Historic sources: The story of Ortigas Foundation and its Filipiniana collection

MANILA, Philippines - There are various histories enclosed in brittle pages and tooled leather book covers that are only known to the avid collector. Those who take the effort to build a modest book collection do not only amass volumes, but also great stories that merit an audience. Rafael Ortigas, Jr., better known as Rafa, is one such collector, contributing to a lasting heritage with a story that is written at the very walls of the Ortigas Foundation. 

Esteemed bibliophile Morton Netzorg, born to Thomasite parents, was in the business of buying warehouses of Filipiniana items and shipping them to a Detroit home base. Like other collectors and scholars, Rafa frequented Netzorg’s bookshop during visits to the United States.

When Rafa received news that Netzorg passed away and that his wife, Petra was putting all items in the Cellar Bookshop for sale, he set out for Detroit, Michigan along with Alberto Montilla to explore the possibility of buying Netzorg’s Cellar collection. The collection was made up of about 9,000 books, maps, periodicals and photographs. The trip became a tedious two-week-long ordeal of checking the items one piece at a time, at Michigan’s biggest dealer of Filipiniana articles.

A deal was closed and Netzorg’s collection which included John Taylor’s Philippine Insurgent Records, Marion Wilcox’s Harper’s History of the War in the Philippines and a copy of the Japanese War Crimes Trials in several volumes landed onto the shelves of Rafa’s personal library.

Housed in the Ortigas Foundation Library are some century-old books that are undergoing conservation by consultants. They are kept in temperature- and humidity-controlled rooms to ensure that they remain undamaged and ready for future digitization.

In the meantime, Dr. Gregorio Zaide, professor and lifelong student of Philippine history, was able to collect about 5,000 Filipiniana books. This collection, most notable for books written by and about Jose Rizal, was also acquired by Rafa.

Being a visionary with a high regard for education, Rafael Ortigas, Jr. laid out his goal of creating a center that would encourage the study of Philippine history, art, and culture. This was made real upon the incorporation of the Ortigas Foundation on Nov. 7, 1996, and the building of the Ortigas Foundation Library.

Nine thousand volumes from the Cellar, 5,000 volumes from Dr. Zaide, and about 8,000 volumes coming from Rafa and his wife’s personal collection formed the base of the Ortigas Foundation Library.

To date, the library houses at least 22,000 items, some dating as far back as 1666 and with several titles that, for scholars and researchers, could be hard to ignore: Hakluyt’s translation of Melchisédech Thévenot’s Relations de Divers Voyages Curieux, 1767 edition of George Anson’s Voyage Round the World with 42 copper plate engravings and maps, including an account of the capture of the Manila Galleon by the British, and Juan de la Conception’s 1788 – 1792 Historia General de Filipinas complete in fourteen volumes.

The La Casa de Dios book team — photographer Betty Lalana, artist Ige Ramos, Ortigas Foundation/La Casa de Dios editorial consultant Jonathan Best, and photographer Lino Arboleda

The Ortigas Foundation Library is the cornerstone of the Foundation’s ongoing research and conservation program. In fact, several rare books in the collection are being handled with the help of consultants who are trained in international standards of archival conservation. The rare books section is maintained properly with controlled temperature and humidity to ensure that fragile books and maps remain intact. Restored rare books would soon be available for public viewing once digitized.

Consultants also aid in keeping the library up to date by screening new titles, which content and quality would prove useful as references in the future. The Foundation holds workshops on conservation recommended for private collectors, librarians, library staff and students. Last February, Loreto Apilado, who is a conservation consultant of the Ortigas Foundation Library, facilitated one such workshop.

The Ortigas Foundation continues to acquire and create resource materials for researchers and students, proof of which is the launch of its first book.

La Casa de Dios: The Legacy of Filipino-Hispanic Churches in the Philippines is also the brainchild of Rafa Ortigas, who was then the president of the Foundation. He commissioned two photographers, Betty Lalana and Boy Arboleda to go around the Philippines in search of Spanish colonial churches from all religious orders. It took more than a decade to photograph and meticulously compile all these materials. La Casa de Dios was launched last year and is now available in the Ortigas Foundation Library.

Alberto Montilla, a member of the Ortigas Foundation’s board of trustees

Rafael Ortigas passed away in 2009 before the book was even published. 

The Ortigas Foundation, however, continues to fulfill the vision of Rafa, as well as of the other trustees of the Foundation. It remains to be the most important contribution of the Ortigas family to Philippine art and culture — not only serving as a great resource, and as a venue for renowned and new artists to showcase their works, but also as a house full of wonders that have been gathered as Filipinos continue to read and make history.

La Casa de Dios covers over 300 churches all over the archipelago and all Catholic orders.