Conrado & Ladislawa Alcantara Foundation, Inc. (CLAFI) and the Blaan Indigenous Cultural Communities (ICCs) received Copyright Certificates for their Blaan educational materials.
The National Library of the Philippines – Copyright Division granted to CLAFI and the Blaan ICCs 79 copyright certificates for the 72 Flalok Big Books, Teacher Guides (TG) each for Grade 1 and Grade 2, Learner Materials (LM) each Grade 1, Grade 2 and Alternative Learning System (ALS), Blaan Dictionary, and Compendium of Flalok stories.
Ms Michelle Flor, Copyright Examiner, presented the Certificates of Copyright Registration and Deposit to CLAFI on 10 August 2017 at the National Library of the Philippines, Kalaw Street, Ermita, Manila.
The granting of the Certificates recognizes CLAFI and the Blaan ICCs as rightful owners of the original intellectual Flalok creations. Having given the copyright certificate, CLAFI and the Blaan ICCs enjoy all the rights as creators/authors of the Blaan educational tools.
Richlie Lyndon Magtulis, CLAFI Executive Director said, “The books were developed through the joint effort of CLAFI, Blaan teachers and writers, and Blaan leaders with guidance from the Department of Education (DepEd). These were strictly written and drawn to accurately portray different facets of Blaan culture: the characters, traditional practices, clothing, tools and weapons, and even the landscape.”
He explained, “This is in line with the aim of the Flalok Project to effectively teach the Blaan children to read and write in their own language to provide learners with a strong educational foundation in the first language in terms of instruction following the Mother-Tongue Based Multi-Lingual Education (MTBMLE) paradigm of DepEd.”
Flalok Project is a culture-based initiative that seeks to teach Blaan children in Grade 1, Grade 2 and under ALS to read and write in Blaan using Flalok as a platform with the use of Flalok Big Books, TG, and LM. Ultimately, it aims to include the Blaan language as DepEd’s official mother tongue. The Project is implemented by CLAFI in partnership with Blaan Indigenous Cultural Communities of Region 12, DepEd, NCIP, Summer Institute of linguistics International, Save the Children, and KafyeBlaan Empowerment Inc. with funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
