New members of ICOMOS PH will be presenting their work to the membership. “Managing Cultural and Creative Industries Projects” by Ms. Ana Georgia Sagym, “Tikim sa Pananaliksik: The Story of Ysla de Panciteria” by Mr. Jame Monren T. Mercado, and “and “Transcendental Values of the Mangyan Iraya Tribe as Environmental-Cultural Nexus in Forest Conservation ” by Mr. Charl Justine B. Darapisa. This event is the second New Members Speak of ICOMOS lecture series.
New Members Speak: Young Professionals on Culture and Heritage10 October 2020 (Saturday) | 3:00 PM Philippine Standard Time
SPEAKERS
Ms. Ana Georgia Sagum is a graduate scholar taking her joint Master’s degree in Dynamics of Cultural Landscape, Heritage, Memory, and Conflictualities (DYCLAM+) in Europe. Gearing towards a career in heritage management, Georgia exhibits a strong interest in cultural and creative industries, fueled by her faith in the transformative power of culture with regard to identity empowerment and social cohesion.
Mr. Jame Monren T. Mercado is an Associate Researcher of the UST Graduate School – Center for Conservation of Cultural Property and the Environment in the Tropics. He is currently taking a Graduate Certificate in ASEAN Studies at UP Open University. He focuses on heritage management and development, heritage tourism, culinary heritage, tourism planning, development, tourism impacts, and sustainability.
Mr. Charl Justine B. Darapisa is a recent graduate from Seoul National University (SNU) and was part of SNU Cultural Landscape and Design Lab throughout his Master’s program. With particular interests in Indigenous belief systems and plural traditional knowledge, he wishes to uncover more comparable conceptualizations of vernacular landscapes among different Indigenous communities in the Philippines.
DETAILS
“New Members Speak: Young Professionals on Culture and Heritage”, is scheduled this Saturday, October 10, 2020, 3:00 PM (Philippine Standard Time).
ICOMOS Philippines’ past and current interns will present respective research. Dr. Victor Venida from the Ateneo de Manila University will be the discussant for this event.
Project Alexandria28 September 2020 (Monday) | 6:00 PM Philippine Standard Time
CONTRIBUTORS
“Summary of Conservation Projects in the Philippines: The National Museum and the National Historical Commission of the Philippines”
Ms. Patricia Cecille Monica H. Panganiban is graduated with an Erasmus Mundus Masters in Archaeological Sciences from the University of Evora in Portugal, where she specialized in the study of pigments from Ancient Egpytian funerary masks and sarcophagi. Prior to that, she obtained her Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry and Materials Science and Engineering from the Ateneo de Manila University. She is currently working with the Nayong Pilipino Foundation on the development of the Nayong Pilipino Virtual Museum.
Ms.Ma. Louisen Manuel Roxas is a graduate of BS Human Ecology major in Human Settlements Planning from the University of the Philippines Los Banos, and she is currently pursuing her masters in Urban & Regional Planning at UP Diliman. Currently, she is working as the Training Manager of Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT), an internal NGO focused on humanitarian action & community development through open mapping.
“Diagnostic Report of The Philippine Registry of Cultural Properties (PRECUP)”
Ms. Carissa Veloso is the current ICOMOS Philippines Secretariat. Before joining ICOMOS Philippines, she was the Business Development Manager for San Sebastian Basilica Conservation, a non-profit restoration foundation based in Manila (2015-2019). She was also the representative of the Philippines for UNESCO’s young professionals program for the 42nd World Heritage Committee Session. She holds a BS Management degree with minors in Cultural Heritage and Entrepreneurship from Ateneo de Manila University.
Ms. Chanelle Custorio is both a registered and licensed chemical engineer and architect. She is an alumni of UP Diliman, worked in the restoration of San Sebastian Basilica, and is now a co-partner for the architecture firm Hiraya Design Studio. She has also attended courses on Management and Monitoring of World Heritage Sites by ICCROM as well as on Conservation of Japanese Textiles by TNRICP.
Mr.Isaiah Cabañero is a graduate of Community Development at the University of the Philippines – Diliman, working with communities and volunteer organizations which gained him experience in community organizing and people-centered participatory project development. He is currently working hand-in-hand with local coffee farming ati communities in Iloilo.
