City tells DPWH: Spare heritage Mabolo houses

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu City Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella has asked the Department of Public Works and Highways to put on hold the removal of the front portion of two century-old structures in Barangay Mabolo affected by an ongoing road widening project.

He made the request addressed to DPWH-7 Director Ador Canlas after seeing that the historical houses have been affected by the ongoing M.J. Cuenco Avenue expansion project.

“It has been brought to my attention that the said project will entail the demolition of two structures, namely the Balay nga Bato of Mr. Nersas Macasero and the ancestral house of Ms. Juanita Chiu,” read Labella’s one-page letter.

DPWH-7, though, will not compromise since engineering works have to follow the technical timetable laid out in completing the project.

DPWH-7 Legal Division Chief Brando Ray Raya told The FREEMAN that there is even a need to fast-track road projects to address the worsening traffic problem especially in Cebu City.

The ongoing project for the national road was set in 2012 but was started only in 2013.

In 2012, owners of the two houses sought help from the city’s Cultural and Historical Affairs Commission so as to spare the structures from being torn down.

Built in the 1890s with intricate Chinese-influenced wood carvings, Chiu’s ancestral house survived the American and Japanese occupations.

Macasero, on the other hand, described the “Balay nga Bato” as a historical structure since it served as a medical facility during the Japanese occupation.

The second level of the house also has the “telltale marks of the past” with it bayong and tugas floorboards and corbelled ceiling.

“The demolition has not been completed yet though they have started it already…, so I asked them (DPWH) to hold in abeyance (the demolition of the structures),” Labella told reporters yesterday.

He said that Republic Act 10066 (National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009) stipulates that all structures that are 50 years or older cannot be demolished or altered without permission from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.

He also said that both structures have already been recognized as historical landmarks by the city government through an approved resolution dated July 18, 2012.

That was after the owners requested CHAC to declare their ancestral homes historical properties following a DPWH-7 notice informed them that both their two-storey structures will be affected by the road widening project.

CHAC, after a site visit, verified and confirmed the “veracity and certainty” of the structures’ cultural and historical value, recommending that City Council declare both as historical sites.

Raya, however, said there is no official declaration from the National Historical Commission of the Philippines recognizing the century-old houses as historical sites.

“That was only a (City Council) resolution… We can consider a heritage house as historical structure if it has been declared by NHCP,” said Raya, adding tha the demolition, on the other hand, is ordered by the court.

He said Macasero, in his response pleading during the expropriation proceedings, did not oppose the demolition based on the house’s historicity but on a monetary concern.

The court, on the other hand, issued a writ of possession for the two-meter portion of Macasero’s property meant to also provide sidewalk for pedestrians who otherwise have to risk their lives walking on the street. — /RHM (FREEMAN)