Program Year: 2016
Grantee: Mangyan Heritage Center, Inc.
Grant Amount: US$100,593
Awarding Agency: Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (under the Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation Program)
Project Summary: The Project aims to document the extent, form and function of Baybayin use in Mindoro while the traditional cultures are still largely intact, develop a Primer to Buhid Script, and update the Hanunuo Primer and validate them across people’s organizations. It also aims to identify, interview and engage the culture-bearers and culture-rich communities that have kept the scripts and traditional culture alive, and determine their interest in publicly celebrating their culture while verifying needs that could be met through external assistance. Hopefully, this project will lead to the incorporation of Baybayin studies into curricula at the local and national levels and encourage academe to study Baybayin to more closely ascertain its origins and connection to the Laguna Copperplate Inscription and to the syllabic scripts of neighboring countries.
Citation: The Hanunuo Mangyan Syllabic Script is listed as a National Cultural Treasure in the Philippine Registry of Cultural Properties, and is inscribed in the Memory of the World Registers of UNESCO.
Status: On-going (up to September 2021)