Ms. Ruby Descalzo is a recent graduate of the Ateneo de Manila University, with a degree in Environmental Science and a minor in Cultural Heritage Studies. She previously served as the President of Baybayin Ateneo, a Filipino cultural student organization. She is currently under the mentorship of Claudia Montero, and will be working with Dr. John Peterson as part of her internship.
Mr. Gio Abcede is a graduating BS Architecture student from De La Salle University, College of Saint Benilde. He has worked with One/Zero Design Co. on the Maestranza Creative Quarters project and collaborated with Digiscript Philippines Inc. with mapping presentations for the Intramuros Cultural Management Plan. He is also a core member and graphic designer for the Heritage Conservation Society. He is currently working closely with the Architecture Committee of ICOMOS Philippines, under the tutelage of Dominic Galicia.
DISCUSSANT
Dr. Victor Venida, ICOMOS Philippines member, completed his M.Sc. in economics at the London School of Economics and a PhD in economics at New York University. He completed a specialist course in International Economics, Trade and Finance at the Instituto Nacional de Administracion Publica at Alcala de Henares, Spain. Currently e is a Professor with the Department of Economics and a Lecturer with the European Studies Program, Development Studies Program and the Law School of Ateneo de Manila University.
DETAILS
“Project Alexandria ”, is scheduled this Monday, September 28, 2020, 6:00 PM (Philippine Standard Time).
My internship at ICOMOS Philippines was a unique one, to say the least. Despite the COVID-19 global health crisis and community quarantine measures in the Philippines, the internship experience at the organization, although entirely conducted remotely and facilitated online, has been very educational and worthwhile. Although I worked remotely, was still able to be exposed to different facets of heritage work and the heritage movement in the Philippines and abroad.
One of the first projects I worked on was the continuation of a study on the Philippine Registry of Cultural Property (PRECUP). Primarily, my task was to interview local government units on how they accomplished their annual listings for this registry. Through this we identified gaps in the processes in which ICOMOS, or the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) itself, could intervene at to help resolve the problem for the better.
Fortunate are those LGUs whose government leaders collaborate with local communities for the appreciation, preservation, and conservation of their local cultural properties and heritage. Others submit the list for compliance, so I think more attention from the NCCA and its allied agencies must be channeled towards these localities for continued education and co-creation of local cultural knowledge of their heritage. They could also benefit from direct assistance in both the technical and logistical aspects of the work.
In one of the webinars that ICOMOS hosted on food security, a farming community that was watching got in touch with me. Today I work hand-in-hand with that farming community. After my internship, I am better equipped to understand the unique local context these communities have lived in, both past and present, and appreciate their continuing traditions and survival of community identity in this rapidly urbanizing world. I am happy to witness their shared appreciation of their local culture and, ultimately, the preservation of this local indigenous Filipino heritage.
For interested students or new graduates who would like to take internship with the organization, please contact info@icomosphilippines.com
New members of ICOMOS PH will be presenting their work to the membership. “Archaeology. In Context.” by Ms. Mylene Lising and “A Planner’s Vista: An Introduction to the Planning Process and Suggestive Measures from Collaborations with LGUs” by LArch. Cris Ugalino. This event is ICOMOS Philippines new lecture series.
New Members Speak: Archaeology. In Context. and A Planner’s Vista21 September 2020 (Monday) | 6:00 PM Philippine Standard Time
SPEAKERS
Ms. Mylene Lising is an archeologist specializing in the cultural heritage management of prehistoric sites. She received her master’s degree in Quaternary and Prehistory from the Museé National d’Histoire Naturelle, France through the Erasmus Mundus Program (2015) and an MA Archaeology from the UP-ASP (2016). She is currently working on her PhD at the Goethe University, Frankfurt on a grant from the Lisa Maskell Fellowships of the Gerda Henkel Foundation. Her work in heritage management and archaeology focuses on the Cagayan Valley prehistoric sites and materials. Aside from this, she has worked in the media after graduating from Ateneo BS Communications.
LArch.Cris Ugalino is a registered landscape architect, environmental planner, and certified BERDE professional. She received her Landscape Architecture degree from UP Diliman. She was accepted into the UP Diliman School of Urban and Regional Planning, as well as the Department of Science & Technology (Project SPARTA) Data Analyst course. Cris has work experience in project management, landscape bio-engineering, landscape architectural design, consultancy, and research. Her vision in her practice is to share her experiences and enthusiasm in celebrating and preserving Philippine heritage, while giving importance to inclusion between people and places, finding the balance of conservation and people’s initiatives.
