The Philippines as a global creative powerhouse
August 22, 2022originally published in The Manila Standard
“House Bill 0799 has the strong support of creative industry stakeholders, the telcos and internet service providers and should be one of the top priorities of Congress”
The Philippine creatives industry, a sector that has been in a protracted state of crisis even before the pandemic, has now been given institutionalized support from the government when Republic Act 11904 or the Philippine Creatives Industry Development Act lapsed into law last July 27.
This new law, jointly pushed by the public and private sector, aims to harness the huge potential of the country’s creative industry and make it the leading creative economy of Asia.
In a published statement, House Special Committee on Creative Industry and Performing Arts chairman Rep. Christopher De Venecia said, “This law will also provide centralized State support to our creative industries, unlike the current system where State support is sporadic.”
RA 11904 establishes by law the Philippine creatives industry defined as, “trades involving persons, whether natural or juridical, that produce cultural, artistic and innovative goods and services originating in human creativity, skill, and talent, and having a potential to create wealth and livelihood through the generation and utilization of intellectual property.”
The law supports the vision of the “Creative Economy Roadmap” submitted to the Department of Trade and Investments by the Creative Economy Council of the Philippines which projects that “by 2030, the Philippines will be the number one Creative Economy in ASEAN in terms of size and value of our creative industries, as well as the competitiveness and attractiveness of our creative talent and content in international markets.”
In a recent forum, DTI Secretary Alfredo E. Pascual said the Philippines should penetrate the global economy by going above and beyond in support of the digitalization of the creative industries and make outlined DTI’s policy recommendations such as promoting creative hubs and clusters and advocating for the development of Philippine Creative Cities.
On the other hand, DTI Assistant Secretary Glenn Peñaranda pointed out that the Philippines as an exporter of creative services accounts for only 2 percent market share in the Asia Pacific region.
He quoted CECP data counting about 3 million creative freelancers of which 1.5 million or half are contracted for international projects. This reveals a big potential for growth.
The lockdowns of the pandemic spurred the surging growth of the animation and game development industry which, according to Statista 2020 data, generated $24 million revenue in the Philippines, a 27.9 percent boost from the previous year.
Put this in the context of the 2021 games market data reported by Newzoo at an estimated $180 billion which trumps the combined performance of the music and movie industries.
Imagine our armies of creative talent penetrating and thriving in this global market’s insatiable demand for new content.
Related is the booming esports sector where Filipino gamers can develop careers that pay international rates.
The Philippine Creatives Industry Development Act and the inherent potential of Filipinos to shine even in the highly competitive global stage indeed paints a bright horizon for growth as an important economic pillar like the success of South Korea’s worldwide K-Pop phenomena.
But unless the rights and rightful income from intellectual properties are protected from online piracy, the world class creations produced by Filipinos will only be stolen and enrich the criminal operators of the piracy websites.
Though the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines National Telecommunications Commission, and various internet service providers have put up mechanisms to rapidly block pirated sites, new anti-piracy legislation is needed to address policy gaps in the Intellectual Property Code to effectively block piracy websites which has been proven to be very effective in many jurisdictions.
To this end, House Bill 0799, “An Act Establishing for The Revised Intellectual Property Code Of The Philippines” sponsored by Rep. Joey S. Salceda proposes to amend the IP Code to include “the power for regulators to issue “permanent blocking orders, take down orders, cease-and-desist, or disable access orders, to the intermediary service providers, domain name registries and registrars, website owners, online intermediaries, online platforms, social media platforms, or any similar medium in relation to an online violation of intellectual property rights.”
The key provisions of the bill and the best practices on fighting online piracy and the issues as well as the opportunities of a developing a robust creative sector will be thoroughly discussed by top-level Filipino and international industry leaders during the Asia Video Industry Association and the Coalition Against Piracy summit on Content Piracy – A Barrier to Economic Growth and A Danger to Consumers to be held on September 2.
House Bill 0799 has the strong support of creative industry stakeholders, the telcos and internet service providers and should be one of the top priorities of Congress because of the strategic value of developing our talent rich human resources into a global creative powerhouse.