NOW ON its 13th year, Toward a Common Future, the grants’ program for the Philippines and former Spanish territories in the Pacific, was launched recently at Instituto Cervantes de Manila.

In a press conference, José Rodríguez, Instituto Cervantes de Manila director and Spanish Program for Cultural Cooperation (SPCC) general coordinator, stressed the importance of enhancing the “strong cultural links” between Spain and the Philippines and Pacific island nations (former Spanish territories Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, and the Federal States of Micronesia).

“The aim of the program is to focus on two things—heritage and the positive things that bind us,” he said.

Rodríguez said he had just gone to Zamboanga City to check a cultural show being proposed for the grants program. He said one of his goals was to “bring the cultural program out of Manila and to the countryside.”

The financial support program caters to universities doing researches on the humanities and social sciences, which study the shared heritage of Spain and the Philippines and other Pacific countries.

“The program is practically open to everybody,” said Rodríguez. “The only thing we are looking for, in those things, is the connection to the Spanish heritage. The only requirement is an endorsement letter from a university.”

A 14-man committee of academicians and cultural experts, including Rodríguez, will assess the proposals submitted.

“The objective of the program is to recover and to dig up the common heritage that we have—the Philippines, Spain and the Pacific islands,” Rodríguez said.

The program started in 1997 and officially launched in 1998 through Instituto Cervantes de Manila by the Ministry of Culture of Spain and the Philippine universities.

To date, SPCC has given out 328 grants, mainly to Philippine researchers and cultural workers. Grants awarded, as listed on the SPCC website, include “Instruccion Publica: The Roots of Public Education in the Philippines, 1863-1898” (2010), by Lino L. Dizon of Tarlac State University; “Archeological Investigation of Spanish Ruins along the Coastal Area of Misamis Oriental, Mindanao” (2009), by Lee Anthony Neri of UP Diliman; “Ferderico Garcia Lorca Recital” (2008), by Amelito Pelayo of St. Muthien Academy; and “In Quest of an Emblem: Monuments of the Preachers (Architectural Identity of Dominican Churches” (1998), by Norma Alarcon of University of Santo Tomas.

Deadline for application is May 31. Application forms are available for download at www.spcc.ph.

To learn more about the 2011 Grant Year, visit their office at Instituto Cervantes at 855 T.M. Kalaw St., Ermita, Manila 1000. You can also e-mail them at [email protected], or call 5261482 local 110.