Rizal, a world community of cultural facilities in Philippine embassies, and the Philippine Research Program, now housed in over 20 universities worldwide, have institutionalized the tutorial research of Filipino tradition and historical past throughout continents.
An internationally acknowledged champion for local weather resilience and catastrophe danger discount, Legarda, who serves as UNDRR International Champion for Resilience, additionally underscored the pressing intersection of tradition and local weather motion.
“For a nation constantly ranked among the many most weak within the World Danger Index, the stakes are nothing lower than survival. Integrating the knowledge of our cultural heritage into local weather motion might very nicely be the important thing to local weather resilience.”
Legarda’s collaborations with state universities have already formed nationwide conservation insurance policies, informing sustainable approaches to forest administration, coastal stewardship, and upland useful resource governance. By merging indigenous data with trendy science, these initiatives provide forward-looking options to environmental challenges.
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Following her keynote, this system featured two in-depth lectures delivered by Nationwide Artist Virgilio Almario and NCCA Chair Victorino Mapa Manalo. The occasion concluded with a dynamic open discussion board, facilitating cross-sectoral dialogue and reinforcing a collective resolve to embed cultural preservation as an integral pillar of nationwide improvement.
