Last June 12, 1998, the Philippines celebrated the 100th year anniversary of the proclamation of independence against the Spanish colonization and the establishment of the first democratic republic in Asia. As part of the commemoration about 600 books on an array of topics and subjects related to the events surrounding the proclamation were independently published; an unprecedented development in the life of a nation still grappling with its identity. The propensity to continually address the topic of what it means to be a Pilipino is often attributed to the diverse ethnic, cultural, social and linguistic groupings: 8 major languages and about 87 dialects spoken in an archipelago of 7,104 islands. Another often-repeated reason why the psyche of the Pilipino people remains to be a kind of national enigma is the uncommon mixture of political, social and cultural overlaying for the last 480 years - more than 350 years of Spanish colonization, about 50 years of American “Hollywood”, about 5 years of Japanese “Kempetai” and about 50 years of Pilipino “maski-pops” (“everything goes”); added to the Pre-Hispanic base of Malay, Indonesian, Chinese and aboriginal cultures all intermingled through the process of migration, commerce and trade, occupation and colonization. Perhaps it is significant to note that in as early as 900 AD, long before the coming of the Spaniards in 1521, there is already an organized social-political system in place and a highly sophisticated form of writing in use now identified as “Kavi” - which is very similar to the old Sanskrit, old Malay and old Javanese.

Today, more than a hundred years since the establishment of a democratic republic, the Pilipinos are more than ever deeply concerned with rediscovering the national roots and re-examining the rich social-cultural heritage. During the last ten years countless projects, productions, exhibitions, symposia, re-enactment, conferences and conventions were built, produced, commemorated and held to raise the people’s level of consciousness and awareness of history and culture through the many fields of arts, architecture, education and politics. This research-project, thus, is being undertaken in the light of the above developments and in line with the continuing search for the Pilipino identity.