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By Ayn Veronica De Jesus Subeditor and
Lynda C. Corpuz, Contributor
Second of two parts
Cluster 4, or the Art Living Room, will be the
complex’s high-density, high-rise establishment that will
accommodate condominium buildings and exhibit areas. A sakayan, or
modest transport hub, will be built to serve commuters—a testimony
to the CCP administration’s desire to open arts and culture to
the masses—with generous open spaces and areas provided for the
public.
“Though there are major thoroughfares in the
area, we will have a public transport terminal that is accessible to
all, meaning an egalitarian vision. Whether you’re rich or poor,
you’re welcome, so public transport hubs are a must,” said
Jardin.
A one-kilometer linear park river system will be
the focal point of this cluster and will connect the residential
blocks and the marketplace.
Cluster 4’s arts and cultural facilities
include the Design Arts Museum, Juan Nakpil Boulevard Gateway,
Arturo Luz’s Building as Sculpture, and Leonor Orosa Goquingco’s
Dancing Fountain. Other facilities include the Sailaya and Sailud
markets.
Cluster 5, or Seaside, is a mixed-use coastal
zone or medium-density seafront shopping and film magnet, with
high-end residential villas. Manahan said the cluster will be linked
to the Gil Puyat Avenue extension.
The residential areas will be primarily allotted
to arts and cultural workers.
Overall, the developed CCP complex will be
oriented toward the sea to evoke the Philippines’ archipelagic
topography.
“We really want to supervise [the project],”
Bactad said. “Lessees will be free to innovate but only within the
development plan and the CCP administration’s guidelines.”
To ensure that the complex remains organized and
pollution-free, each outlet will be required to install a waste and
water treatment plant to ensure cleanliness.
The interior designs for future outlets will
also be required to comply within the complex’s overall design.
For instance, if a fast-food chain applies to set up in any of the
clusters, its blueprint must show structural designs with cultural
value.
Bactad said the development plan integrated a
study of arts and culture patrons to ensure that the complex is safe
and convenient for pedestrians.
Unlike Makati’s Ayala Center, which was
recently retrofitted with walkways after the establishments had been
built, requiring breaking down walls of buildings and roads, the new
CCP complex is designed with pedestrians in mind before its
construction.
Walkways and open spaces, which make up the rest
of the undeveloped portion, will be planted with trees, flowers and
shrubs with cultural value, such as the talisay, nilad (for Maynilad),
and tayum (for Tayuman).
Two to three buildings will be reserved for
parking spaces.
The development plan stipulates, “Aesthetics
will not be sacrificed to business. Business will not be sacrificed
to aesthetics. The development will deliver an egalitarian social
vision; the arts will be given ample context for multidisciplinary
interaction. Moreover, artists will live and/or work with Filipinos
doing other kinds of work, and the CCP will be an integral part of
the metropolis.”
The business and master plan for developing the
CCP complex is divided into four phases. The second half of 2004
fulfills Phase 1 of the plan, or the Interim Phase. Phase 2
(2005-07) is the seeding phase; Phase 3 (2008-10) focuses on the
real-estate play and full land development; and Phase 4 (2009-14)
will mark the completion of all cultural facilities and investor
projects.
The business of art and culture
According to Jardin, an initial budget of P5
billion for the first five years of the plan is required for basic
infrastructure, land leveling and grading, roads, drainages,
underground electrical, and water and communication facilities,
among others. Another P8 billion is needed to finance the second
half of the plan.
“Once you spend on this basic infrastructure,
the value of the land increases.”
He added, “We do not plan to build the
commercial facilities. The land for commercial development will be
leased or undertaken under a joint-venture agreement.”
Because land development is not the CCP’s core
competence, Jardin said, “I’m not going to pretend that
I’m the right person to develop the land, but I will oversee. I
want everything to be clean, transparent.”
He consulted with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
and former Executive Secretary (now Foreign Secretary) Alberto
Romulo. “She said, ‘Go ahead, tell us when you need our help.’
But we can’t go to them for financial aid.”
The challenge now is where to get the P5
billion. “We don’t have money. We don’t even get money for our
operations. The key is to capitalize on our asset, which is the
land.”
Jardin added that one possibility of raising
money is to borrow from banks or other financial institutions. “I
don’t like to borrow or float bonds.”
The development plan estimates that each square
meter of land in the complex has a market value of P45,000. As such,
each hectare within the complex is worth P450 million a hectare.
With the smallest cluster (Cluster 5–Seaside) about 6 hectares in
land area, that cluster alone is worth P2.7 billion.
