A NEED for a Filipino Dominican trained to preserve historical records led Fr. Gaspar Sigaya, O.P. into archival work, a vocation that would eventually take him to Rome as the first Filipino general archivist of the Order of Preachers before bringing him back to UST to help safeguard centuries of Philippine history.
Now regent of the College of Information and Computing Sciences, Sigaya has spent much of his Dominican life preserving documents that he regards not merely as remnants of the past but as records of the identities of institutions, communities and people.
“Archives are not simply places where old documents are stored. They are repositories of memory, identity, evidence, and institutional history,” Sigaya told the Varsitarian.
“I became fascinated by the way a single document can reveal something about a person, a community, the Church, or an institution,” he added.
A Dominican calling
Sigaya did not initially set out to become an archivist.
His path began when the Dominican Province of the Philippines saw the need for a friar who could specialize in library and archival science.
“My journey into archives actually began with a need for the Dominican Province of the Philippines […] for someone who could specialize in library and archival science, and the regent of studies of the province sent me to the University of the Philippines,” Sigaya said.
His studies introduced him to the technical work of managing records, but Sigaya said handling historical materials gave preservation a deeper meaning.
His training under Fr. Angel Aparicio, O.P., prefect of the Miguel de Benavides Library, further developed his appreciation for the preservation and restoration of historical documents.
“When you physically handle an old manuscript or document, you realize that you are touching something that has survived generations,” Sigaya said.
“You begin to understand that preservation is not merely a technical task. It is an act of stewardship.”
Sigaya eventually served for more than a decade as archivist of the Dominican Province of the Philippines, placing him in charge of records documenting the history and work of the Dominicans in the country.
His archival vocation later took him beyond the Philippines.
From 2013 to 2019, Sigaya served as the first Filipino general archivist of the Order of Preachers at the Dominican Curia in Santa Sabina, Rome.
The position placed a Filipino Dominican in the stewardship of the historical records of the religious order founded by St. Dominic more than eight centuries ago.
For Sigaya, his assignments in the Philippines and Rome were expressions of the same vocation.
“For me, all these experiences are connected by one vocation: to preserve memory and make it meaningful for the present and future generations,” he said.
Custodian of historical documents
Sigaya eventually returned to his alma mater and headed the Archivo de la Universidad de Santo Tomás (AUST), the official repository of the University’s historical records.
The archive holds documents spanning centuries of UST and Philippine history, including collections recognized as national cultural treasures.
Among them are 17th-century deeds of sale of land written entirely in Baybayin, rare documents that demonstrate how the University’s archives extend beyond its own institutional history.
“The Baybayin documents remind us that the University is not simply a repository of its own institutional memory; it is also a custodian of a much broader Filipino and national heritage,” Sigaya said.
For Sigaya, such documents also demonstrate why archival preservation carries responsibilities extending beyond the University.
A document, he said, can provide evidence of the experiences of individuals and communities long after those who created it are gone.
“Without archives, we may continue existing, but we will slowly forget who we are, where we came from, and why we exist,” Sigaya said.
“The document has already survived its generation. Our responsibility is to make sure that it also survives ours.”
Taking centuries-old archives online
Preserving the past, however, does not mean keeping historical materials beyond the reach of the present.
Under Sigaya’s leadership, the AUST launched its online catalog in August 2025, allowing researchers and the public to more easily discover materials held by the University archives.
For Sigaya, digital technology offers an opportunity to widen access to historical collections while protecting fragile originals.
He said digitization should continue while observing archival principles and safeguarding the integrity of the collections.
“In the end, digitization is not the end of archival preservation. It is another means of extending the life and reach of our memory,” Sigaya said.
The shift toward digital access represents another stage in a vocation that began when the Dominican Province needed someone to care for its records.
From the archives of the Philippine Dominicans to the Order of Preachers’ headquarters in Rome and eventually the centuries-old collections of UST, Sigaya has spent much of his religious life ensuring that documents surviving from earlier generations remain available to those that follow.
For him, the task ultimately comes down to stewardship: receiving a memory inherited from the past, preserving it in the present and passing it on.
“The document has already survived its generation,” Sigaya said. “Our responsibility is to make sure that it also survives ours.” Phoebe Elaine B. Pua
