Will Governor Davide listen to the NHC?

Exactly a week ago, a local daily came up with a headline and photo of the Cebu Provincial Capitol building with the headline blaring “20 Levels ‘Too High.” This was apparently the historical commission asking the Capitol to reconsider its decision to build a 20-story building beside the Provincial Capitol saying: “It distorts the balance of the Historical Provincial Capitol Building.” As pointed out by Dr. Rene Escalante, National Historical Commission Commissioner.

As it turned out, the NHC made this recommendation as early as March 2, 2017 last year when we didn’t even hear that this project was being proposed by Governor Hilario “Jun Jun” Davide III. This only gives you an idea that they have been preparing for this while keeping this project away from the media and the Cebuanos. So the question is: Is Governor Davide listening to us?

Allow me to reprint Sec. 48 (b) of Article XIII of Republic Act no. 10066 or the National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009: “Anyone who modifies, alters, or destroys the original features or undertakes construction or real estate development in any national shrine, monument, landmark and other historic edifices and structures, declared, classified, and marked by the National Historical Institute as such, without the prior written permission from the commission can be held liable for violating the law. This includes the designated security or buffer zone, extending five meters from the visible perimeter of the monument or site.”

So, Governor Davide, will you still push through with this project? I also noted what was written towards the end of the article: “Following the approval of the P1.5-billion loan by the Development Bank of the Philippines last month, the Capitol has published bid notices for the construction of the building and the demolition of the old Baex building. So far no one has expressed interest to undertake the project.” This only proves that people know that if they participate in this project, they could end up in a tight situation, or worse, in a legal situation.

At this point, I strongly suggest to Davide for him to move this project to many other properties that the Province of Cebu owns. That’s giving in to their proposal that perhaps the Province of Cebu needs this project. For sure, people have already signified their intention to file charges against Davide if he really pushes for this project.

If there is any building that Escario Street doesn’t need, it is a 20-story building to worsen the traffic there. Mind you, one of the biggest reasons why Mayor Tomas Osmeña isn’t on good terms with Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Lloyd Dino, it is due to the fact that Osmeña blocked his “Ciudad Project” during the term of governor Gwen Garcia and he used the bad traffic situation as his excuse to block this project.

It just makes me wonder, what Osmeña thinks of Davide’s putting a 20-story building beside the Capitol? Mayor Osmeña would also block this project knowing that it would only worsen traffic along Escario Street. But on the other hand, Davide is his “bata-bata” so he would simply shut his mouth and allow this potential traffic mess to proceed. People are against this project to be constructed in that particular place. The least we expect from Mayor Osmeña is for him to tell the governor that it is wrong to pursue this project.

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Did we hear correctly that the Duterte administration is once again starting peace talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines? However, this time we heard that the peace talks are being proposed to be held right here in the Philippines rather than in a European country. As Presidential spokesman Harry Roque Jr. said at a press briefing. “Let’s just say that as far as the President is concerned, venue matters. He does not understand why we should continue talking in Norway. We are all Filipinos. We can talk about it here in the Philippines. Why do we need to go far? It will just entail costs.” I fully agree with this new proposal. Anyway, the peace talks have been scuttled so many times before, might as well prepare for another potential scuttling of this new round of peace talks with the reds.

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