1 week ago
16
Upgrade to High-Speed Internet for only ₱1499/month!
Enjoy up to 100 Mbps fiber broadband, perfect for browsing, streaming, and gaming.
Visit Suniway.ph to learn
MANILA, Philippines – Documentary heritage awareness — it can be quite a mouthful and might even seem like an elitist pursuit. But in a recent UNESCO event in Manila, the idea of heritage preservation as exclusive to any one person or group was debunked by the country’s principal heritage preservation advocates.
There’s a need to increase public awareness, they say, on Philippine documentary heritage and to recognize the work of UNESCO’s Memory of the World (MoW) local representatives and stakeholders.
“Preserving memory isn’t just the work of historians and archivists,” said Ivan Anthony Henares, secretary-general of UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines (UNACOM). “It’s a shared responsibility for anyone who believes our nation’s soul must be remembered, protected and passed on.”
The MoW Program has been tailored specifically for that shared responsibility. Established in 1992, MoW is an international effort created to guard against a so-called “collective amnesia.”
The program has since helped identify, preserve, spread awareness for and assist in giving a fair and universal access to exceptional historical and intellectual documents.
Simply defined, a document is a record of something made with intellectual intent. It could be anything from rare printed literature, manuscripts and syllabary to photos, films, audio recordings, other cultural artifacts and ephemera.
UNACOM believes the Philippines has an abundance of these documentary heritage, but that much of it has been lost to neglect and the ravages of time.
Professor and film historian Nicolas “Nick” Deocampo, chair of MoW in the Philippines, laments the condition with which he discovered, for example, piles of Super 8 reels, or the 1960s motion picture film format meant for amateurs or home videos.
Though filled with ethnographic content, the reels were haphazardly stashed only in Orocan plastic containers commonly used to store bathwater in Filipino households.
Lost movie industry
As a filmmaker, Deocampo expressed a deep regret for all the heritage films the Philippines has lost.
“Films, he said, are metanized memory. They contain memories of our past. Even the most ridiculous comedies give us a notion of what entertainment or leisure was at some point in time.”
The film professor said only six movies remain from the pre-World War II era but just as worse is the Cebu movie industry losing records of its past.
Cebuano cinema actually flourished almost simultaneously with its Tagalog counterpart, probably delayed only by some five years. Cebu’s films, he said, were even more popular than Tagalog ones at the time because more audiences spoke Cebuano in the Visayas and Mindanao.
“The Tagalog movie industry had a Cebuano rival and yet our concept of a national cinema is just the Tagalog cinema since both industries suffer a lack of historical memory,” Deocampo pointed out.
Preservation network
The MoW network has aided Deocampo’s quest to find pieces of the country’s lost documentary heritage. He has brought home copies of film classics like Dyesebel, Darna and Roberta, as well as Zamboanga, a late 1930s film headlined by Fernando Poe Sr., father of the iconic Filipino action star and National Artist for Cinema Fernando Poe Jr.
Deocampo’s archival expeditions also brought the discovery that there are 150 pre-World War II news reels and documentaries about the Philippines. However, these works are scattered overseas and his agency would need funds for acquisition.
If the documents or copies of it were obtained, these would not only keep the memory of the past alive but also counter misinformation and disinformation.
The King’s archive
What the Philippines can claim to have in mint condition are the works of Fernando Poe Jr. or FPJ, dubbed “The King of Philippine Movies.”
The FPJ Productions film archive, represented by Senator Grace Poe at the UNESCO event, has been known to have “the best-preserved collection of any one artist in the country and in Asia.”
According to the senator, the family has employed German technology and engineers who helped restore 168 works by the production company.
The current state of the FPJ film collection is owed as well to the patriarch’s foresight as producer.
Prior to the availability of temperature-control techniques, FPJ had to go through archiving pains while storing films in a room in Antipolo with a single aircon and charcoal-filled sacks that had to be replaced often for moisture absorption.
All the hard work has paid off because the films are still aired on cable and free TV. The collection has also been listed in the MoW National Register, which can thus expand the reach of FPJ’s legacy.
FPJ Productions vice president Jeffrey Sonora and Senator. Grace Poe receive certificates of recognition as custodians of The FPJ Film Collection. Photo by Fran Katigbak “People call FPJ the king…but, for FPJ, the real king is the ordinary Filipino he often portrayed in his films,” said the actor’s daughter.
“These [fictional] Filipinos work hard and quietly endure. FPJ’s films carried this theme and became cinematic chronicles of the travails of the Filipino working class. Many identify with his portrayal of a man fighting the forces of corruption and found vicarious joy in his characters’ ability to attain justice.”
Senator Poe was among the custodians honored for their work in safeguarding the nine documentary heritage items that have been included in the MoW Registers.
She was joined by National Artist for Music Ramon Santos, descendants of Iloilo’s epic chanters, relatives of President Manuel L. Quezon, National Artist and filmmaker Eddie Romero, and representatives of the National Library of the Philippines, National Museum of the Philippines, Culion Museum and Archives, University of the Philippines Center for Ethnomusicology, and Central Philippine University.
Print, audio heritage
Besides the FPJ Film Collection, seven other Philippine documents have been listed in the MoW Registers. These include The Presidential Papers of Manuel L. Quezon, which are listed in both International and Regional Registers.
Despite being written on fragile palm leaves, The Philippine Paleographs, (by the Hanunuo and Buid in Mindoro, and Tagbanua and Pala’wan in Palawan) have endured and now have MoW support as an International Register document of precolonial literacy among indigenous groups.
Other Philippine documents in the MoW International Register are The Radio Broadcast of the Philippine People Power Revolution by Radio Veritas; The Jose Maceda Collection, a repository of Philippine and Southeast Asian traditional music compiled by the Filipino ethnomusicologist-composer; and Culion Leprosy Archives consisting of artifacts and medical records that show a complex link among disease, governance and society.
The MoW Regional Register has Doctrina Christiana, the country’s earliest known printed book that uses baybayin, an ancient syllabary, along with Romanized Tagalog and Spanish.
The rare book is joined in the MoW Regional Register by the Hinilawod Epic Chant Recordings, which were produced in the ‘60s and highlight the Panay Bukidnon people’s oral literature and cultural literacy.
Romero’s Ganito Kami Noon, Paano Kayo Ngayon, a period classic about the Filipino identity struggle during a period of war and revolution, completes the Philippine documentary heritage in the MoW Registers.
Moving forward
Considering the bulk of documentary heritage other countries have contributed, such as China’s astounding 200, our heritage officials believe the Philippines can present even more nominees that could eventually land a spot in the MoW Registers.
With that goal in mind, Deocampo has urged fellow educators, archiving experts, records managers, researchers and cultural groups to spread the word about collecting records that represent vital parts of the country’s identity.
For the rest of the year, Deocampo’s MoW team and UNACOM will continue public awareness activities and bring MoW Register nomination workshops to Naga, Dumaguete, and Davao. – Rappler.com
Visit https://www.unesco.gov.ph/ and UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines on Facebook for event and workshop schedules
