Grupo Kalinangan, Inc. (GKI) has completed the first two phases of a province-wide cultural mapping project in Zambales in 2019.

The Provincial Government of Zambales partnered with GKI to implement the project using the Mobile Heritage Online (MoHOn) Cultural Mapping Solutions. Phase 1 involved the municipalities of Candelaria and Masinloc, while Phase 2 involved the municipalities of Castillejos, Iba, San Antonio, and San Marcelino.

Since the project’s launch in 2018, a total of 1,197 cultural properties, which include built and natural heritage, moveable artifacts, and intangible heritage, were documented in the six towns. The project took 12 months of combined mapping and documentation work through participatory, community-based, and outsourced approach.

The project team was able to produce 12,199 pages of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA)’s Philippine Registry for Cultural Property (PRECUP) forms. This cultural mapping initiative helped the provincial government fulfill its mandate to build its local cultural inventory, as mandated under Joint Memorandum Circular No. 2018-01 of the Department of the Interior and Local Government and the NCCA.