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Filipino Cinema Reframes National Heritage through UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme

MANILA 30 April 2025 – Two pioneering achievements in Philippine cinema were honoured at the Manila launch of UNESCO Philippines’Memory of the World (MoW) Documentary Heritage Program on 29 April 2025. These inductees are Eddie Romero’s classic film “Ganito Kami Noon, Paano Kayo Ngayon? and The FPJ Archives. Together with seven other significant documents like books and ancient syllabaries, the films show the significance of cinematic heritage in enriching the country’s historical memory to overcome the growing amnesia slowly gripping our collective understanding of Filipino identity.

While thousands of films were released during Philippine cinema’s golden heydays, only a fraction remain accessible today. Although the Film Development Council of the Philippines institutionalized its archives in the early 2010s, the century between the first Filipino-produced film and the establishment of a national archive resulted in countless reels deteriorating or getting lost forever. A handful of Filipino film negatives have survived through international collections or private initiatives of local collectors and organizations.

Each MoW-registered document has to meet UNESCO’s stringent criteria: local or international significance, rarity, faces potential threats to its preservation, and/or represents unique contributions. Filmmaker and MoW chairman Nick Deocampo remarks that only a handful of documents is listed in the country’s registry. More needs to be made to enrich the list of Philippine documents in the UNESCO registries.

The launch for a nationwide campaign promoting documentary heritage, the MoW Philippine will hosted an event at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Double Dragon Tower, Meridian Park, Pasay City. All nominees and incoming inductees of the International, Asia- Pacific, and National registers gathered to celebrate this momentous occasion. UNESCO welcomes more nominations. Documents with potential significance to the Filipino cultural heritage may be elected through the following link until July this year.

About Memory of the World

The Memory of the World Programme lists and celebrates documents, archives, and tangible items of exceptional historical and cultural significance for humanity. The Philippine MoW Committee was established in 2006, underneath UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines, and continues to pave the way for future nominations, promoting the significance of documentary heritage initiatives.

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