Category: New Members

Posted on

35th Anniversary ICOMOS Philippines Thanksgiving

On Saturday 16 October 2023, ICOMOS Philippines celebrated their annual Thanksgiving get-together to end the year and to celebrate its 35th anniversary.

ICOMOS Philippines Celebrates Its 35th Year Anniversary at ICOMOS Headquarters in Intramuros

One highlight of the celebration was the granting of the Philippine National Committee’s lifetime honorary membership to Regalado “Ricky” Trota José who had started ICOMOS Philippines in the late 1980s. Sir Ricky, as he’s also affectionately known, reminded ICOMOS that rewards or accolades are not what heritage is about; in fact, the practice of heritage is a reward in itself and is a privilege. 

The lifetime honorary membership was given to by virtue of ICOMOS Philippines Board Resolution No. 5 approved on March 31, 2023 wherein the organization recognizes his accomplishments and contributions which included: being the founding president of ICOMOS Philippines; his contributions leading to the inscription of the Baroque Churches of the Philippines on the UNESCO World Heritage List; his works in elevating local church cultural heritage protection and conservation towards international standards in harmony with the local context, and for being an inspiration and mentor among members of the organization.

José recalled the initial membership of ICOMOS Philippines. He said it was a very small number, an amount you could count on one’s fingers. But it was this powerhouse of heritage pioneers who advocated for awareness and sensitivity for our cultural heritage resources. Within the first two decades along with Rachy Cuna, Ramon Faustmann,  Milagros Covarrubias Jamir, and Rene Javellana, S.J., ICOMOS Philippines was pivotal in the inscription of the Baroque Churches of the Philippines, the Ifugao Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras, and the Historic City of Vigan.

Awarding of Recognition: Former (and Current) Board of Trustees Members

Also a report was presented for the last six months of work at ICOMOS Philippines which included, among others, the funding of Vigan with the Heritage Emergency Fund, the award of Gawad Maestro for being an exemplary NGO as a learning and development institution, the participation with the Creative Industries Group of DTI, a seminar on Built Heritage and FIRE, and reports from the the General Assembly in Sydney this year. 

Cheek Fadriquela, president of ICOMOS graciously stated:  “A million thanks to all who attended our Thanksgiving party last Saturday. It was an event 35 years in the making! Our heartfelt gratitude to former trustees for gracing the occasion with your presence. Special thanks to Lila Shahani and Tracey Santiago for the books they donated to our library. And to our gracious host, Mylene Lising, we are immensely grateful with your kindness and generosity for not only allowing your Consulate to be the venue but also for making your staff assist and stay throughout the event. Kudos to all who made this event a memorable one! May you all have a Merry and Blessed Christmas!”

Invitation and Graphic of Surveying the Ifugao Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras for Nomination

For more information about ICOMOS Philippines and membership, please contact: info@iicomosphilippines.com

To donate to ICOMOS Philippines so we can continue our advocacy for Philippine heritage, please contact: info@icomosphilippines.com 

Posted on

ICOMOS Philippines: New Members 2020

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.

Ana Georgia Sagum

Ms. Ana Georgia Sagum is an Erasmus Mundus scholar taking her Joint Master Degree program in Dynamics of Cultural Landscape, Heritage, Memory and Conflictualities (DYCLAM+) in Europe. She received her Bachelor’s degree in European Languages at the University of the Philippines Diliman.

She is currently a communications intern at the International Council for Philosophy and Human Sciences, UNESCO, preparing for the European Humanities Conference 2021. She is also an online trainee at Culture Media Agency, Belgium. Prior to this, Georgia was the Philippine delegate for Taiwan Nature Treasure Map Program, producing tourism promotion materials for the country’s natural sites. She also spent time in Spain doing the Auxiliares de Conversación program spearheading classes and cultural events in conversational English.

Moved by languages, she speaks Tagalog, Kapampangan, English, French, Spanish, and is currently learning Portuguese. Gearing towards a career in heritage conservation, Georgia exhibits a strong interest in cultural and creative industries, fueled by her faith in the transformative power of culture with regards to identity empowerment and social cohesion.

