The state of national cultural treasures

On July 25, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. delivered his first State of the Nation Address where he expressed the administration’s concrete plans for our economy amidst food and health crises.

One of the focal areas during the President’s address was on the directive for the Department of Tourism, with emphasis on this hard hit industry in need of recuperation. With conviction, I agree with the President when he says that tourism is a huge economic driver.

On July 27, only a few days after the SONA, an earthquake with a 7.0 magnitude caused dozens of landslides and severely damaged buildings. In Abra province where the epicenter was located, the quake triggered the collapse of structures and ten minutes from Vigan City, a city that I have had the chance to contribute to, and likewise for heritage, hundreds viewed over social media how the Bantay Bell tower that once served as a watchtower in the Spanish colonial period as a defense against pirates as well as used in wars due to its strategic location, was not spared by this natural yet tragic occurrence.

Immediately, and particularly because the call of the President was clear on his directives for the Department of Tourism, Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco put to task her department to coordinate on quake-hit tourist destinations and heritage sites through the DOT regional offices and their respective LGUs in order to determine the extent of damage and, at the same time, extend the necessary assistance to tourism-related establishments affected by the quake.

The DOT’s infrastructure arm, TIEZA, was also directed by Secretary Frasco to explore the assistance that the agency can extend, specifically to the cultural and heritage sites that were affected in the northern part of Luzon. There are at least two churches declared as a “national cultural treasure” by the National Museum of the Philippines, together with some heritage and ancestral houses that sustained notable damage based on initial reports.

The secretary also requested TIEZA to prioritize the assessment of these cultural treasures affected by the recent earthquake, recognizing the need to protect and sustain heritage for the benefit and welfare of future generations.

Tourism as a huge economic driver, as PBBM said in his first SONA, has clearly presented to us an opportune moment to reach the goal for basic developments such as roads for easy access to tourism spots, coupled with an institutionalized creative industry meant to advance its partners. Who are these partners if one were to ask?

These stakeholders simply mean all of us from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

Indeed it is timely for the President to direct the tourism industry as to date, many yet need to understand interagency relationships where, as in this case, the DOT and DPWH have been enjoined to collaborate, to further propel a sector that can greatly boost the nation’s economy. Heritage and our roots are very much interconnected to such directives and, crisis or no crisis, it must be embedded in our education for the sake of national growth, security, sustainability and development.

This, again as we have said many times over, takes a whole of nation approach for one cannot continue to build without a solid foundation. It is truly heartbreaking to see lives lost and edifices damaged due to natural disasters that have also affected our heritage sites, being national treasures that signify and form the story of our lives as Filipinos. We must therefore pick up the pieces and continue to move forward, carrying with us not only the skill, not only the resources but also the understanding on the viability of what we are trying to restore, and with purpose.

The whole-of-nation approach and the interagency relationships in government provide the necessary ingredients for a roadmap determined to impact the lives of Filipinos and for generations yet to come.

The famous zoologist Jim Fowler once said, “If you have a place where you can go and have a picnic with your family, it doesn’t matter if it’s a recession or not, you can include that in your quality of life.“ Again, crisis or no crisis, this is the goal and, simply put, it takes genuine love for one’s heritage to do so.

On the other hand, disasters such as the recent earthquake enable all of us to look at the silver linings and bravely push ourselves to not only build back better but to also build back where no one is left behind.