REACTORS
Dr. John Peterson is an anthropological archaeologist with field research experience in the Philippines, US Southwest and Texas, Northern Mexico, Ecuador, Brazzaville-Congo, and the Daiyuan Valley of Jiangxi Province China. He specializes in historical ecology and archaeological heritage management. He took his BA from Antioch College in Environmental Studies, MA and PhD from University of Texas at Austin, USA and has had academic affiliations with various universities – University of Texas at El Paso, University of Hawaii, University of Guam, and University of San Carlos in Cebu, and has had academic honors including two Fulbright awards, an NEH fellowship, is a National Geographic Explorer, and managed large grant programs for NSF, NASA, NIH, and other US funding agencies.
Mr. Ivan Man Dy is a cultural tourism professional and the founder of Old Manila Walks – a specialist outfit that operates interpretative tours around the city’s old neighborhood. He received his master’s degree on Cultural Heritage Studies from the University of Santo Tomas. Ivan has been actively involved in the advocacy of heritage conservation with a particular interest in urban, social and architectural histories of Manila. He holds two decades of multi-disciplinary experience in historical research, interpretation, tourism, publishing and creative applications of cultural heritage. He sits as trustee of the Heritage Conservation Society as well as the Museum Foundation of the Philippines.
DETAILS
“New Members Speak: Archaeology. In Context. and A Planner’s Vista ”, is scheduled this Monday, September 21, 2020, 6:00 PM (Philippine Standard Time).
ICOMOS Philippines members came together online last June 20, 2020 for the webinar, “Place-Making and Food Security: Thinking of Heritage Conservation and Food Production”. This is part of the project, ‘Heritage Practice Amidst Covid 19’. Members and specialists provided some perspectives connecting food security and cultural heritage amidst the challenges of the global pandemic.
CONCEPT
Three key terms were re-examined namely: food security, food sovereignty, and their relationship to cultural heritage:
A. Food security defined as the supply, the availability, and the stability of price of basic foodstuff in the international and domestic market (World Food Conference, 1974). While Food Sovereignty emerged more than three decades later as the reaction to grass roots movements around the world, and uncovered more clearly the mediators, interactions, and instruments of food production, distribution, and consumption.
Food sovereignty prioritises local and national economies and markets and empowers peasant and family farmer-driven agriculture, artisanal – fishing, pastoralist-led grazing, and food production, distribution and consumption based on environmental, social and economic sustainability. Food sovereignty promotes transparent trade that guarantees just incomes to all peoples as well as the rights of consumers to control their food and nutrition.
– Nyéléni Declaration on Food Sovereignty (February 2007) at Sélingué, Mali
B. Cultural heritage acknowledges the central role of change and human culture in shaping food production. The Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras, the Agave Landscape and Ancient Industrial Facilities of Tequila, the Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia are just few of the sites representing agricultural practices passed on for generations, later on caters the global market, thus, highlighting the deep connections between food, people, places, and culture in various parts of the world.
Responding to queries – Pursuing a Public Discourse
A healthy public interest in the topic was well-received with questions coming from universities, professional organizations, and national institutions that exposes a need for public discourse in the Philippines on the politics of food.
An example is the Sagada in Northern Philippines which indicates the need for this platform in the public domain, to discuss our changing relationship with nature through food, cultural practices, and tourism.
Photos of a Dap-ay, a traditional place of gathering in Sagada. On the left shows the removal of more modern materials of corrugated metal which was replaced by more traditional roofing materials (right) during the pandemic. Photo from Patricia Santiago.
Responses by the esteemed speakers from the webinar’s questions are shown in the ‘Annex A’ of this report. The questions have been grouped into two broad themes: the first, brings globalization to bear on the Philippine context of food chain; the second focuses on local issues of food, tourism, economic development and intangible heritage.