Charl Justine Darapisa

L.Arch. Charl Justine Darapisa is a recent graduate from Seoul National University. His final dissertation focuses on discovering the landscape identities of vernacular landscape of Mangyan Iraya tribe through ethnographic study and social learning processes. With particular interests in Indigenous belief system and plural traditional knowledge, he wishes to uncover more similar conceptualizations of vernacular landscapes among different Indigenous communities in the Philippines. A chunk of his research was presented in the ICOMOS International Scientific Conference of Indigenous Cultural Heritage where he showed the relationship of different environmental and cultural values that shape the Mangyan Iraya’s forest conservation regimes. He believes that Landscape Architects have important roles in shaping our understanding towards culturally-significant landscapes in the country. In the future, he wants to explore the social-psychological dimensions of Indigenous communities that shape their environment and world view.

Jame Monren Tapalla Mercado

Mr. Jame Monren Tapalla Mercado

is a Faculty Member, Department of Tourism Management, University of Santo Tomas – College of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Faculty Research Associate, UST – Research Center for Social Sciences and Education, and Associate Researcher, UST – Graduate School – CCCPET. He obtained his BS in Hospitality Management (Magna Cum Laude) from the Colegio de San Juan de Letran – Intramuros, Manila, Master of Arts in Cultural Heritage Studies (Magna Cum Laude) from the University of Santo Tomas Graduate School, and an Executive Course in Designing and Developing Sustainable Tourism, Asian Institute of Management (Full Scholarship Grant). Currently, he is taking up a Graduate Certificate course in ASEAN Studies at the University of the Philippines Open University.

He presented and published different research locally and internationally, concentrating on heritage management and development and tourism planning and development. As an associate researcher of UST GS-CCCPET, some of his projects were the Ormoc City Continuing Projects specifically in conceptualizing a Sustainable Tourism Development Plan, Ysla de Panciteria – Luzon Island Project under the National Commission for Culture and the Arts Research Awards 2019 for an Individual Category and the Samar Island Natural Park Sustainable Tourism and Strategic Development Plan – as part of the Nomination Dossier for the UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site.

Posted on

ICOMOS Philippines: New Members 2020

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.

Posted on

ICOMOS Philippines: New Members 2020

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.

Kinna Mae G. Kwan

Kinna is a researcher and heritage practitioner. She received her Master of Arts in Cultural Heritage Studies from the University of Santo Tomas and is currently studying Urban and Regional Planning at the University of the Philippines. Her thesis, which earned a meritissimus (highest merit) recognition, focused on social value of historic sites hinged on community memories and attachment to places.

She works as a project-based researcher at the UST Graduate School–Center for Conservation of Cultural Property and Environment in the Tropics. Her present work at the center involves cultural mapping, drafting of conservation management plans, and providing technical assistance to local government units and heritage managers across the country. As an advocate of heritage and culture in the public sector, she has worked with government institutions such as the National Historical Commission of the Philippines, National Commission for Culture and the Arts (PCEP), Department of Tourism, Philippine Postal Corp., and served as a consultant in her hometown, Guiuan. She previously worked for the Lopez Museum and Library and the President Elpidio Quirino Foundation.

She is also active in refugee research and has been collaborating with UNHCR in studying the Philippines’ history of refugee assistance. Her focus is on the 5th Wave when the Philippines became a transit country for White Russian refugees in 1949. Her research led her to major archives in Australia, USA and France, and was published in The Journal of History.

Posted on

ICOMOS Philippines: New Members 2018

ICOMOS Philippines is very pleased to welcome its new members for the year 2018! Get to know them as we share with you a brief of their profile and expertise.

Vicente L. Rafael

Dr. Vicente L. Rafael is the Giovanni and Anne Costigan Professor of History and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle. He obtained his BA from the Ateneo de Manila University and his MA and PhD at Cornell University. He is the author of several books and articles on the history and cultural politics of the Philippines, including “Contracting Colonialism: Translation and Christian Conversion in Tagalog Society Under Early Spanish Rule,” “White Love and Other Events in Filipino Histories,” “The Promise of the Foreign: Nationalism and the Technics of Translation in the Spanish Philippines,” and “Motherless Tongues: The Insurgency of Language Amid Wars of Translation,” all published by Duke University and co-published in the Philippines by Ateneo University Press.

He’s also edited “Discrepant Histories” and “Figures of Criminality in Indonesia, the Philippines and Colonial Vietnam”. Rafael also wrote the Introduction to a collection of Nick Joaquin’s stories, “The Woman Who Had Two Navels and Tales of the Tropical Gothic” recently published by Penguin Classics. 

