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MANILA, Philippines – The entry of foreign architects will challenge Filipino architects to become more competitive, National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) chairman Felipe De Leon said Thursday.
“Nothing wrong with opening up architecture design to international competitors; it will be good because it will challenge Filipinos who sometimes are too complacent,” De Leon said when asked to comment about the announcement of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) that it plans to open the local labor market due to a shortage in skilled labor.
DOLE said there is a shortage of architects in the country. Aside from architects, the country needs chemical engineers, chemists, environmental planners, fisheries technologist, geologists, guidance counselor, licensed librarians, medical technologists, sanitary engineers, computer numerical control machinists, assembly technicians, test technicians, pilots, and aircraft mechanics.
Architecture is one of the seven arts that the NCCA oversees. The others are cinema, dance, literature, music, theater and visual arts.
“I don’t see anything wrong as long as there is no monopoly in contracting architects,” De Leon said.
De Leon also noted that foreign architects might even make designs that are “more Filipino” than Filipino architects.
“If we can get international designers, [Filipino architects] will be challenged when they make designs that are more like Filipino traditional design. I think that’s a good challenge,” De Leon said.
“Because it does not mean if they’re an international designer that they cannot make Filipino design, in fact international designers can make designs that are more Filipino. Many international designers study thoroughly in traditional design and that is what they base their contemporary design on,” he said.
De Leon cited, as an example, the Jakarta airport in Indonesia, which was designed by a French architect.
“The Jakarta airport was built by a French designer but he studied extensively on what is traditional Indonesian art that’s why when you go to Jakarta airport you really feel the Indonesian culture,” he said.
A migrant workers group slammed the DOLE for its plan saying that it was “insulting to millions of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).”
“There is a plethora of reasons on why this move is untimely, if not downright delusional,” Garry Martinez, Migrante International chairperson, said in a statement.
“That the DOLE even has the audacity to announce such a thing is absurd, atrocious and awfully insulting to millions of our Filipino workers and professionals here and abroad,” he said.
Migrante blamed the Aquino administration for its labor export policy, which causes many Filipinos to seek greener pastures abroad.
“Last year, the government deployed 2 million OFWs and professionals abroad, the biggest in history… The Aquino government [has an] aggressive labor export policy that thrives on Filipino workers and professionals’ desperation,” Martinez said.
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