MANILA, Philippines—The Philippines has been named "cultural capital" of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) for 2010 and 2011, according to presidential adviser on culture Cecile Guidote-Alvarez.

Asean has passed a resolution which designated Manila, host of next year's Asean culture ministers' summit, as the region's cultural capital during the next two years. Singapore has been chosen Asean cultural capital for 2012 and 2013.

"Our hosting of the Asean conference next February will coincide with the staging of the Philippine International Arts Festival at Clark in Pampanga," Alvarez told the Philippine Daily Inquirer Monday.

The twin events "would serve as a continuing effort (from last October's Asia Cultural Cooperation Forum, or ACCF, in Hong Kong) to build audiences and unleash the creative power of our people, not by compulsion, but by persuasion and not by force, but by art. In short, arts in living, living in arts," said Alvarez, also executive director of the National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA).

"Together, unified in the Asean region, we shall overcome and win the war against poverty and environmental degradation to assure the survival and dignified life on earth of our children and coming generations," Alvarez asserted.

Citing the government's Millennium Development Goals (MDG) to eradicate poverty by 2015, the NCCA head said the agency would do its part by "democratizing the people's right to culture: arts for all, not just for the elite."

"And where politics almost certainly divides, arts can unite and heal, bond and cement a nation together and an entire global community," Alvarez noted.

The Manila-based NCCA has "designed as a poverty alleviation program the Kalahi cultural caregiving services for marginalized groups in prisons, havens for abused women, youth and children, rehabilitation centers for drug dependents, refugees from armed conflicts, victims of natural disasters, the elderly, the sick, the orphans and the widows, the differently-abled, and physically handicapped," she said.

Under the program, they are given free training in the visual arts, dance, drama, poetry, comics, media arts, as well as martial arts, to discover their abilities.

During the past two months, the NCCA has conducted cultural caregiving workshops in at least 10 sites in Metro Manila, including the National Bilibid Prisons in Muntinlupa; Correctional Institute for Women; Armed Forces headquarters at Camp Aguinaldo; and Department of Social Welfare and Development rehabilitation centers like Marilac Hills and the Nayon ng Kabataan, among others.

In the Visayas, similar workshops were held in 12 provinces, including Bohol, Aklan, Antique, Negros Occidental, Samar, Leyte, and Cebu.

In Mindanao, NCCA teams visited the Davao Prison and Penal Farm in Dujali, Davao del Norte; refugee camps in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao and Midsayap, North Cotabato; flood victims in Gusa, Cagayan de Oro City; and the Bukidnon State University in Malaybalay City, among others.

Earlier in a speech before the ACCF, Alvarez described culture as "an engine for economic growth, a building block of our social creation, an asset of our national pride and a force for education and social transformation, as well as an effective tool for cultural diplomacy."

"Instead of spending billions on arms that destroy life as we face the global crisis of economic downturn and climate change disasters, we must mobilize our diverse cultural traditions and heritage, artistic resources and talents to help achieve our MDGs," she said.

According to Alvarez, the country "may be ... poor in terms of lack of US dollars or Euros in our bank accounts, but we are definitely wealthy because of our arsenal of talents."

She said Filipino artists in all disciplines have been reaping honors abroad for their excellence.

Referring to the country's cultural heritage, Alvarez cited, among others, "the Hudhud epic of the Cordilleras and the Darangen epic of Muslim Mindanao which have been declared (by Unesco) as oral masterpieces of mankind."

In her remarks, she also called on Asean member-states to "join hands in protecting our heritage."

"Many antiquities are open to pillage and illicit trafficking. Indigenous cultural is threatened like our endangered species and ecosystems," Alvarez added.