Around 300 exhibitors from across the Philippines are showcased at the 2025 National Arts and Crafts Fair (NACF), being held at the Megatrade Halls 1 to 3 of SM Megamall in Mandaluyong City, from 23 to 29 October.
Spearheaded by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), in collaboration with the Office of Senator Loren Legarda, Design Center of the Philippines and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), the fair distinguishes itself from other trade fairs by highlighting and giving platform to more traditional crafts and the cultural communities that produce them as well as traditional products with modern innovations. It gathers together artisans, cultural communities, creatives and micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), and has become perhaps the largest fair of its kind in the Philippines, showcasing how heritage and traditional livelihood can harmoniously thrive with innovation and in the modern market.
Assistant Secretary Nylah Rizza Bautista, from DTI’s Competitions and Innovations Group, highlighted, in her speech during the opening ceremony on 24 October, that each booth does only bring “their products but also the stories, the traditions and the communities behind them.”
“From the northern heights to the southern islands, our artisans remind us that Filipino craftmanship is diverse and enduring,” she said.
“When you visit each and every booth, they represent the hands that toil. They represent the brains and the creativity that imagine. They represent the soul of the community, where it was founded, where it thrives. They represent the people who are paid daily wages. They represent the dreams and aspirations of the little barangay up in the highlands in the Cordillera, or a little town in the waters of Tawi-Tawi, or a nature village in my province of Antique,” said senator Loren Legarda, who conceptualized NACF and has been supporting it since it began.
“Since 2016, Senator Legarda has championed legislation that protects our heritage, promotes indigenous products and fibers and fabrics, and strengthens creative industries. Through her leadership, the NACF has become a space, where heritage meets innovation, where stories are told through textiles, woodwork design and where culture is not only preserved but celebrated as a driver of sustainable development,” Bautista enthused.
Through Legarda’s assistance, the Gawad sa Manlilikha ng Bayan (GAMABA), or the National Living Treasures award, the Philippines’ highest honor for traditional and indigenous artisans, artists and practitioners, and the School of Living Traditions (SLT), a flagship program of the NCCA on transmitting cultural knowledge and skills, have been prominently featured at the fair.
Bautista said this year’s fair has 14 booths dedicated to the GAMABA awardees and 22 booths representing the SLT, describing them as “the soul of the fair.” Aside the booths, the fair also has a GAMABA exhibit showcasing the works of the honorees such as the kattukong nga tabungaw or gourd hat of Ilocano hat maker Teofilo Garcia from Abra and the t’nalak textiles of T’boli weavers Lang Dulay and Barbara Ofong from South Cotabato.
The main stage serves as a venue for programs, performances, live demos of crafts making and screening of documentaries on intangible cultural heritage.
The NACF is also an economic platform for entrepreneurs. As DTI Secretary Maria Cristina Roque emphasized in her inspirational message, MSMEs make up 99.5 percent of business establishments and 60 percent of the labor force in the country.
“This is a sector that we definitely cannot ignore. We level them up, we will level the GDP instantaneously. The Philippine market is so huge, we are 150 million Filipinos with an average age of 25 years old. So this is something that’s very attractive to the foreign investors. So let’s take advantage of this for the local SMSEs,” she said.
“This fair is part of the Department of Trade and Industries’ continuing efforts to uplift our MSMEs and strengthen our creative industries,” Bautista said, emphasizing that DTI will continue “empowering the Filipino artisans, expanding market access, and integrating culture to economic development.”
For the DTI, the NACF also embodies the vision of inclusive growth.
“We continue to find the avenues for the SMSEs to showcase their products and we will continue to help each other so no one is left behind because we should always remember alone we can do so little but together we can do a lot,” Roque said.
Legarda said she saw the richness of Filipino creativity and also the need for government support. “That is why, as the principal author of the Magna Carta for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, and as the author of many other laws like the OTOP law, I could not see just my legislation become ink on paper or even just discussed online. I had to make sure that they are actually help, by giving them financial support, by giving them tools and equipment, by giving them marketing support, by giving them training even in accountancy and financial literacy. Even by bringing them abroad, including the Ambiente Fair and some fairs in different parts of the world,” she said.
She said that, aside from financial assistance given to many entrepreneurs, almost everything that an exhibitor needs to participate in the fair is shouldered by the government, or taxpayers’ money.
The 2025 National Arts and Crafts Fair is not merely an exhibition — it is an experience. Walking through halls feels like traversing the islands of the Philippines, where each region’s creative heritage unfolds through color, texture, form and also stories.
One booth is made colorful by intricately designed sleeping mat woven by the Jama Mapun people, part of the larger Sama peoples, of Mapun Island in Sulu Sea. Traditional mat weaving has almost vanished in the island, but Janeth Hanapi went to Bongao, the capital of Tawi-Tawi, a predominantly Sama province, and learned how to make Sama mats. She returned to her island and taught her community to weave mats. Now, she leads an association of about 30 weavers. The NACF showcases their works and one can see how Hanapi weaves a mat at their booth.
“You feel the energy. You feel the soul of the Filipino and you will see how wealthy the Filipino nation truly is. You see their talent. You see their brilliance. You see their grit. You see their resilience,” Legarda enthused.