MANGYAN HERITAGE CENTER
We like to rattle off figures: the Philippines is made up of 7,107 islands; we have more than 100 dialects and languages, 110 tribal groups. But how many realize that in the whole country, only four tribes have retained their original syllabary? (The rest of us retained our dialects, but romanized our alphabets!) Of the four tribes that still write like they did for centuries, two of them are Mangyan tribes from Mindoro, while the other two are Tagbanuas from Palawan.

“Mangyan” is a general term that refers to eight (8) ethnolinguistic groups of proto-malay origin that occupies the mountainous region of Mindoro Oriental and Occidental. The Mangyans are the original inhabitants of Mindoro, the seventh largest island in the Philippines. Mangyan population is estimated close to 100,000, about 10 percent of the total population of the island.

The Mangyan Heritage Center (MHC) is a library, a research and education center in Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro, Philippines. Established in 2000, the MHC builds upon the collection of Dutch anthropologist and Mangyan historian Antoon Postma. The MHC preserves, documents and conducts further research on all topics concerning and of concern to the eight Mangyan tribal groups, namely: Alangan, Bangon, Buhid, Hanunoo, Iraya, Tadyawan, Tau-buid and Ratagnon.

The MHC collection includes:

•Over 1,000 theses, studies and journals on the Mangyans which include those of noted anthropologists Harold Conklin, Volker Schults, Masaru Miyamoto and many more.
• Over 10,000 photographs
• Copies of documents of Mangyan encounters dating back to 1570
• Over 20,000 examples of Ambahan poetry and Urukay songs (some 2000 recorded)
• Over 1000 newsclippings dating back to 1900
• Video documentaries on the Mangyans
• Maps
• Mangyan artifacts

The MHC continuously collects and catalogues materials on the Mangyans from different resource centers in the Philippines such as school and research libraries, museums, archives and from government and non-government organizations assisting the Mangyans. The catalogue can be accessed electronically.

The MHC recognizes the importance of storing the literature electronically as one way of preserving them. Photos and selected literatures are being scanned and stored in compact discs (CDs) while other writings are being encoded and also stored in CDs.
The MHC is a member of librarylink, a one-stop resource center for Filipiniana resources. MHC is proud to be the youngest and smallest member library, but with the largest collection of materials on the Mangyans anywhere. The MHC catalogue is accessible in the Librarylink website at www.librarylink.org.ph.

The MHC library services:

• in-library reading of materials
• audio-visual material viewing
• scanning and printing of selected Mangyan photos
• photocopying of selected materials
• document delivery service for online researchers
• orientation about Mindoro and the Mangyans to groups visiting the library
• internet access to the MHC website or other libraries in the Librarylink website.

So come visit the Mangyan Heritage Center and visit the library with the largest collection of materials on the Mangyans in the world, the first library in Mindoro to go high-tech.

Get to know the Mangyans, and rediscover your roots through their cultures – something truly Filipino that have existed long before colonizers set foot in the Philippines.

The MHC is open Monday to Friday from 8:30am to 5:00pm.

GOAL
The MHC goal is to help the Mangyan tribes of Mindoro develop and maintain a center that stands as a testament to the modern day value of their culture.


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BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Jocelyn Quiaoit Bae (Vice-President)
Mrs. Bae lived among the Alangan Mangyan s in Oriental Mindoro as a Jesuit Volunteer in 1983-1984, then remained for a decade as a social development Church worker.  Her graduate thesis for Cultural Anthropology at Cagayan de Oro’s Xavier University was on the man-land relationship of the Alangan Mangyan. For the last 5 years, she was based in Calapan City and worked for Mangyan Mission, ending as administrative officer. She became the first recipient of The Lawrence Trust Fund for Volunteer Efforts Recognition Award in 2002. She is now a full-time mother to her young children and associate in her husband's small computer business.  

Mr. Jose Ariel G. Cañaveral
Mr. Cañaveral has been working with social development organizations for the past 18 years. His involvement in NGOs ranged from being a cultural researcher and writer, to trainor, and project manager. He served as the coordinator of a CD-ROM project featuring four Philippine Indigenous Groups. Mr. Cañaveral was the first president of the Mangyan Heritage Center, from 2001-2002.

Fr. Ewald H. Dinter, S.V.D.
Fr. Dinter has lived in the Philippines for almost four decades, and has worked with the Mangyans full-time for the past 19 years. He established the Mangyan Education Center among the Hanunuo Mangyans. He has been heading the Mangyan Mission, a church based NGO for the past 15 years. Mangyan Mission signed contracts with the Asian Development Bank for the Low Income Upland Communities Project (LIUCP) and the Nonformal Education Program. M.M. hosts the MHC office and library.

