Mindanaotoday.com | Built heritage, conservation, and local governance
RAI Bollozos Sanchez | Historyahe!
HI there!
We Filipinos are forgetful beings, and with our forgetfulness, we lose sight of who we were, who we are, and who we might be.
We seek to return to our significant achievements of the past. We strive to glorify our history and its contributions that created us, and we forget that our history raked the complicacy of our society today.
Our history and heritage are existent reminders of our forgetfulness and indolent neglect.
We have read and taught grand historical narratives and yet banished the importance of history and its contributions to us right now – at present.
However, there are institutions (beyond textbooks and history lessons) that remind us against this forgetfulness.
These can be seen through historical sites and landmarks. These sites are recognized by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP).
Through Republic Act 10086, the NHCP is responsible for conserving and preserving the nation’s historical legacies.
Its thrusts cover cultural programs on historical studies, curatorial works, architectural conservation, Philippine heraldry, historical information, restoration, and preservation of artifacts and mementos of renowned Filipinos.
Many historical sites and landmarks are recognized by the NHCP through a “historical marker” all over the archipelago. Still, in Misamis Oriental, there are less than a few, or there could be none.
For the past years, I came to contemplate whether the provincial government has taken any initiative to conduct historical research for documentation, conservation, or preservation?
Misamis Oriental is a slumbering archive of historical sites waiting to be explored, researched, and studied.
Misamis Oriental has historical sites that greatly value Philippine history and heritage. For example:
The Misamis Oriental General Comprehensive High School (MOGCHS), built in 1909, led the foundations of high school education in Misamis Oriental.
The Provincial Capitol has been the home of the provincial government not only from its inception in 1948 but even until today, and the modernist post-war architecture itself is an undying witness to the local history of the province.
Unfortunately, the construction history is still absent.
Balingasag, Lugait, Medina, and the rest of the municipalities within the province that have old ancestral houses dating from the Spanish and American periods are best deemed to be potential heritage centers of the province.
If culturally mapped, these ancestral houses are an achievable market for historical tourism and heritage conservation and preservation of the province.
These are built heritages we could call but deniably recognize as historical and essential to our makings as “Misamisnons” and “Filipinos.”
Local built heritage clothes us the unity of becoming a Filipino; these structures significantly influence the creation of the present and future fortunes of our progress as human beings.
These built heritages are like the beautiful people that have shaped its history from time immemorial.
These built heritages, if conserved and preserved, also sustain the identity of the Misamisnons and could bring historical pride to one’s identity.
I am looking forward to someday, and not for long, the Local Government of Misamis Oriental will take the risk of studying the documentation, recording, conservation, and preservation of these historical sites. I hope it will not be too soon.
If these sites are still being neglected, a part of our history dies will quickly fade away, and a part of our local and national identity will be a memory behind. (MT)
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