KABATAAN Party-list Representative Raoul Manuel filed a measure that will include Philippine Cinema and Theater Appreciation in secondary educational institutions.

House BIll 1153 or the proposed Philippine Cinema and Theater Appreciation Act for High School Students seeks to institute the mandatory instruction of Philippine cinema and theater appreciation courses in secondary schools as separate subject.

“A national cinema loosely defined is a country’s body of firms that embodies the social and cultural identity of its people,” Manuel said in his explanatory note.

Manuel said that an important aspect of any national heritage and culture is its cinema and theater.

The Department of Education, in consultation with the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and the University of the Philippines Film Institute will formulate the courses.