Category: Documents

There are 128 churches in the country recognized as National Cultural Treasures, Important Cultural Properties, and National Historical Landmarks

LiCAS News
May 17, 2023

A Catholic priest said the Philippine Church continues to value churches and sites in the country that hold significant historical importance.

Father Milan Ted Torralba, executive secretary of the Commission on Cultural Heritage of the bishops’ conference, said efforts of the Church to declare the importance of old buildings are aimed at encouraging people to preserve and appreciate them.

“My personal motivation behind these declarations (as national cultural treasure or important cultural property) for buildings built during the Spanish colonial period is to remind every Filipino that the Church takes the lead in valuing and not forgetting the heritage that continues to benefit the people and the clergy,” said the priest in an interview with Radio Veritas 846.

He made the statement following the declaration of the National Museum of the Philippines of several churches in Bohol as significant treasures in the country.

Recently, the NMP publicly announced the designation of the San Vicente Ferrer Parish in Calape, Bohol, as a “National Cultural Treasure.”

A few days later, the Nuestra Senora del Carmen Parish in Balilihan, Bohol, also received recognition from the NMP as an “Important Cultural Property.”

“In addition to the old churches, we also recognize and value old bridges and watchtowers,” said Father Torralba, who is also the chairperson of the Commission on Cultural Heritage of the Diocese of Tagbilaran and a member of the NMP Panel of Experts.

According to the records of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, there are 128 churches in the country recognized as National Cultural Treasures, Important Cultural Properties, and National Historical Landmarks, with 21 of them located in Bohol.

Kaycee Valmonte – Philstar.com
May 11, 2023 | 4:48pm

MANILA, Philippines — Emerging ways of activism and human rights defending can be an opportunity to keep human rights intact amid shrinking civic spaces in the Philippines, a new study showed.

Among these new initiatives include using art and forming “communities of care,” which Civic Futures noted to be some of the promising opportunities to reshape civic spaces in a country transformed by an administration’s weaponization of security.

“These alternatives present pathways to reshape activism for human rights and offer possible levers of change that donors and other stakeholders can pay attention and direct resources to in the next few years,” Civic Futures noted.

Civic Futures is a venture founded by the Funders Initiative for Civil Society and the Fund for Global Human Rights. It aims to “keep civic space everywhere open” as it tracks “repressive NGO laws and the persecution of activists for more than a decade.”

The research noted that the previous administration headed by President Rodrigo Duterte waged three “wars”—most notably, against drugs, counterinsurgency, and the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic that elicited a militarized pandemic response from the government.

The study also said red-tagging, or accusing someone to be part of the insurgency without basis, “emerged as one of the most pervasive and harmful ways” the government as well as police and military personnel curtailed freedoms of individuals.

Activists in the Philippines have repeatedly been “red-tagged” either by individuals in power or by state forces themselves.

The Duterte adminsitration utilized its police and military manpower, from addressing the country’s so-called drug problem to a health crisis.

The administration’s deadly “war on drugs” saw thousands of deaths of alleged persons who used drugs, some of whom killed without due process. It was Duterte himself who ordered police forces to kill anyone who they believe is involved in the drug trade.

No Box Philippines is among the groups geared towards a health-focused and harm reduction response, instead of police action.