CONCLUSION
ICOMOS Philippines hopes that this webinar provides new ideas that can contribute to improving the appreciation for Filipino farmers, and artisans, and improve their commercial prospects. The lack of interest and of involvement in traditional agricultural practices especially by the youth, will lead to a loss of traditional knowledge, and risks destruction of cultural landscapes that are shaped by the dying farming traditions. This holds true for fishing villages, sugar plantations, salt-making regions, and other places where food production is central to these cultural landscapes’ cultural significance
In summary the webinar
illustrates that humanity’s food resources can be secured, while conserving its
most important cultural heritage, based on these three basic principles:
Respect for the environment.
Build an equitable relationship with the primary producers of our food.
Recognise indigenous knowledge systems and practices for the benefit of these communities.
If you would like to know more about this initiative, please get in touch with Gabriel Caballero, ICOMOS Philippines Communications Officer at communications[at]icomosphilippines[dot]com and Estela Duque, Founder of Moulinet Chocolat Limited at http://www.moulinetchocolat.com/
This will be a conversation on the current crisis of monumentality and racial reckoning. Broadly put, what is the relationship between monuments and historical commemoration? Who or what do these monuments celebrate and what do they leave out? This event is the third talk in ICOMOS Philippines’ Webinar Series.
ICOMOS Philippines’ Webinar Series:: Rethinking Monuments in the Philippines
14 September 2020 (Monday) | 9:30 AM Philippine Standard Time
SPEAKER
Lila Ramos Shahani is the former Secretary- General of the UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines.
Under her leadership (and with the help of
other agencies), her team succeeded in obtaining 4 UNESCO designations for the
country: in 2019, an endangered ritual complex (the “buklog” of the Subanen, an
indigenous group in the southern part of the Philippines) was inscribed in
UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in Need of Urgent
Safeguarding.
That same year, Cebu was named a UNESCO
Creative City of Design. In 2018, the Culion Leprosy Archives in Palawan were
inscribed in the UNESCO Memory of the World Asia-Pacific Register. In 2017,
Baguio was named a UNESCO Creative City of Crafts and Folk Art.
She previously gave a talk on the same topic, ‘Rethinking Monuments’ exclusively for the ICOMOS PH members and some questions were raised are: What monuments should be kept and which should retire to the museums? How do we rethink of the relationship between monuments and public spaces which the public are being served by such erections? What do monuments subliminally represent?
REACTOR
Ian Morley is an Associate Professor in the Department of History, and Associate Professor (by Courtesy) on CUHK’s Urban Studies Programme.
He has published widely on the design of
built environments and participated in TV documentaries. Just recently, he
achieved the status of Senior Fellow from the UK Professional Standards
Framework and was a recipient of the
Bosma Prize in Planning History Innovation 2020 from the International Planning
History Society (IPHS) for his book American Colonisation and the City
Beautiful: Filipinos and Planning in the Philippines, 1916-35.
He currently is an editorial board member of
the Brill book series Studies in Architecture and Urban History, as well as of
Planning Perspectives.
DETAILS
The webinar, “ICOMOS Philippines’ Webinar Series: Rethinking Monuments in the Philippines”, is scheduled this Monday, September 14, 2020, 9:30 AM (Philippine Standard Time).
Zoom registration is on a first come first served basis. To register, you may fill up this form: bit.ly/ipws200914.
The talk will be streamed on Facebook Live where the speaker will be able to get your questions and respond: facebook.com/icomosph/live
ICOMOS Philippines is very pleased to welcome its new members for the year 2020! Get to know them as we share with you a brief of their profile and expertise.
Mylene Lising
Ms. Mylene Lising is an archeologist specializing in the cultural heritage management of prehistoric sites. She received her master’s degree in Quaternary and Prehistory from the Museé National d’Histoire Naturelle, France through the Erasmus Mundus Program (2015) and an MA Archaeology from the UP-ASP (2016). She is currently working on her PhD at the Goethe University, Frankfurt on a grant from the Lisa Maskell Fellowships of the Gerda Henkel Foundation. Her work in heritage management and archaeology focuses on the Cagayan Valley prehistoric sites and materials. Aside from this, she has worked in the media after graduating from Ateneo AB Communications.