No projections, however, can be made of the
revenues that a 24-hour arts and culture complex would bring.
“We still can’t project revenues,” Bactad
said, citing that leasing parcels of land to developers would ease
the burden of maintaining such a large and highly complex area as
the cash-strapped CCP.
To help get the ball of capital generation
rolling, the CCP administration will require developers to attract
commercial establishments. “Before you have a new theater, a new
museum, you will first save from your income, from the commercial
development, then proceed with the new development,” Jardin said.
Ecotourism zone
To lure investors into the complex, the CCP
administration will use the provisions in RA 7916, or the Philippine
Economic Zone Authority law, which classifies the CCP as an
ecotourism complex.
“This [ecotourism status] is important because
it will facilitate the comprehensive development. It will also
attract investors because of its incentives,” Jardin said.
The CCP also consulted with relevant government
offices that would benefit from RA 7718, or the
Build-Operate-and-Transfer law.
“We cannot sell our land. A BOT scheme,
straight lease and joint venture are among the options we can offer
[the developers]. We will go for whichever option is the best, the
most advantageous to the CCP,” said Bactad.
Baltazar Endriga, a former CCP president and now
the University of the East’s system president and chief academic
officer, believes a BOT scheme is both beneficial and cumbersome.
Currently, the CCP as a prime land doesn’t
make long-term leasing easy.
“Fifty to 75 years [of long-term lease] is
already a lifetime,” says Endriga.
Giving arts a mass touch
Despite the finalization of the business and
master plan for developing the CCP complex, an equally daunting
challenge is “de-elitizing” the arts and culture in relation to
commerce in a country where popular culture is so deeply entrenched.
“There is a common misconception. We have
tickets for as low as P100. For students, our tickets are
automatically discounted by 50 percent. How much are movie tickets?
P130 and up,” said Dr. Nicanor Tiongson. For this former
artistic director of the CCP and current dean of the College of Mass
Communication, University of the Philippines, it is still a
challenge for the CCP to gain wide mass appeal.
“The CCP is elitist and colonial. We should
de-eliticize it. [Promotion of] culture is not for the select few
alone.”
Since 1986, however, efforts to reach out to the
greater public have borne fruit through the CCP’s realigned vision
and mission.
Among these efforts are to reach out to the
masses by giving discounts to students and holding outreach shows
such as conferences and festivals that open the theater to the
public for free.
“I don’t mind popular culture. We should
welcome that. Culture should be equated not only with high art
alone,” said Endriga.
Jardin added, “We do that anyway at the Folk
Arts.”
Dindy Minoza, an FM radio disc jockey, agrees
that the CCP’s plan is welcome because “it is a good marketing
strategy.” She thinks the plan is “a better approach in trying
to inculcate a bit of ‘culture’ in the average Filipino.”
Public relations consultant Joan Orendain,
however, is not in favor of the CCP plan. “How déclassé! Also,
traffic in the complex is already awful,” she said. Orendain, who
frequents the CCP as much as possible and attends its activities,
added that the CCP should strengthen its strategies “for the
masses to enjoy what we enjoy.”
Carlos Celdran, a tour guide and culture
advocate in Manila, said: “I think the CCP should retain its
classy image while being more people-friendly. Bring people up.
Do not bring the institution down. The CCP has tried too much to
gain a wide mass appeal, which is failing, and has alienated a lot
of the culturati [locally and internationally].
“There is also nothing wrong with foreign and
Western shows. The effort to be too ‘nationalistic’ is
shallow and limiting. The CCP should be a global as well as a
local institution. It lost its way after Imelda Marcos. It might
learn something by looking back to its original objective—but
without the Imelda stigma. It doesn’t help anything to deny her
role in its inception either.”
Celdran doesn’t believe the CCP is elitist
both as an institution and as an edifice. “It hasn’t been
elitist in years; just physically inaccessible. Without commercial
activity around, it really is an island unto itself. You cannot even
eat dinner nearby after a show. Look at the Ayala Museum and
how it mixed culture and commerce.”
Tiongson stresses that the CCP as an institution
is not equal to the CCP Main Building. The CCP plan, once it
materializes, will assure the institution of financial stability.
Above all, with its grand plan now in the works,
the CCP should not be politicized, says Endriga.
“[CCP officials] should protect the CCP
charter. Preserve its integrity against any political expediency,”
says Endriga.
This is the challenge to establish the brand-new
Cultural Center of the Philippines in 2014
Part 1 |
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