Heritage advocates in Negros Oriental are highly encouraging to conduct another round of cultural mapping activities in the province in line with the goal to preserve its tangible and intangible heritage properties.
National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) Commissioner for the Visayas Dr. Earl Jude Paul Cleope, who is also the vice president for academic affairs at Silliman University, emphasized that cultural mapping should be done first to produce an inventory of all culture and heritage properties and practices in the province.
This will then be followed by awareness activities so that the public will be conscious about these matters and become involved in their preservation, especially the intangible heritage, which includes local cuisine and folkways.
Cleope noted that cultural mapping efforts have been carried out before with representatives of local government units, concerned stakeholders, and related agencies. However, these activities stopped during the pandemic.
“Basin ma-push nato na mag-cultural mapping ta sa province kay that is needed. If we can have that, then, all these will come into place: history, culture, intangible, tangible, hasta kanang sa church makit-an na. (Hopefully, we can push for a cultural mapping in the province because that is needed. If we can have that, then, all these will come into place: history, culture, intangible, tangible, even church heritage items can be identified),” Cleope said.
“Cultural mapping, cultural inventory will lead to a very good cultural management plan,” he added.
Cleope also said the efforts and motivation to conduct cultural mapping activities should start from the local government unit since it is directed by the Department of the Interior and Local Government’s memorandum on the Seal of Good Local Governance.
Msgr. Julius Heruela, chairperson of the Diocesan Commission on Church Heritage of the Diocese of Dumaguete, also believes that more heritage items and practices related to the history of the diocese and Catholicism in the province can be recovered and documented if there are sustained cultural mapping activities carried out in the province.
He noted that some homeowners in Dauin town, especially in the hinterlands, still display antique carvings of saints made by local artisans on their home altars, while some still have old molds used in baking “pandesillos de San Nicolas.”
Msgr. Heruela said these items could have been identified and catalogued during the cultural mapping activities. He also cited that cataloguing is a big challenge for the church when it comes to its efforts in preserving cultural artifacts.
“Actually, daghan ta collection sa Diocese of Dumaguete di pa namo ma-abrehan kay wala pa mi insaktong archiving ato. Mangita mi og technical assistance ato (We have a lot of collection in the Diocese of Dumaguete, but we have not opened them because we don’t have a proper archiving system. We also need technical assistance on that),” Heruela said.
Another challenge is ensuring the sustainability of the church’s heritage preservation initiatives since the diocese needs to hire researchers, maintenance personnel, and other experts in handling these sensitive items which would also entail additional costs for the diocese.
The prelate hopes the government can look into this concern further and provide adequate support to the church in its undertakings in preserving important heritage artifacts.
Meanwhile, Provincial Tourism Unit Culture and Arts Officer Fay Belloso also sees the importance of holding cultural mapping activities. She has committed to push for this activity to reinforce the efforts in heritage preservation and conservation.
Aside from this, there is also a need to capacitate tourism officers and heritage workers in every local government unit. “There is a need to support these towns and cities in terms of training and facilitation in the cultural initiative,” Belloso said.
Holding cultural mapping activities is also timely since the provincial government will celebrate the centennial anniversary of the construction of the Provincial Capitol by next year. – NWI