Cris Justine Ugalino
Ms. Cris Ugalino is a registered landscape architect, environmental planner, and certified BERDE professional. She received her Landscape Architecture degree from UP Diliman. She was accepted into the UP Diliman School of Urban and Regional Planning, as well as the Department of Science & Technology (Project SPARTA) Data Analyst course. Cris has work experience in project management, landscape bio-engineering, landscape architectural design, consultancy, and research. Her vision in her practice is to share her experiences and enthusiasm in celebrating and preserving Philippine heritage, while giving importance to inclusion between people and places, finding the balance of conservation and people’s initiatives.
Through the formation of working groups within ICOMOS Philippines and the formation of communications strategies for the organization, ICOMOS Philippines is happy to share that we will have two new interns working with us for the next three months:
Ruby Descalzo is a recent graduate of the Ateneo de Manila University, with a degree Environmental Science and a minor in Cultural Heritage Studies. She previously served as the President of Baybayin Ateneo, a Filipino cultural student organization. She aspires to pursue studies on ethnoecology and to contribute to the conservation of the Philippines’ biodiversity and traditional ecological knowledge.
Ruby chose to intern for ICOMOS in order to grow as a young professional in the field of cultural heritage. She hopes to use her skills in GIS and statistics for Project Alexandria and under the tutelage of member Claudia Montero, she will help develop the graphic portfolio and database of the organization.
Gio Abcede is a graduating BS Architecture student from De La Salle University, College of Saint Benilde. He has worked with One/Zero Design Co. on the Maestranza Creative Quarters project and collaborated with Digiscript Philippines Inc. with mapping presentations for the Intramuros Cultural Management Plan. He is also a core member and graphic designer for the Heritage Conservation Society.
Gio sought an internship with ICOMOS Philippines to learn how to gather data on heritage structures efficiently and to find solutions geared towards heritage-driven development. He hopes to contribute his current research and thesis focused on the role of typo-morphological analysis and cultural significance assessment in identifying adaptive reuse opportunities in Manila. He will be working closely with the Architecture Committee of ICOMOS Philippines and will be supporting the organization with planned webinars and online courses.
Welcome, Ruby and Gio! We’re very pleased to have your assistance.
Last July 18, 2020, ICOMOS Philippine members met up to discuss the situation of monuments and the current discourse of politics that surround these objects. The conversation was led by Ms. Lila Shahani, former Secretary-General of the UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines.
Ms. Shahani discussed about the dynamics of politics, national narratives and cultural meanings of monuments. It was then followed by several reactors who discussed the angles of heritage interpretation, plaza development, and cultural politics. An open forum discussion was then facilitated by Dr. Stephen Acabado, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles
ICOMOS Philippines will be exploring further steps to think about deepening the discourse on the topic in the national context.
ICOMOS Philippines member Gabriel Caballero also participate in the global discourse by ICOMOS International entitled, “Diversify / Decolonise Heritage!” which was held online on July 19, 2020, 13:00 Paris Time. The initiative was started by ICOMOS Germany in collaboration with the ICOMOS Emerging Professionals Working Group.
Check out Ms Shahani’s two opinion pieces on Rappler. The first carries forward from the ICOMOS discussion, Rethinking monuments – “Who or what do these monuments celebrate, and what do they leave out? More pointedly, what do they erase and what do they choose to celebrate and canonize? “. The second is about ‘National’ narratives and the Philippine bureaucracy– “Who speaks (and who is spoken for) in the nation? Whose interests does it serve and represent? What does it encompass? ”
Back in 2018, when the work of studying the existing spreadsheets of the Philippine Registry of Cultural Property (PRECUP) was given to me and my colleague Carissa Veloso, I got quite excited because the task gave us a chance to have a glimpse of the heritage registry encompassing the whole country. It was a challenge to check and assess over 5,000 entries that led me to uncover the gaps and successes across the different regions.
The analysis gave me headaches and long nights of work, but it was worth the effort. The research was essentially a diagnostic report on the registry of cultural properties across the country. I discovered that even though there were a lot of entries, many regions were underrepresented and numerous listings were problematic, such as listings of corporate establishments as cultural property.
Although I am currently more focused on the mainstream architecture practice, the brief exposure from the heritage field helped me to become more conscious in raising awareness about our built, intangible, and natural heritage in both my designs and in dealing with my clients. I am thankful for ICOMOS Philippines for providing me this opportunity.
For interested students or new graduates who would like to take internship with the organization, please contact info@icomosphilippines.com
