In defense of Carbon – Part 7

The Carbon Public Market, one of Cebu’s last standing armies of the Cebuano Soul, is not just a tangible heritage but of intangibles. Carbon is a culture, a way of life.

It is about to be defaced, among the locations is the Freedom Park (formerly Plaza Washington), the site where for the first time a Cebuana, Felicidad Climaco, the Tandang Sora of the Cebuano revolt against Spain and the Americans, was given the honor to give a speech on stage (1933). The park is originally owned by the OAR, the administrators of the Colegio de San Jose-Recoletos. The project is courting archaeological blasphemy in a place that predates Spanish colonization.

What is disturbing is the report that in the Joint Venture Agreement, that the investor of the privatization of Carbon after its groundbreaking will use the public market as collateral in a bank loan to fund the venture. There must be due diligence and prudence on this issue and other unanswered queries by the City Council and city officials on the Joint Venture Agreement or the devil’s scroll.

On the mutilation of Carbon, let us be reminded of the law: Republic Act No. 10066, "National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009" has the following purpose: In the pursuit of cultural preservation as a strategy for maintaining Filipino identity, this Act shall pursue the following objectives: (a) Protect, preserve, conserve and promote the nation's cultural heritage, its property and histories, and the ethnicity of local communities.

It also defines "Archaeological area" shall refer to any place, whether above or underground, underwater or at sea level, containing fossils, artifacts and other cultural, geological, botanical, zoological materials which depict and document culturally relevant paleontological, prehistoric and/or historic events.”

"Cultural heritage", shall refer to the totality of cultural property preserved and developed through time and passed on to posterity.

"Intangible cultural heritage" shall refer to the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge and skills, as well as the instruments, objects and artifacts associated therewith.

The essential factor in determining a heritage: (f) Structures dating at least fifty years old. The proponents of the venture, repeatedly says Carbon is 112 years old. Then how come it is only now, belatedly, after the noise and opposition, upon being forced by the City Council to coordinate with the city’s cultural commission? It is not ignorance of the law, but a blatant display of arrogance of the law, thinking they are above the law and have a done deal with the support of city officials. The law is not without teeth, the offender is to be imprisoned not less than ten years.

Long live the Cebuanos, the defenders of Carbon. God bless Cebu City.