A tale of three collectors

As soon as the Asian Spirit plane landed in Baguio City at 9:45 a.m., I wasted no time in contacting Henry Beyer, Eddie Marcelo and Roland Goh – three gentlemen of the Cordilleras who breathe and dream artifacts, and whom I’ve known for more than 15 years.

Henry Beyer has distinguished roots. He is the grandson of Otley Beyer, known as the "Father of Philippine Anthropology" for his pioneering work in exploring numerous Pleistocene sites in Northern Luzon. With his discoveries, he was able to arouse the interest of scholars about the prehistoric beginnings of the Philippines. In 1928, Beyer excavated in Novaliches several beads and glass bracelets known to have come from India. Other excavations yielded 1,000-year-old potteries. Together with scholars Peter Billwood and Arsenio Manuel, Beyer also traced the migration pattern of this country’s early inhabitants from mainland Asia to Northern Luzon down to Southern Mindanao.

Otley came to the Philippines after he viewed the Philippine ethnic villages presented at the 1904 St. Louis Exposition in Missouri. Grandpa or Apo Otley was a college student then, doing archeological work for the University of Denver with an interest in exotic metals. Otley Beyer arrived in the Philippines and photographed a tender-aged Ifugao girl "about 10 years old," Henry says, whose name was Lingngayu . He left the country to finish his studies and returned a few years later surprised to find Lingngayu all grownup and appealing that he married her in 1910. To know Henry is to know the Ifugao culture. Apo Otley told Henry he gave a peso to each of his grandma’s closest relatives on her father’s side and mother’s side on their wedding day. The more distant the relatives, the lesser the amount that was given. So, instead of a peso, the amound became P.50, then P.20 to P.10.

As for Henry, he tried to take up flying at Feati University, quit and graduated with a management degree but he ended up a collector of Cordillera wooden spoons. These spoons he accumulated since his youth from the commission he received buying silver spoons for his father. It was inevitable that Henry would develop his own passionate appreciation for Cordillera crafts beginning at home in Banaue.

Rummaging through his garage is like traveling through the Cordilleras’ history in a dusty vehicle with treasured tribal textiles, spoons, clothes hangers and wooden sticks with carvings, fossils and adzes of stone or jade from Luzon – all inherited pieces from his grandfather.

Years back, I acquired from Henry his grandfather’s pipe collection of metal and wood, as well as carved wooden gong handles from Ifugao. Ambeth Ocampo, meanwhile, has Beyer’s big adze of jade. What a rare piece.

After hours of rummaging through old newspapers and falling in love with a Sumerian clay with handwritten vertical and horizontal lines, we decided it was time to see Roland Goh, an "on and off recluse" with a sense of humor who smoked us out of his house. "I came to Baguio to plant mushrooms and ended up a Cordillera antiquarian drinking 14 cups of coffee a day and smoking two packs of cigarettes daily," he says.

Roland traveled all over Cordillera and went further to the Visayan region and sold his discoveries in Baguio City via Manila. Purchasing a Sto. Niño image from Cebu, one rare Bacolod ikat blanket, blue and white plates and more, he ended up breeding German Shepherds to support his buy-and-sell activities. Over time, his collection accumulated that he had to sell a few duplicates, which is something that he still does till now.

One learns the culture of the Cordillera people by studying and traveling around the Mountain Province and this Roland did to attract buyers by explaining to them what they were buying. Just like with Henry, travel deepened one’s understanding. Henry can tell you if certain clothes come from the Gaddang, Tingian, Ibaloi or Kankanay tribes just by looking at them. After much prodding, Roland finally allowed us to see his room where he had museum pieces ranging from beaded bracelets from Kalinga to ethnic textile, to excavated tiny Kalinga beads, two Bencab originals dated 1959 which Bencab’s brother sold to Roland, to oriental turtle figurines and slabs. His favorite piece, however, is a silver Chinese jar. Dragging Henry along and kidnapping Roland, we went to see one more old friend, Eddie Marcelo.

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Eddie, who was expecting to see me, was quite surprised to see his old buddies Roland and Henry when we arrived at his shop named Teresita’s. Among the three of them, Eddie is the only one who has retained his store from the time he opened it in 1970 to this day. Originally from Nueva Ecija, he arrived with his father in Baguio City in 1948 because of the business opportunities available in the summer capital during those days. Eddie’s father started with a surplus store in the early ’50s followed by a handicraft store in the ’60s which exposed him to old things.

Cordillera antiques are becoming rare so he’s now concentrating on wooden furniture, bulols, and textiles. Years back, Eddie and I collected a complete Gaddang outfit for men and women, which took us two years to complete from headgear to handbag and accessories. The Gaddangs are from the highland of southern Kalinga and eastern Bontok.

"Years of investigation and exploration enable a collector to develop his own taste and decide on what he actually wants to keep or sell," says Eddie, who keeps primitive Ifugao furniture in his three-story structure.

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Though hungry, I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to these collectors. So, at 7:30 p.m., we went for a barbeque dinner in one of the turo-turo restaurants near the jeepney stop in Burnham Park where none of us had ever been. It’s actually fun to discover such places! We were all there, a group of 12 amid so much noise and smoke coming from the grills. Imagine what Daniel H. Burnham, the architect of this Baguio hill station, would say if he were alive. "He had envisioned and constructed the public park with the northwestern sector of the meadow and the more subdued slopes of surrounding hills reserved for commercial establishments. The municipal and national building complexes were to be prominently situated on small ridges at opposite poles of the park’s main axis. Beyond this primary grouping of business and government structure, the Burnham plan provided for recreational spaces for a street system that followed the natural contours of the hilly terrain for broad residential areas and for a variety of public and private institutions." Natural contours? Everything’s all messed up!

We reminisced about Burnham Park’s glory once upon a time and wondered what happened. But it was really nice to get together with friends once more. I think these three men’s lives are intertwined because they share a common passion. Eddie’s parents know Henry’s parents because they used to exchange goods. Roland, on the other hand, was proud to announce that it was William Beyer, Henry’s father, who taught him how to appreciate ethnic primitive art. The whole night, the three men teased each other. Henry joked that Roland’s bodega of artifacts was much smaller, cramped and dirtier than his. Roland, on the other hand, chided Henry for selling some prized pieces. Eddie interrupted and asked why Henry didn’t sell items to him instead. They vented about the loss of the supply of native artifacts. Discoveries are rare these days because the natives aren’t that keen on observing their traditional culture that much anymore. The younger generation doesn’t seem to have same fervor or interest as their parents have in keeping their priceless cultural tradition. All is almost lost for the natives of the Mountain Province and if nothing is done, we would lose a rich cultural heritage. That would be such a pity.