On the occasion of the National Arts Month, I thought it would be fitting to close out this month with a little tribute to our country’s arts and cultural center: a landmark aptly titled the Cultural Center of the Philippines or the CCP.
Technically, the Cultural Center of the Philippines (in Filipino, Sentrong Pangkultura ng Pilipinas) or CCP refers to the body created in 1966 by virtue of Executive Order 30 as a “trust for..the Filipino people for…preserving and promoting Philippine culture.” But for many people, it will always be identified with its iconic building known formally as the Tanghalang Pambansa (known more as the CCP Main Building or the Theater for Performing Arts) along Roxas Boulevard which was completed 3 years later, on September 8, 1969.
It was a milestone for the brains behind the building of this edifice, then First Lady Imelda Marcos, who was able to realize her dream of a larger, grander venue for the Philippine arts that can meet the needs its predecessors the Manila Metropolitan Theater and the FEU Theater have failed to address. With the praise the newly-inaugurated CCP building was getting internationally, it was an encouragement of sorts for Imelda to continue realizing her dream of a “beautiful Philippines” through her innate “edifice complex,” as some call it.