All historical artifacts or items and sites in Bacolod will be mapped by the City Tourism Office (CTO) to safeguard local history, rituals, traditions, and heritage sites, following the approval of “The Cultural Heritage Mapping Ordinance of Bacolod”.
The ordinance, authored by Councilor Wilson Gamboa Jr. and approved on third and final reading Jan. 21 by the Sangguniang Panlungsod, aims to document, protect, and promote Bacolod’s tangible and intangible heritage for present and future generations.
Gamboa said the ordinance seeks to create a complete cultural profile of Bacolod City that can guide documentation, conservation, urban planning, education, and community development.
The ‘cultural map’ will serve as a tool to create an integrated picture of the City of Bacolod’s character, he added.
“The ordinance is not solely about boosting tourism, but a commitment to local history, heritage preservation, culture promotion, respecting ethnicity, and guiding development to help communities recognize, celebrate, and support its cultural diversity for economic, social, spiritual, emotional, and mental development,” Gamboa stressed in a press release Jan. 26.
“This ordinance is a long-term investment in Bacolod’s cultural future, a development that does not erase memory. This is about preserving Bacolod’s soul; in doing so, we define and protect our identity, something which the present generation needs to learn from and pass on as a legacy to future generations,” he added.
To create a faster and more efficient coordination mechanism among stakeholders, and minimize delays in the implementation of approved heritage projects, the ordinance calls for the establishment of the Bacolod City Conservation and Management Plan (BCCMP) Council, to be chaired by the mayor, and co-chaired by the CTO department head.
Its members include representatives from the SP committees on History and on Culture and Arts, the Liga ng mga Barangay, the academe, civil society organizations, and national agencies, such as the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Department of Education.
Under the ordinance, P500,000 shall be allocated from the general fund for the implementation of the cultural mapping project, and P300,000 for the BCCMP Council operations. ||