Atty. Renato Zosimo Evangelista (Corporate Secretary)
Atty. Evangelista, the first Mangyan lawyer, is managing partner of Crisologo, Evangelista & Associates. He recently finished his MA of Laws Major in International Law and Human Rights in the United Kingdom, with distinction for his research paper, “Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights and the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights. Atty. Evangelista inherited his mother’s talent for music, especially in piano.

Mrs. Lolita Delgado Fansler (President)
Mrs. Fansler has been an NGO volunteer for 36 years and a freelance writer for thirteen years. She coordinated the first Bishop’s-Businessmen’s Conference in 1971, organized the Association of Foundations in 1972, and currently sits on twelve foundation boards in Manila. She co-authored a college textbook, Sustainable Development: A Philippine Perspective; and her articles have appeared in books, magazines and newspapers in Manila, California, and West Virginia, including the Reader's Digest.

Ms. Tatine Garong Faylona (Treasurer)
Ms. Faylona has more than twelve years of NGO/volunteer experience dealing with domestic participatory development in various marginalized sectors. She holds a Juris Doctor degree from the Ateneo de Manila University and her thesis was on "The Law on Biodiversity Conservation and Intellectual Property Rights of Indigenous Peoples." She is finishing her MA on Women and Development Studies at the University of the Philippines. She was part of the Jesuit Volunteers of the Philippines program.

Mr. Antoon Postma
An anthropologist and linguist, Mr. Postma has lived with the Hanunuo Mangyans for more than forty years, publishing books and articles on their culture, poetry and writing system. He has also been involved in projects outside of Mindoro, such as editing the oldest Spanish-Tagalog dictionary, and the presentation and translation of the 900 A.D. Laguna Copperplate Inscription for the National Museum. Mr. Postma is in charge of MHC’s research, and his collection forms the bulk of MHC materials in its library.

Mr. John Silva
Mr. Silva is Senior Consultant to the National Museum of the Philippines. He has been in the non-profit sector for over 20 years as Development Director for Oxfam America, the American Cancer Society, Greenpeace, and other community organizations. John is a contributing writer on the arts and heritage preservation to various local and international publications.

Asuncion Kilayko Ng (Sony)
Mrs. Ng has been an active member of the Museum Volunteers of the Philippines (MVP) for the past fourteen years. While serving as Programme Officer in 1993, she met Antoon Postma when he gave a talk on the Hanunuo-Mangyans to the MVP members.  After 10 years as MVP Tour Coordinator, she is currently the MVP Archivist.  She also worked for a year as an Auxiliary Missionary of the Assumption, teaching kindergarten in Nazareno Parish in Cagayan de Oro City with the late Fr. Cicero Cebrero, SJ.

CONSULTANT

Quint Delgado Fansler
Mr. Fansler was a Jesuit Volunteer in Mindoro from 1998-1999, and lived in Mindoro from 1999-2000 to establish the Mangyan Heritage Center and build its library. He worked in the U.S.A. for two years, and returned to Manila to work in the Project Management Office of the Dept. of Trade and Industry’s National Small Medium Enterprise Development Agenda . President of the MHC from 2003 – 2005, Mr. Fansler is a graduate of Georgetown University and is currently an MBA candidate at Thunderbird Graduate School.

KEY STAFF

Emily Lorenzo Catapang - Executive Director
An Ibanag from Tuguegarao, Ms. Catapang has been working with the Mangyans for the past 13 years. She lectured at several organizations and universities, and researched for Mangyan documents and artifacts in libraries and museums in the United States while on a recent four-week fellowship at the Rockefeller Archive Center in New York. Mrs. Catapang was one of 20 Filipino students selected for a one-month study-tour to Japan (1991), under the Philippine Japan Friendship Program for the 21st Century, sponsored by Japan International Cooperation Agency.

Divina Gracia Francisco Benitez – Project Coordinator
Ms. Benitez graduated with an AB Philosophy degree at the Ateneo de Zamboanga University and served as a volunteer of the University’s Social Action Center throughout her college years. She is now on her second year as a Jesuit Volunteer, in-charge of organizing volunteers for the MHC and coordinates culture-related projects. In her first year as JVP, she was assigned to a Davao-based NGO as coalition builder.
 
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