Nat’l treasure churches keep faith in Bohol tourism strong Bohol’s heritage churches have remained national treasures and kept visitors to their faith in the strong position of the province in tourism. The priceless list has been in fact added with the declaration by the National Museum (NM) of the old Santa Monica Church and complex in Alburquerque a new important cultural property (ICP) in the country. The National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) at the same time landmarked the edifices as a classified historical structure (CHS), according to Fr. Milan Ted Torralba who chairs the Commission for the Cultural Heritage of the Church of the Diocese of Tagbilaran. Bishop Leonardo Medroso, Torralba, Prof. Angel Bautista of NM and Archt. Reynaldo Lita of NHCP led in the ceremonial unveiling of the markers Wednesday morning, August 27, or right on the feast of the patron saint of the town. The Tagbilaran bishop is the chairman of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) Permanent Committee for the Cultural Heritage of the Church. Bautista is the NM deputy director and chief of the Cultural Properties Division while Lita is the supervising architect of the NHCP Historic Preservation Division. A day earlier on Tuesday, Gov. Edgar Chatto toured Apostolic Nuncio Giuseppe Pinto---also as a tourist---to some Bohol church sites along their way, including those ruined during the epic earthquake, after the representative of the Holy See installed new and second-ever Talibon Bishop Patrick Daniel Parcon. On Monday, Chatto was set to join Medroso and Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma in Cebu City for the photo exhibition and launching of the coffee table book “Pagsulay: Churches of Bohol Before and After the 2013 Earthquake” by the University of San Carlos Academic Publishing House in tie-up with the Holy Name University. But the governor had to meet and receive the visiting papal nuncio and Vatican envoy, who is the dean of the diplomatic corps in the country, at Tagbilaran City airport and escorted him to Talibon, where the municipal LGU and provincial government prepared a reception party. The twin marker events in Alburquerque had witnesses who included Archt. Veronica Dado, who is the NHCP programs and projects deputy executive director, parish priest Fr. Rogelio Organiza and Mayor Efren Tungol. The certificate of transfer and acceptance of the NCHP marker was signed and certificate of the NM declaration of the church turned over. In the afternoon of the same day, Medroso and Torralba led diocese officials in the formal launching of the Escuela Taller (ET) at the Assumption of Our Lady Shrine-Parish Convent in Dauis, which parochial vicars are Frs. Joselito Clemen and Victor Bompat. A vocational-technical training school devoted to heritage restoration, the project is supported by the Escuela Taller de Filipinas Foundation, Inc. (ETFFI). The launching was graced by Dr. Jaime Laya, ETFFI chairman of the board; Ayala Foundation Senior Director Aditas Vivian Santamaria representing Ayala Foundation President Maria Heras-De Leon; and AECID Senior Program Manager Carlos Gallego for AECID Coordinator General Vicente Selles Zaragozi. They signed a memorandum of agreement for the support of the skills training and restoration efforts in Bohol between the Diocese of Tagbilaran, NM, NHCP, National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), ETFFI, AECID, Ayala Foundation and Metrobank Foundation. The skills project has pioneering 30 Boholano student-trainees and their first on-the-job training is the restoration of the Dauis watchtower, Torralba said. They and subsequent other student-trainees will be mobilized for heritage restoration works on damaged heritage churches. The Escuela Taller will be headquartered at the Alburquerque parish convent following its restoration. After the great Bohol earthquake and supertyphoon Yolanda last year, the national government allocated P650 million for calamity-related national heritage reconstruction and restoration. This was on strength of a memorandum of agreement between the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprises Zone Authority (TIEZA), NM, NHCP and NCCA. For actual restoration or reconstruction, the program has identified 16 declared cultural properties in the Bohol, eight in Cebu, and one in Eastern Samar. There may be similar works on significant historical and cultural sites and structures that may come to the attention of the parties in the course of the implementation of the program. Targeted beginning this month are partial restoration or reconstruction works on cultural properties until December of 2017, according to Torralba in a program update to this writer, using P490 million of the P650 million government subsidy for the three provinces. Provision No. 1.1 of the quadripartite MOA between the TIEZA, NM, NHCP and NCCA indicates that the P650 million is initial, and should cover the said program for its entire duration from 2014 to 2017. From the fund, P10M has been already fixed for the NCCA for the design of the master restoration plan and specific sites restoration or reconstruction plans. The coverage or scope of works includes a series of expert conferences. Out of the remaining P640 million, an amount will also be utilized for rehabilitation of other cultural properties in the said three provinces affected by the earthquake and supertyphoon should there come to the attention of the government agencies concerned, according to the quadripartite MOA. The pre-restoration phase alone has been allocated P150 million, with scope of works to include retrieval of heritage collections, stone blocks, and structural elements; clearing operation; installation of signage; preventive conservation; 3D scanning; detailed engineering and geologic studies; shoring and support of unstable structures; documentation and publication; construction of staging area and temporary storage. The objective of the experts’ conferences spearheaded by the NCCA is “to determine valid and appropriate restoration/reconstruction approaches, methods, options and parameters,” Torralba said. Also known as consultation meetings, their output is a master restoration plan articulated in specific site restoration plans which will be formulated by the NM and NHCP, with the assistance of the NCCA, after stakeholders’ consultations have been conducted. The master restoration plan is also intended to serve as basis for the study, preparation, and formulation of the Philippine Standards for Heritage Conservation, a project of the NCCA National Committee on Monuments and Sites, Torralba said. Torralba also sits as executive secretary of the CBCP Permanent Committee for the Cultural Heritage of the Church and an executive council member of the Committee on Monuments and Sites of the NCCA. On the reported removal of the Loboc and Baclayon churches, which were totally and partially destroyed by the earthquake, respectively, from the world heritage tentative list, Torralba revealed he is preparing a “small primer” about it. (Ven rebo Arigo)
Posted on: Sat, 30 Aug 2014 09:53:31 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015