MANILA, Philippines?The Philippines has been named the ?cultural capital? of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for 2010 and 2011, according to presidential adviser on culture Cecile Guidote-Alvarez.

As the region?s cultural capital, Manila will host next year?s ASEAN culture ministers? summit.

ASEAN groups the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Burma (Myanmar) and Brunei Darussalam.

?Our hosting of the ASEAN conference next February will coincide with the staging of the Philippine International Arts Festival at Clark in Pampanga,? Alvarez told the Philippine Daily Inquirer Monday.

The twin events ?would serve as a continuing effort (from last October?s Asia Cultural Cooperation Forum, or ACCF, in Hong Kong) to build audiences and unleash the creative power of our people,? said Alvarez, also executive director of the National Commission on Culture and the Arts.

?(W)here politics almost certainly divides, the arts can unite and heal, bond and cement a nation together and an entire global community,? Alvarez said.

Citing the government?s Millennium Development Goal to eradicate poverty by 2015, Alvarez said the NCCA would do its part by ?democratizing the people?s right to culture: Arts for all, not just for the elite.?

She said the NCCA had ?designed as a poverty alleviation program the Kalahi cultural care-giving services for marginalized groups in prisons, havens for abused women, youth and children, rehabilitation centers for drug dependents, refugees from armed conflicts, victims of natural disasters, the elderly, the sick, orphans and widows, the differently abled and physically handicapped.?

Under the program, they are ?given free training in all aspects of the arts?visual arts, dance, drama, poetry, comics, media arts, as well as martial arts?to discover the gold mine and dig the oil well of their abilities.?

During the past two months, the NCCA has conducted cultural care-giving workshops in at least 10 sites in Metro Manila, including the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City, Correctional Institute for Women, Armed Forces of the Philippines headquarters at Camp Aguinaldo and Department of Social Welfare and Development rehabilitation centers like Marilac Hills and the Nayon ng Kabataan, among others.