Marlon was one of the first custodians to participate in the Preserving Legacies cohort program, and his work with us continues to make an impact locally, regionally, and internationally. From challenging colonial narratives to shaping global conversations on cultural resilience, Martin’s work offers a bold, community-driven model that bridges local knowledge and academic research—preserving the past to help prepare for the future. 

From Lawyer to Local Leader: Returning to His Roots

Marlon didn’t set out to work in heritage. Like many young people, he left home in pursuit of education and economic opportunity. But while practicing law in Manila, something didn’t sit right:

“What am I doing here? Am I happy? I'm not happy. You work all day, you only know your office table and your bed. You don't have a social life because you work, work, work. That was normal for people my age.” 

He called it “urban sickness” and returned home for vacation, which at the time he did not know would be permanent.

While there, Marlon reconnected with a childhood friend who led the Save the Ifugao Terraces Movement (SITMo). The organization needed someone with a rare combination of skills to help implement a Gates Foundation malaria project. Marlon, with degrees in political science, law, and nursing, was the perfect fit. He agreed to volunteer for six months, which turned into six months more, and so on. 

After two years, Marlon’s law office in Manila called and he finally made it official, “I resign, I’m staying here.” 

Traveling between Ifugao’s mountain villages, reconnecting with his community, and serving his people gave him a sense of purpose he never found in his legal career in the city.

“There’s a saying in my country,” he shared. “The farther away you are from your roots, the weaker it becomes. So you don’t stray away too far from your roots, because you die. And I think that’s the spirit that they’re referring to. Being in my home region, in my hometown, I feel stronger when I’m there.” 

The Rice Terraces: More Than Just a Landscape

In Marlon’s current role as the executive director of SITMo, where he originally volunteered, Marlon plays an instrumental role in preserving Ifugao’s rice terraces and all that they represent for its communities. 

“I think most [outside] people only look at the terraces superficially,” he conjectured. “Not many are familiar with how the terraces are actually the foundation of our culture. It's the foundation of our identity as a people.” 

During the Preserving Legacies risk assessment process he was surprised by how few of the community members valued the terraces for their economic returns, whether from harvest or tourism. “It’s actually because it's something that we inherited from our ancestors,” he continued. “It has sentimental value, it defines us as a people.” 

The Two Sides of Education

This intergenerational connection to the terraces is deeply personal for Marlon. He recalls his grandmother’s frustration with how formal education often led younger generations away from the land long-term.

He remembered his grandmother reflecting, “The rice fields nurtured you. They nurtured our family for generations. Why are you abandoning the land just because you have your college degrees? Just because you're lawyers, just because you're teachers and engineers. Did I send your mothers or fathers to school so that they would abandon the terraces? I didn’t know that. Had I known, I wouldn’t have sent them to school.”

But that was the original purpose of formal education in the area—to assimilate the Ifugao into the wider culture while erasing their own. Marlon often says in lectures, “The more educated an Ifugao is the more ignorant they become of their own heritage, their own culture.” 

Yet having lived in both worlds, Marlon’s super power is his ability to bridge both knowledge systems. 

“The Ifugao aren’t purists themselves, they know how to give credit to science and researchers. But forgetting everything in favor of modern science is not the right course. [During the Preserving Legacies risk assessment], there were participants who were 70-90 years old also saying to listen to science and professors—but do not forget teachings of your ancestors, there are things we know more than anyone else because we are here, we live here, we experience everything.” 

“So why would I be forgetting the ways of the mountains?” Marlon questioned. “My ancestors recorded everything about the changes in weather. It is a very rich source of data as far as scientific inquiry is concerned. But why are we not considering it?” 

Through his tireless work, and that of his colleagues around the world, that is starting to change. “Slowly it is getting accepted,” he shared. “Science is getting more liberal in its interpretation of things and is realizing generations of experience is also decades and centuries of research.”

Intensifying Impacts of Climate Change

Marlon’s work is more urgent than ever as intensifying typhoons threaten Ifugao’s terraces and communities.

“I didn’t used to be afraid of typhoons,” he confided. “But in the past few years, typhoons are getting scarier. You never heard about a house being blown away before. It was only recently that we were experiencing all this. The typhoon would come with so much rain and we're getting landslides and people are actually dying because part of the hill came down and it covered an entire village or it covered an entire house and people died.” 

“It's like a reverse psychology thing—there’s childhood trauma but this is adult trauma because we didn't have typhoons like this when we were kids. We used to laugh and go outside if it was a warning signal number three. But now, when they say it's signal number three, it's serious. It's really serious.”

Only You Can Protect Your Heritage

When asked what advice he’d give others interested in protecting their own heritage, Marlon speaks from experience:

“Heritage is something that you have to continue yourself. People who own the heritage and people who acknowledge their heritage are the only ones who can save their heritage. Don’t wait for your government to save it. They won’t be able to relate with your culture. It’s you. You have to act on your heritage, continue your practices, and work on your traditions.”