Officials ink Bibo Bohol partnership

WHEN the festive month opened, May 1, local officials and the country's cultural workers inked here in Bohol a partnership with the Provincial Government of Bohol, the Bohol Arts and Cultural Heritage Council, and the Metropolitan Museum of Manila for Bibo Bohol Program.

Governor Erico Aumentado, MET Museum's Ino Manalo and Bea Zobel, Lutgardo Labad, Chair of the BACH Council, Marianito Luspo, Director of the Office of Cultural Affairs and Development of Holy Name University, and Junjee Madronero of the Soil and Water Conservation Foundation, also jointly pledged support for BIBO BOHOL.

The program is envisioned as centerpiece strategy for poverty alleviation using the power of heritage, arts, and community creativity for increasing community livelihood. The multi-level interdisciplinary program aims to develop Bohol 's creative industries for poverty reduction and sustainable development. Arts and cultural heritage in Bohol not only strengthens people's sense of cultural identity, if reined to the full, can be a source of initiatives, creativity, and inner strength to rejuvenate dying crafts and cultural industries. This could create heritage-based jobs for additional incomes.

Bibo's main strategy is the creation of endowment fund for cultural industries, which would be used to sustain identified efforts at the community level. Bibo's main programs include revitalization of heritage crafts, restoration and creative re-use of ancestral homes and heritage districts, creation of cluster-based ecological and cultural tourism, heritage youth camps, promotions and marketing and capability building for the development of creative industries here.

Bibo Bohol initially launched Pasko Pabibo sa Sitio Ubos in 2005 at the historic Sitio Ubos. It featured the opening of a traditional Belen at the Suarez Ancestral House Museum , the opening of a crafts fair at the Tabo sa Sitio Ubos Pavillions, contests for various Christmas traditions like Pastores, Daygon, and Christmas lanterns.

Three projects officially launch Bibo Bohol this May.

These are the International Conference on Ancestral Houses and Vernacular Architecture on May 16-17, 2006; Youth Ecological and Cultural Heritage Immersion Camp on May 18-21, 2006 and the (3) Ecological-Cultural Heritage Planning Workshop for Bohol's Local Executives.

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