SKETCH TOUR ON BAGUIO DAY SLATED AS CITY SEEKS CREATION OF CULTURE AND ARTS COUNCIL

August 27, 2022 Metro BLISTT

A four day sketch-tour is slated starting on Baguio Day and will feature the city’s landscapes and landmarks to give further boost to the quest for more creativity in a city recognized by the UNESCO as a creative city for folk arts and crafts. Aurelio Castro III will tour back to the city and continue his urban sketching efforts he started before the lockdowns due to the Covid 19 pandemic.

Castro will be joined by Heroes Wall of Fame artist Ged Alangui in trying to capture the city’s more important landmarks in the four day “tour”. Alangui said that he is eager to start an urban sketching group in the city and will be bolstered with the arrival of the Pasig City based Castro, who was behind the sketching of health personnel who died in the battle against Covid-19 virus.

Castro arrives on September 1 and will join local artists in an Ibagtit Arts Group activity then will proceed with the sketching the following day with Alangui. “I really want to start an urban sketching group in the city,” Alangui told this writer. More a jamming session is scheduled at the Carantes Ancestral Land along the Loakan Road on Friday as
part of the sketch tour. Castro is a mean guitar player and is part of several bands in the Big City. Castro and Alangui will resume their sketch tour the next day, mostly of landmarks outside of the central business district.

This as the City Council last Monday approved on first reading a proposed ordinance to create the Baguio
City Council for Culture and the Arts. Authored by Councilor Maria Mylen Victoria G. Yaranon, the ordinance took note of the city’s “rich culture, history, heritage, arts and tradition of the city and its people, the local government will endeavor active participation in the pursuit of cultural preservation as a strategy for maintaining Filipino identity, thus, it adopts the principles spelled out in Republic Act 7356 which created the National commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA).”

If passed, said council will be chaired by the City Mayor while the city Administrator will serve as the
Vice Chairperson. The members of the council shall be the chairperson of the City Council Committee on tourism, Special Events, Parks and Playgrounds; Chairperson of the City Council Committee on Education, Culture and
Historical Research, Chairperson of the City Council Committee on Youth Welfare and Sports development,
Chairperson of the City Council Committee on Indigenous Peoples Affairs, president of the Liga ng mga Barangay, City Planning and Development Officer, City Public Information Officer, City Budget Officer, City Tourism Officer, representative from the Department of the Interior and Local government, Department of Education, Commission on Higher Education, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, Philippine Information Agency, City Tourism Council, Baguio heritage Foundation, museums in the city, Baguio artists groups, Baguio Chamber of Commerce and Industry, private and public secondary schools, academe representatives from tertiary schools offering courses on history, culture and arts, indigenous peoples and cultural communities in the city, NCCA, accredited volunteer artists, historians, anthropologists among others.

The council will have a yearly budget of not less than P500,000 annually for its operational needs during
the initial year of operation of the council. The council’s supplemental budget will come from the city Mayor’s office.The DILG Memorandum circular No. 2017-133 has enjoined all local government units to establish a local culture and the arts council, implement related projects or strengthen existing ones thereafter.

Pigeon Lobien/ABN