NHCP Commissioner and Director of the Ateneo de Manila University Archives, Dr. Francis M. Navarro, discussing Archival Work and Basic Paleography to over 80 local historians and cultural workers in Visayas during the SkilLokal Training. (Photo courtesy of National Historical Commission of the Philippines)
CEBU CITY, Cebu (PIA) — Around 82 Visayas-based historians are now ready to embark on documenting local history after undergoing a series of training from the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP).
Titled as SkilLokal, the training series is a flagship program of the NHCP-Local Historical Committees Network (LHCN) that aims to provide practitioners and cultural workers at the local and regional levels with key skills and knowledge in the development, documentation, preservation, and popularization of Philippine local history and cultural heritage.
According to NHCP historic sites development officer Josef Alec Dizon Geradila, this is their first time to hold a SkilLokal training with Visayas as their first stop in the country.
“This is the first time that we mounted this program, the SkilLokal. It’s part of our commitment to our partners in the region to provide them with the skills for local history work… This is the first time that we’re doing this and then Cebu is the first time that this was conducted,” Geradila said.
Following Visayas, the second and last leg will be conducted in Luzon and Mindanao this year.
NHCP said the training is rooted from their perspective that local history should and can only be written from the local perspective.
“We cannot be considered as local historians when we write about the history of the Visayas because we are not from the Visayas. We will miss out on cultural differences,” Geradila said.
The training is in support of NHCP’s mandate to conserve and preserve the country’s historical legacies.
“Part of our support for local history is the conduct of activities like this, training like this so that our local partners have the skills necessary for them to be able to write their own histories,” Geradila said.
Most of the participants are local researchers or cultural workers across the Visayas regions who have been carefully selected by the NHCP with the help of the LHCN Visayas cluster.
“Most of them are local researchers, not necessarily historians, but have existing works in local history… we selected those who we think fit para sa profile ng training,” Geradila said.
Forty percent of the participants are from Central Visayas while the rest are from Antique, Capiz, Iloilo, Northern and Eastern Samar, and Southern Leyte.
The participants are cultural and arts workers from the local government units (LGUs), non-governmental organizations, local history societies, local heritage groups, and tourism units engaged in cultural work.
One of the training participants, Orland James Romarate, 28, the Heritage Preservation and Cultural Properties Registry Section officer-in-charge of Cebu City Cultural and Historical Affairs Office, said the training’s discussion on basic paleography left an impact on him.
Romarate studied the transformation of the fiesta celebration in the town of Boljoon, Cebu. His research gained him access to the archival records of the church from the 1800s, including the original interior images of the church.
The research led him to be the first to rediscover the missing pulpit panels of the Boljoon Church or the Nuestra Señora de Patrocinio Church.
Having access to the archival documents made him engrossed with the discussion on the basic paleography during the training.
“Kadtong kuan gyud discussion on basic paleography… kadtong mga archival documents, sa atoa sa Cebu, daghan kaayo ta’g mga archivals especially sa mga simbahan. Mga baptismal records, mga death records, ug kadtong mga records nga handwritten gyud,” Romarate said.
(That discussion on basic paleography… those archival documents in Cebu, we have a lot of archival documents, especially in churches. Baptismal records, death records, and those records that are actually handwritten.)
“Dili diay nato diay dayon nato i-translate, i-transcribe unsa ang iyang meaning. So atong usang sabton the way niya gisuwat ang document,” he added.
(We can’t just translate it, we can transcribe what it means. So let’s first understand the way he wrote the document.)
Aside from writing about the history of Boljoon Church, Romarate is also writing about the history of León Kilat, a Filipino revolutionary leader from Cebu.
He said the training provided him with extensive learning and insights on his role as a historian.
“Taas gyud siya og nahatag not only experience but learning and insights nga gihatag sa mga speakers nga knowledgeable gyud sa topic… best part gyud nako ang Day 1 kay first time pa gyud nako nakadungog sa basic paleography,” Romarate said.
(It greatly provided us not only experience but learning and insights given by speakers who were really knowledgeable about the topic… the best part for me was Day 1 because it was the first time I heard about basic paleography.) (JJT/PIA7)