He has published numerous essays and articles in journals such as the Journal of Asian Studies, Positions: Asian Cultural Critique, Public Culture, Social Text, American Historical Review, Philippines Studies, Cultural Anthropology, American Literature and many others. He is a regular contributor to various newspapers and journals, including Rappler, The Philippine Daily Inquirer, Dissent, and Social Text and Public Culture, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Journal of Asian Studies, American Historical Review and many others.

Throughout the years, he has received several awards, most notably The John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, Post-doctoral fellowships at Stanford, the Humanities Institute at the University of California at Irvine, Princeton University, East-West Center, University of Hawai’I, Social Science Research Council, the American Council of Learned Societies, among others. He was also the recipient of two National Book Awards from the Manila Critics’ Circle for “Contracting Colonialism” and “White Love.”

Andrea Jalandoni

Dr. Andrea Jalandoni is a Digital Archaeologist specializing in rock art recording and enhancement using photogrammetry and other remote sensing techniques including laser scanning and unmanned aerial systems. She obtained her BA at Ateneo de Manila University, MA at the University of the Philippines – Diliman and her PhD at the Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia where she is Research Fellow on an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship project ‘Australian rock art: history, conservation and Indigenous well-being.’

She received grants for the following projects: “Digital Archaeology and Dating: Innovative recoding methods and the first dated rock art in the Philippines” for 2019 – 2020 and currently working at present on “Guam Rock Art Study” under the Guam Preservation Trust. She has certifications on Remote Pilot at the Federal Aviation Administration, United States, and Advance Nitrox at the Technical Diving International.

She has projects in Australia, Southeast Asia, and Micronesia. Among her recent and notable projects are “How 3D models (photogrammetry) of rock art can improve recording veracity: a case study from Kakadu National Park, Australia”, “Inundation Exposure Assessment for Majuro Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands Using A High-Accuracy Digital Elevation Model”, “New Insights into the Rock Art of Anbangbang Gallery, Kakadu National Park”, “An Overview of Remote Sensing Deliverables for Rock Art Research”, “Optimizing the Potential of Research Data through an Integrated Data Management Approach: Considering Research Method, Data Life Cycle, Big Data and Linked Data in an Eresearch Example In Australian Rock Art”, and “A Systematic Quantitative Literature Review of Southeast Asian and Micronesian Rock Art”.

Andrea is also interested in Austronesian migration from Southeast Asia to Micronesia and archaeological sites of cultural identity.

Posted on

ICOMOS Philippines: New Members 2018

ICOMOS Philippines is very pleased to welcome its new members for the year 2018! Get to know them as we share with you a brief of their profile and expertise.

Lila Ramos Shahani

Lila Ramos Shahani is the former Secretary-General of the Philippine National Commission to UNESCO. Under her leadership (and with the help of other government agencies), her team succeeded in obtaining four UNESCO designations for the country: in Intangible Cultural Heritage, Memory of the World and Creative Cities.

She has taught at the Asian Institute of Management, the Ateneo School of Government and the University of the Philippines. She has published widely, not only academically but as a former columnist for the Philippine Star. In addition, she has published with the Philippine Daily Inquirer, ABS-CBN, GMA News, Rappler, Business World and the Philippine Graphic.

She also spent many years in New York, where she did editorial work for Oxford University Press, writing and research for the United Nations Children’s Fund, and policy and communications work for the United Nations Development Programme.

She received her B.A. in Comparative Literature from Brown University, her M.A. in International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and remains a doctoral candidate in Literature at Oxford University.

John Peterson

Dr. 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.

Aside from this academic engagement, Dr. Peterson operated a mixed grain and livestock farm in Ohio, USA and managed a living historical farm where horses, mules, and steam engines were used to recreate mid-19th century farming in the American Midwest.

John Peterson has been involved with ICAHM, the International Scientific Committee on Archaeological Heritage Management  of ICOMOS since 2008 as a vice president and most recently as president, and has consulted on and contributed to nomination reviews of several world heritage properties.

Stephen Acabado

Dr. Stephen Acabado is an associate professor of anthropology and a core faculty at the Cotsent Institute of Archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles. His archaeological investigations in Ifugao, northern Philippines, have established the recent origins of the Cordillera Rice Terraces, which were once known to be at least 2,000 years old. Dr. Acabado also directs the Bicol and Ifugao Archaeological Projects and co-directs the Taiwan Indigenous Landscape and History Project.

He is a strong advocate of an engaged archaeology where descendant communities are involved in the research process. He is a member of the Engaged Research Grant Advisory Committee of the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research.