Garcia orders restoration of downtown monuments

CEBU, Philippines — Heritage monuments in Cebu City will be given more attention after Mayor Raymond Garcia has ordered for the rehabilitation of such structures, particularly those in downtown Cebu.

Garcia stressed the need to give more attention to the heritage sites during the commencement of the Heritage Preservation Masterclass of selected City Hall employees at the Cultural and Historical Affairs Office (CHAO) inside the Rizal Library and Memorial Museum, the City’s PIO reported.

One of the projects Garcia wants to focus on is the heritage monument in Brgy. Parian, which he wants cleaned up and facelifted after noticing that it has been neglected and seemingly has lost its heritage value.

Garcia noticed that a portion of it has been used as a parking lot for the fire trucks.

With this, Garcia ordered the transfer of the parking of such vehicles at the fire station near the Cebu City Medical Center.

“My next directive will be really to maintain or refurbish our monuments in downtown. We will start with the heritage monument in Parian. Sa unang mga panahon daghan kaayong mga firetrucks diha nga naka-desecrate sa heritage monument,” Garcia said.

Along with this, Garcia is expected to issue a memorandum that will prohibit the parking of vehicles around the heritage monument.

Meanwhile, a total of 23 individuals graduated from the Heritage Preservation Master Class, which is a program of  CHAO and CHAC.

“For all our stakeholders in the heritage district, for you now to implement what you have learned. I hope that you actually do this with heart and mind knowing that Cebu City is very rich in history…heritage being the oldest city in the Philippines and in fact once the first capital of the Philippines,” Mayor Garcia said. — (FREEMAN)