Maria
5–6 November 2026
Topic: DOST's Role in Advancing Filipino Creativity through Research, Development,
and Innovation in Support of the PCIDC Plan
Magandang araw po sa inyong lahat.
A hand-woven textile. A guitar shaped and tuned by a craftsman. A mobile game that
speaks our language. A centuries-old church facade carefully restored.
We call these art. We call them culture. We call them heritage. And they are all of that.
But behind each one is something we do not always say out loud: materials, methods,
tools, and knowledge. In other words, science and technology.
Let me share what the Philippine Statistics Authority reported this March.
In 2025, the Philippine creative economy reached PhP 2.12 trillion. That is up from
PhP 1.98 trillion in 2024, a growth of 6.9 percent. It accounts for 7.6 percent of our
Gross Domestic Product.
Think about that. Roughly one out of every thirteen pesos of our national output comes
from the creativity of Filipinos.
And look at where the value is coming from. Three domains lead the way: Symbols
and images and related activities, which include textiles, garments, footwear, furniture,
and jewelry, at 31.6 percent, or about PhP 670 billion. Digital interactive goods and
services, such as software, mobile applications, and games, at 19.7 percent. And
advertising, research and development, and other artistic services at 15.9 percent.
Together, these three account for about two-thirds of the creative economy.
Notice what these domains have in common. They are crafts and enterprises that
depend on materials, design, production, and digital technology. This is exactly where
science, technology, and innovation can make a difference.
The figures also carry some challenges, and we should be honest about them.
The creative industries employ about 8.7 million Filipinos, or 17.8 percent of all
employed Filipinos. And one-third of those jobs are in traditional cultural expression.
These are our weavers, our carvers, our community artisans. Creativity, for many
Filipinos, is not a hobby. It is a livelihood.
At the same time, PSA reports that we imported PhP 711 billion in creative goods in
2025, against PhP 320 billion in exports. We are strong in creative services, with PhP 427
billion in exports against PhP 138 billion in imports. But in creative goods, we still
buy more than twice what we sell abroad.
PSA is careful to note that these results are preliminary, based on a pilot study, and
that it intends to institutionalize the creative economy satellite account. We welcome
that. What gets measured gets supported.
But the message is already clear: there is a large opportunity for Filipino creative goods
to be better, more competitive, and more widely sold, at home and abroad.
This is the purpose of Republic Act 11904, the Philippine Creative Industries
Development Act, and of the Plan that the Philippine Creative Industries Development
Council has set before us. The Plan gives our creative enterprises a direction:
innovation, capacity building, and market access.
DOST takes its part in that Plan seriously. Through DOST-PCIEERD, we have
supported the creative industries through at least 76 projects, with investments of more
than PhP 886 million. Let me describe how that support translates into action, in four
ways.
First, we strengthen the craft. We support the improvement of handloom weaving,
furniture, footwear, musical instruments, and jewelry, through better processes, better
materials, and better designs. We have also established specialized laboratories for
footwear, for sound and acoustics, and for language processing, so that our creators
and manufacturers have access to testing and prototyping capabilities that no single
small enterprise could afford alone.
Second, we help create what is new. We support research and development in games,
films, entertainment, and augmented and virtual reality. Our stories, our languages,
and our imagination deserve to be told through the most modern media available, and
to be told by Filipinos.
Third, we help enterprises grow. Through technology business incubators, we nurture
startups and social enterprises, so that a good idea does not stay a prototype, but
becomes a product, a business, and a source of jobs.
Fourth, we safeguard and promote our heritage. We support the restoration of heritage
structures and the science-based preservation of cultural properties and artifacts. We
also help preserve and modernize traditional industries, such as handloom weaving,
through science, technology, and digitalization. At the same time, we bring science
museums and travelling exhibitions closer to communities, making our heritage and
the value of science more accessible to every Filipino.
Innovation. Capacity building. Market access. These are the PCIDC Plan's pillars, and
they are also the way DOST works with the creative sector.
But I will not tell you that the work is done. It is
not
still need to bridge the gap between a promising prototype and a commercial
product. We need to bring technology to creators in the regions, not only those in the
major cities. We need more researchers and professionals who can work across fields:
people who understand both artificial intelligence and extended reality, and the
heritage and culture these tools are meant to serve.
There are also new risks. Generative AI is changing how creative work is made, and
it raises real questions about the future of creative jobs and the rules that protect them.
Piracy and intellectual property theft threaten the very people we want to help. We
must also respect the rights of communities over their traditional knowledge and
expressions, so that technology adds to their dignity and does not take from it.
And as someone who has spent much of his career in disaster science, I must add
this: climate change and natural hazards threaten our heritage structures, our
museums, and even the natural materials that our artisans depend on. Protecting
creativity also means building resilience.
But where there are gaps, there are opportunities: Philippine-language games, digital
animation, eco-friendly designs for consumer products, immersive cultural spaces,
and digital museum tours that can bring our heritage to anyone, anywhere. The world
is looking for sustainable materials and for original stories. We have both.
That is why DOST convened this Summit.
Over the next two days, we will showcase the projects and technologies we have
developed with our partners. We will listen to you: to your concerns, to the technology
gaps you face, and to the opportunities you see. And we will use what we hear to
update our research and development roadmaps for the creative industries, so that
our investments follow the real needs of the sector and the direction of the market.
We also hope that this Summit will help us find champions and partners: researchers,
enterprises, agencies, and communities who will carry this work forward long after
these two days are over. We want to align our R&D with the priorities of industry and
with the broader national R&D agenda, so that every peso, and every idea, counts.
So, to our creators, entrepreneurs, researchers, and partners in government: tell us
what you need. Propose collaborations. Bring us your hardest problems. That is how
we will build a creative sector that is not only vibrant, but also competitive.
The Filipino has always been creative. That is our gift.
The task of science is to help that gift last, grow, and reach the world. The task of
government is to make that possible. And the task of all of us in this room is to do it
together.
When science serves creativity, creativity serves the nation. Our woven traditions, our
songs, our heritage, our stories, and our games endure not because of the tools that
make them possible, but because of the love, care, and pride that Filipinos put into
them. Science can sharpen the tools; it is the heart that gives them meaning.
Ipagpatuloy natin ang pagbuo ng isang malikhaing Pilipinas—may agham sa ating
mga kamay at puso sa bawat ating ginagawa.
Sa siyensya at teknolohiya, ekonomiya aarangkada.
Sa siyensya at teknolohiya, buhay ay gaganda.
Maraming salamat at mabuhay tayong lahat.
