Dr Benicio D. Sokkong
Member, National Committee on Music,
National Commission for Culture and the Arts
Born in 1955, Benicio Sokkong, an educator and instrument maker, learned music by listening to and imitating his Kalinga elders. He is currently a teacher of Cordillera Music at the University of Baguio. He wasa former senior lecturer of Kalinga music at the University of the Philippines, as well as chairperson of the Cordillera Music Tutorial and Research Center, Inc, in Baguio City.
Apart from work, Sokkong strives to give back to the community through music and dance, participating in outreach programs and tutorials for various cultural communities and organisations, teaching people how to play the instruments and educating participants on Cordillera Cultures.
Sokkong is also the founder of The Cordillera Ethnic Music Ensemble (CEME), a performing group that presents traditional music, song, and dance showcases. He has toured, lectured, given workshops, performed, directed, and acted as a consultant in the Philippines, Pacific Asia, Western Europe, and the United States.
Patricia Maria C. Santiago
Patricia Maria Santiago is one of the ASEAN region’s International Cultural Managers. She was the Project Director of the ASEAN Youth Camp: Gongs and Bamboo Music Festival in 2015 and the ASEAN- Korea Flute Festival which happened in 2017 in the Philippines and Korea. She finished her bachelor’s degree in Art Studies at the University of the Philippines and a Post Graduate Diploma on International Cooperation and Cultural Management at the University of Barcelona.
For the past 23 years, she has served several institutions in the Philippines as a Cultural Manager such as the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, the Cultural Center of the Philippines, UNICEF Philippines, Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs, and the University of the Philippines.
In 2012, she was one of the scholars and Visiting Research Fellows of the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute under the Cultural Partnership Initiative program of the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism of South Korea.