I recently completed my Google Data Analytics Certificate, and I was curious about the available data shared to the public by the Philippine government. I stumbled upon the Open Data Philippines (ODPH) Portal, which is an online repository of open data from different government agencies. I was particularly interested in the Arts, Culture and Heritage category, and I decided to use the Philippine Registry of Cultural Property (PRECUP) dataset for my case study.

The Philippine Registry of Cultural Property (PRECUP) is the repository of all information pertaining to cultural properties in the Philippines deemed significant to our cultural heritage. It was established through Article V Section 4 of the National Heritage Act of 2009 Republic Act 10066.

Why Establish the Registry? It plays a crucial role in identifying and providing information on all available cultural resources in the country which can be used by the public, land use planners, property owners, developers, the tourism industry, and educators; increasing awareness and the understanding of cultural heritage especially in local communities; and facilitating the protection, preservation, and conservation of cultural property.

Contents of the PRECUP:

• National Cultural Treasures or unique cultural property found locally which has outstanding historical, cultural, artistic, and/or scientific value. It is highly significant and important to the country and is officially declared by a cultural agency like the National Museum (NM).

• Important Cultural Property or cultural property having exceptional cultural, artistic, and historical significance to the Philippines determined by the NM, the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP), the National Library of the Philippines (NLP), and/or the National Archives of the Philippines (NAP).

• National Historical Shrines or cultural property which are hallowed and revered for their history or association as declared by the NHCP and/or other previous iterations of that cultural agency.

• National Historical Landmarks or sites or structures that are associated with events or achievements significant to Philippine history as declared by the NHCP and/or other previous iterations of that cultural agency.

• National Historical Monuments or structures that honor illustrious persons or commemorate events of historical value as declared by the NHCP and/or other previous iterations of that cultural agency.

• UNESCO World Heritage Sites or places listed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as having outstanding universal value.

• Presumed Important Cultural Property or cultural property which are not declared as National Cultural Treasure, UNESCO World Heritage Site, National Historical Shrine, National Historical Landmark, National Historical Monument, or Important Cultural Property but still possesses the characteristic of an Important Cultural Property. This may be:

  • Works of Manlilikha ng Bayan
  • Works of National Artists (unless declared by the Commission)
  • Archeological and traditional ethnographic materials (unless declared by the National Museum)
  • Works of national heroes
  • Marked structures (unless declared by the NHCP)
  • Structures dating at least 50 years old
  • Archival materials or old documents dating at least 50 years old (unless declared by the National Archives).

• Local Important Cultural Properties declared by the Sanggunian as such. These are cultural properties which are significant to local culture and history.

Aggregated figures for natural hazard related events in EM-DAT: Philippines

Documentation on the Country Profiles available here

How to cite the EM-DAT Project here

Main dataset on HDX: EM-DAT - Country Profiles

More on the EM-DAT database : website / data portal

Each line corresponds to a given combination of year, country, disaster subtype and reports figures for :

• number of disasters
• total number of people affected
• total number of deaths
• economic losses (original value and adjusted)

Makiling Biodiversity Information System (MakiBIS) is an online portal of diverse species composition of Mt. Makiling lifted from various published materials. It serves a single repository of biodiversity species documented within MFR that allows user to readily access available information of each taxon via internet. The system shared the information globally-based on standards of Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) using Darwin Core platform, particularly the taxonomic information of the species recorded. MakiBIS is envisioned to be a prototype system that calls for an initiative to have nationwide biodiversity information system known as Philippine Biodiversity Information System (PhilBIS) through interagency and multidisciplinary partnership. The creation of a database system released in the worldwide web provides avenue among users in the world to view and appreciate the ecological importance of biodiversity in any given country.