THE National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) hopes the Office of the President (OP) can allocate some P1 billion in funds to fast-track the restoration of heritage homes and churches, as well as other historical and cultural properties damaged by Wednesday’s 7.0-magnitude earthquake that shook parts of Northern Luzon.
In a news briefing on Thursday at the Metropolitan Museum, NHCP Chairman Dr. Rene Escalante said the P1-billion amount is what they received in 2013 from the OP to restore heritage structures in Bohol, Cebu and Eastern Samar damaged by an earthquake in October that year, and Supertyphoon Yolanda, the following month.
The restoration of 25 heritage churches and other cultural properties was undertaken in partnership with the National Museum and National Commission for Culture and the Arts.
“We will validate these damage reports,” he said, to determine the appropriate amount of restoration funds that they will seek from the OP.
House supports rebuild budget
As this developed, House Speaker Martin Romualdez Jr. committed to pass a bill that will allocate government funds to rebuild heritage structures damaged by the earthquake.
During President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s briefing with local government executives in Abra on Thursday, Romualdez said: “We shall also join the good senator from Ilocos Norte [Imee Marcos] on her call to support the budgetary requirements for the restoration of the heritage cultural sites, as well of course as the various infrastructure in the situation report.”
Tourism Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco on Wednesday directed the Department of Tourism’s infrastructure arm, the Tourism Infrastructure Enterprise Zone Authority (Tieza), to explore ways it can extend assistance, especially for the cultural and heritage sites affected by the strong earthquake.
“We will request Tieza to prioritize assessment of the cultural treasures affected by the recent earthquake recognizing the need to protect and sustain our heritage and cultural treasures for the benefit and welfare of our future generations,” said Frasco.
Among the major heritage sites affected by the earthquake were the Vigan Heritage Village and Syquia Mansion Museum, which are both Unesco World Heritage sites, and the Santa Catalina de Alejandria Parish Church, a 19th century baroque church in Tayum and declared a National Cultural Treasure by the National Museum. (See, “Heritage, cultural sites suffer quake damage,” in the BusinessMirror, July 27, 2022.)
‘Please pick up, store the debris’
Meanwhile, Escalante appealed to “stakeholders to help us secure portions of the [heritage] buildings and store the debris in a separate location, so we can restore them to their previous structure.”
NHCP will have to determine, however, which damaged properties will have to be restored first due to the lack of rehabilitation funds. “The difference between the recent earthquake from what happened in Cebu and Bohol, those damaged [in Vigan] were private properties, so we still have to get our lawyers to study this as we know we are prohibited from using public funds for private property. The issue is their declaration as a heritage site would cover not only the public buildings but also the heritage houses and adjacent streets.” NHCP has sought the help of the Office of the Solicitor General to settle this matter.
But he expressed confidence, “the restoration of these damaged properties will be faster than the ones in Cebu and Bohol” because the former did not suffer as much as the properties in Central Visayas, many of which collapsed.
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