The Philippine Panorama Project in 2023

The Beginning of an Initiative to Update Photographs of Philippine Towns

The Philippine Panorama Project was made through an initiative which aims inclusivity and balance of featured media files among Philippine town Wikipedia articles. Started in January 2023, the project commenced a month after the establishment of the Pilipinas Panorama Community (PPC) and since then became the flagship project of the community under its cultural heritage advocacy. This initiative is tied to the long-term commitment of the PPC on featuring cultural heritage sites from different Philippine towns in Wikimedia with focus on the lesser-known ones.

The year of 2023 saw the beginning of its impact in Wikimedia Commons for which the project is continuously adding and updating photographs with cultural significance on different Philippine towns. Several photographs were also featured on the Wikipedia articles of the town and also the cultural heritage site itself. The idea of the project is the intentional visit to the town and conducting a photowalk which focuses on the poblacion or the town center. Example yields of the initiative were the updating of the photographs of Santa Monica Parish Church (Minalin, Pampanga) and Saint James the Apostle Parish Church (Paete, Laguna) in Wikimedia Commons. The two Roman Catholic churches were known for its Baroque architectural style which were built during the Spanish colonial period, and now were important cultural heritage sites in the Philippines.

Photographs of cultural heritage collected by the project can be viewed under Category:Philippine Panorama Project in Wikimedia Commons. The initiative already collected 1,000+ photographs from different Philippine towns via purely volunteerism of project members. In its founding year, the project focused on the regions of Metro Manila, Calabarzon, and Central Luzon. The community is hoping to extend its initiative to other regions of the Philippines in the upcoming years.

About the author

RALFF NESTOR S. NACOR a.k.a. Ralffralff leads the cultural heritage initiative Philippine Panorama Project and is also an administrator/sysop of Bikol Wikipedia. Outside Wikimedia, he is a licensed chemical engineer from the Philippines.