With the courage inherited from his great-grandfather, revolutionary hero General Miguel Malvar, University of the Philippines filmmaker Pablo Gabriel “Gabby” Malvar is now applying the same virtue to be part of the government’s aim to make Filipino creative industry talents take a great leap and be globally competitive.

Malvar now works with the government-backed body as a representative of stakeholders in the audio-visual domain, where filmmaking falls, and in which his craftsmanship flourishes.

The creative economy aside from the audiovisual business; digital interactive goods and service activities; advertising, research and development, and other artistic service activities; symbols and images and other related activities; media publishing and printing activities; music, arts and entertainment activities; visual arts activities; traditional cultural expression activities; and art galleries, museums, ballrooms, conventions and trade shows, and related activities.

As a representative of the audio-visual domain, Malvar is now part of the Philippine Creative Industries Development Council (PCIDC), headed by Trade and Industry Secretary Fred Pascual.

Pursuant to section 8 of the Philippine Creative Industry Development Act, the PCIDC Plan serves as the strategic roadmap guiding the objectives set by the law.

The development plan is the country’s strategic framework that sets forth its goals, targets, and strategies to achieve its vision of becoming Asia’s Premier Creative Hub by 2030.

Malvar has been pushing for the development of creative industry hubs in all parts of the Philippines to merge creators and eventually draw revenue and provide jobs.

“The creative industry is so vast. And if you look at what is happening outside, the world is slowly increasing its appetite for global content and things that are more international with different audiences. So, we have to look at it and plan it,” Malvar said in DAILY TRIBUNE’s digital show Straight Talk.

The creative industry is a great potential source of livelihood revenues and value-added for the entire country.

Micromanager not needed

He stressed that what is good in honing the creative industry is that it doesn’t need micromanaging, and the council that rules them should only create an avenue to train them and showcase their works, and subsequently reward them.

“If you train and develop them, the success rate is higher,” he stressed.

Making the Philippines’ creative industry viable and vibrant by 2030 should be backed by straightforward and intensive planning.

“Amid that recognition, there has to be a plan or someone should act as the guiding force to integrate all the segments of the creative industry, which right now has nine domains, which include audio-visual (e.g. film, animation, broadcasting, etc.); creative services (ads and marketing agencies); performing arts, virtual arts, media services, gaming and software development, among others,” Malvar explained.

According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, there were 7.26 million persons employed in creative industries in 2023, which grew by 4 percent from 6.98 million persons in 2022.

The PSA, in its Philippine Creative Economy Satellite Accounts released last March 2024, said the country’s creative economy was valued at P1.72 trillion in 2023, contributing 7.1 percent to the gross domestic product.

Support needed

Malvar said the country’s creative industry should continue to be provided with financial support, empowered, encouraged, incentivized, innovated, and trained to thrive and be globally competitive, just like the success of South Korea’s creative industry.

“They have realized that their human capital is there, which made their creatives, especially film and performing arts, boom and globally recognized. It’s because the level of support is superb, making Korea’s film industry more extensive,” he underlined.

Despite this, Gabby recognized that the Philippines has so many excellent filmmakers who need support.

In 2019, the market size of the film industry in South Korea was valued at around $2.02 billion, which represents a slight decrease from the previous years.

A true-blooded Batangueno, Gabby graduated with Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Master of Science degrees at UP Diliman in 1990 and 1992.

He is a member of UP’s renowned Upsilon Sigma Phi fraternity.

As a documentary filmmaker, he has produced several documentaries, including short films for the National Geographic Channel, and passion films such as “Sulu” and “Tawi-Tawi.”

Right now, one of my big campaigns and advocacies is called “Know Your North,” with Victory Liner which we do several features about the Northern part of the Philippines. It’s about tourism, and heritage. We also feature living treasures, intangible heritage like brooms making, “basi” (wine), among others,” he said.

As a notable filmmaker, founder, and producer of The Extra Mile Productions, Malvar bagged the Gold Award for Sustainable and Responsible Tourism and the Silver Award for Tourism and Travel at the 2022 International Tourism Film Festival in Africa.

In 2021, he was bestowed the Dangal ng Batangan Award for Media Arts as a recognition of his contributions to the cultural development of Batangas.

Other notable short films that Gabby and his team produced include “Fields of Hope” which won the Best International Documentary Film Award at the Manhattan Film Festival in 2016; “On the Brink: Uncharted Waters” which bagged the Conservation Award at the San Francisco International Ocean Film Festival in 2016; “The Last Tattooed Women of Tanudan,” which garnered the Design Excellence Award by New York-based Filipino graphic designer Lucille Tenazas in 2018; “Palawan: The Last Bastion”, accorded Official Selection at the Wildlife Conservation Film Festival in 2021; and the “Know Your North Special” that won the Best Film on History and Heritage Award at the Croatia Tourism Film Festival in 2021.