While traditional archives trace history in the indelible etches of static documents and still artifacts, audiovisual (AV) archiving finds its pulse in dynamic media. Through the shifting mediums of film, radio, and television, AV archiving treads the crossroads of analog preservation and sustainable digital innovation.
Philippine archiving can be traced back to 1981, when the Film Archives of the Philippines (FAP) was established as the ASEAN’s AV depository. The FAP only lasted until 1985 before it was replaced by the ABS-CBN Film Archives, which then closed in 2025. Today, the Philippine Film Archive (PFA) is the only national AV-archiving institution responsible for the restoration and housing of films.
But a single establishment cannot shoulder the entire weight of a nation’s history. As the relentless cycle of digital innovation persists, the accessibility of older AV technology and the memories they contain grow dimmer in the shadow of new-age successors. Thus, the preservation of media stands as a vital line of defense against historical amnesia.
A window to the past
Turning the reels of media preservation are individuals driven to untangle the sprawling web of Filipino culture. For senior news producer Jerome Villanueva, his journey began in early childhood as a “media enthusiast.” Determined to memorialize cherished cartoons, he learned to archive simply by taping TV programs.
Villanueva’s interests eventually matured into a dedicated niche: rescuing classic Filipino sitcoms from obscurity. But as he hunted down surviving tapes of John en Marsha, he soon unraveled the true deficiencies of the nation’s archival scene. “Did you know that the John en Marsha TV series has approximately 700 episodes?” he shares in Filipino. “[But in] those 700 episodes, only 80 plus were saved or preserved by their home network.”
Determined to recover these stories, Villanueva and various online communities pioneer efforts to recover lost media, hoping to one day piece back the nation’s fractured legacy.
Yet, while Villanueva’s calling felt fated, archivist Julie Ann Nealega (AB-CAM, ‘11) discovered the career through opportunity. Nealega began as a documentary producer for Probe, an independent media production company. But when she uncovered Probe’s collection of 18,000 tapes storing their documentaries and investigative reports, she saw a chance to broaden their advocacy for hard-hitting stories.
Thus, in 2020, they began Probe Archives, a publicly accessible digital repository of Probe’s productions. Propagating awareness for the nation’s marginalized sectors, Nealega explains, “The vision [for Probe Archives] is for Gen Z [to] have a context of what has happened back in [the] late 80s, 90s, and 2000s.” Through this, they tune media archives into a frequency that amplifies Filipino consciousness.
Despite their different backgrounds, these archivists share similar motivations: a desire to commemorate Filipino heritage, build historical transparency, and bridge the past and present.
As Philippine TV Archives founder Hayden Lagman shares, media archiving echoes more than just the need for identity—it is a tool for protecting collective memory. Every salvaged fragment captures the lived experiences and hard-earned lessons of each generation, which serve as “evidence that can challenge misinformation and historical revisionism.”
On the cutting-room floor
While archiving for historical recordkeeping seems intuitive, local efforts to do so with non-film works are propelled primarily by private organizations and media enthusiasts. The absence of a national institution devoted to this process, along with the lack of facilities that consolidate and house these works, make the duty an uphill battle.
Many resort to a scrappy, do-it-yourself approach. Villanueva’s home archiving system comprises secondhand equipment secured online, with tapes of TV programs and news broadcasts sourced publicly. Lagman describes junk shops as a prime site for magnetic tapes, since many discard memorabilia that unknowingly serve as priceless time capsules.
Due to improper storage, many tapes incur damage over the years. Typically requiring a cool, dry environment, old media formats are defenseless against the relentless Philippine humidity. Meanwhile, storage vaults are costly, hence why few local media houses hold onto original copies.
While tapes can be fragile, digital copies tend to be corruption-prone and data-intensive, rendering the continued care of their physical counterparts all the more necessary. Unfortunately, the obsolescence of AV technology worldwide impedes access to necessary tools. As Villanueva laments, “There is now a consensus among audiovisual archives internationally that we will not be able to support large-scale digitization of magnetic media in the very near future.”
This leaves archivists at the mercy of pre-digital age equipment, which is just as troublesome, given the lack of official stores in the country that sell them, as well as the dwindling generation of Filipino repairmen with the know-how for these devices. Thus, the tumultuous road to remembrance escalates into a race against time—one that community archivists must pave themselves.
A key to the future
A future wouldn’t exist without its past, and even the country’s most far-flung factions deserve the bits and pieces of their history. However, with insufficient budgets and manpower, archivists are forced to allow some irretrievable media to be lost forever.
“Kasi kung sa Manila, mahirap [na] ang preservation, paano pa kaya sa ibang region sa Pinas?” Lagman stresses.
(If in Manila, the preservation is already difficult, what more in other regions of the Philippines?)
Despite their efforts, local archivists admit to a dire need for a government-led public institution that will ensure the longevity and accessibility of restored footage. Sadly, the government continues to overlook the preservation of television, commercials, and other non-film footage as cultural artifacts that shape the country’s national identity and heritage.
Nevertheless, AV archivists attempt to preserve everything without discrimination. Working toward a holistic overview of recorded history, they create repositories of knowledge that ensure unique Filipino conditions, beliefs, and responses to major events are represented by the very people who lived through them. It is through their ardent direction that the present might come into sharper focus through the lens of the past. After all, as Lagman asserts, “Atin ‘to. Ginawa ng sariling atin, ginawa natin.”
(This is ours. It is made by those of our own, it is made by us.)