Who is Nick Lizaso?
When the announcement was made naming the new president of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, many confused people were left asking...
“I CALL it providential,” said the newly seated president of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), Arsenio “Nick” Lizaso, of his appointment to the post.
It was only his second day at the office on June 15 when BusinessWorld met with him. The CCP presidential seat, he said, is his first ever desk job. Prior to that he was a “freelance artist.”
As a freelancer, he has been an actor for film, theater, and TV, a director, an organization’s president ( he succeeded Lino Brocka as the president of the Director’s Guild of the Philippines), a writer, and a cultural advocate. Thanks to his art- related freelance work, in 2003 San Beda gave him an award for arts and culture. There were seven or eight other awardees at the occasion, including then Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, who was the recipient for the public service award.
“His picture appeared on top of mine with my credentials, but I did not know him then,” said Mr. Lizaso. They did not meet during the awarding ceremony, but they did in 2015 when Mr. Duterte was still thinking about filing his candidacy for presidency. A friend brought him along to listen to one of Mr. Duterte’s signature lengthy speeches. Believing he was about to meet the next president of the Philippines, Mr. Lizaso brought along the San Beda photograph and gave it to Mr. Duterte. He said the man who would be President kept it.
“Since then, I became friends with Bong Go [special assistant to the President] and I would follow them in some of their [Presidential campaign] rallies,” he said.
He was supposed to become the executive director of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), he said, but on Dec. 20, 2016, the President changed his mind and instead placed him in charge of the CCP.
“Siyempre, kung ano ang gusto ng Presidente, wala tayong magagawa. Nakakahiya naman tanggihan (Of course, whatever the President wants, there is nothing we can do [about it]. It would have been shameful to turn it down),” he said.
Mr. Lizaso the appointment process was easier back in the days when he was still part of the CCP Board of Trustees — he was on the board during the administrations of Presidents Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Benigno S. C. Aquino III. “When you are recommended by someone the committee knows, it will not take that long,” he said. But for this particular process, he underwent a vetting process and had to submit his tax and NBI clearances and curriculum vitae before accumulating a series of needed signatures.
“I accepted this first desk job because they want me, and because I am qualified. There is a big thing that the President wants. I think the reason why he or his group wants me here is because there is something that he wants to do...” said Mr. Lizaso. Asked what it was, he continued, “I don’t know...” He later clarified that it was “to help push the idea of the Department of Culture,” to develop the CCP complex, and to bring the CCP to the provinces.
The proposal for the creation of a Department of Culture is currently being heard in the Senate. Under the measure, the NCCA will be reorganized and the arts and culture-related government agencies — including the National Archives, the National Museum, the National Historical Commission of the Philippines, the Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino, the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, and the CCP — will be under the new department’s umbrella.
The two other reasons, he said, are the full utilization of the CCP complex — a 62-hectare area of which 47 hectares are is still available for development — to make it a cultural, heritage, and tourism zone.
Finally, in line with the President’s desire to shift the form of government to federalism, is a project to create at least 10 mini CCPs nationwide — “to relive, preserve, promote, and appreciate our culture,” he said, adding that the authenticity of the country’s diverse culture and practices, especially food and its preparation, loses its appeal when it is brought to the city.
The creation of the 10 mini CCPs is his top priority, he said.
On just his second day in office, he already had a lot of plans in mind, including creating oneminute video presentations and lectures to be published online and in social media sites. The target are the youth who are online savvy.
He also has plans for tapping traditional media. As a freelancer, he directed TV drama series like
Balintataw and Guni- Guni and then made a TV appearance in
ABS- CBN’s Please Be Careful
With My Heart. He knows the scope and effect of television thanks to his experience in the industry. So part of his advocacy is to have audiences reconnect with our culture and keep it alive in the changing times by creating a cultural TV show, He said he had already been in talks with Artikulo Uno, the producer of the hit movie Heneral Luna, to help produce a TV show focusing on adaptations of classic Filipino novels. He would not be act or direct in the show, he said.
Asked about the budgets for his many plans, he said, smiling: “You know what, you can dream first, and then the budget will come in.
“They are not easy things to do, but they are doable,” he said of his plans, saying that there is always a way to get them done, like tapping industry friends or looking for private partnerships.
“Ligawan mo sila ( You court them),” he said.