Modernization crept gradually into Manoboland as Cebuano-speaking Visayans from the seacoasts (particularly from the Eastern Visayan region) settled into it.

    Christianity took foothold in Loreto during the late 19th century when Spanish Jesuits baptized natives from the place. Thereafter, the land was frequented by religious clerics who administered Catholic sacraments. [The place became a parish with a resident priest only recently.]

    During the American period until the 1950s, most of the outsiders who stayed in Loreto were government workers, notably public school teachers, public health officials, land surveyors, etc.

    But after the logging boom of 1950s to 1960s, i.e., during 1970s, many Visayan workers who worked in the commercial logging enterprises stayed behind, some of them, including their children, marrying Manobo spouses. Many other Visayan-speaking settlers--already in other parts of Mindanao--came to Loreto after learning about the cleared forest lands of the town.  These were put on sale or bartered from the aboriginal Manobos. Through contacts with these settlers and their perceived more prestigious culture, Manobos have incorporated modern cultural practices such as intensive wet rice cultivation, Western education, cosmopolitan health care, cash economy, sedentarization, and, of course, popular songs that are accompanied by harmony/chords on the guitar.

    Electricity was introduced only during the 1980s.