NewsRecord Weekly Publication

The Old Municipal Hall. The Broce Building-left,
on corner Azcona and V. Gustilo Streets housed
 the San Carlos Municipal Hall
 in 1970s to early 1980s. Its columns also
 witnessed the transformation of San Carlos
 from a town to a booming city.

Search for heritage

Cultural mapping in SC & various challenges 

It is not unknown to many that San Carlos is having difficulty looking for a tourism selling point. This is not because we do not have anything to sell in the first place but that San Carlos, just like many other towns and cities in the country, have failed to discover its resources that can very well attract both foreign and local visitors.

Turismo Uno, the 2nd Cultural Mapping and Consultative Meeting for the First District of Negros Occidental last June 20 highlighted the significance of culture and heritage in tourism. It is important to note that not all places are endowed with natural wonders such as those found in Palawan, Bohol and Boracay. But every place and "community has a history, a unique culture and tales to tell," as Clemente Del Castillo puts it. Del Castillo is the president of (VAMG). He formed a team and led it to map the culture and heritage of Bago City, which now has its own community museum.

Speaking before tourism officers and staff from Escalante City, Toboso, Calatrava, San Carlos, and Don Salvador Benedicto, Del Castillo emphasized that before tourism, there is culture, and that the uniqueness of a community is its most important asset in the competitive industry of tourism.

Indeed, he is right. While we had been pounding our heads hard on how to increase tourist visits throughout the year, not only during the Pintaflores Festival in November, cultural mapping is actually the key for us to find the cure-all for this dilemma.

Cultural mapping simply means identifying and documenting local cultural resources, and recording, conserving and using those elements for tourism. Its aim, however, goes beyond attracting visitors. It is to help communities celebrate and support its cultural diversity and uniqueness for economic, social and regional development. Thus, it is the start. It is an easy but cumbersome process that requires extensive human, time and financial resources; and it requires the passion, patience, and perseverance of those involved.

Aside from culture and heritage, the history of a place is also an indispensable element and this was the point of Roque F. Hofileña, Jr., executive director of the Negros Historical Commision, founded in 1971.  Hofileña also teaches history at the University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos.

"Culture can be broader than history," he opened his presentation of the outline of Negros Occidental's history. It is truly unfortunate that many students can recite like parrots facts from national history but do not know the details of their local roots.

Different sites in a place may have historical significance and peculiar stories surrounding them that can both attract visitors and enrich the heritage of a community when discovered, preserved and promoted. Thus, after the turn of the speakers, Tourismo Uno's participants started digging the groundwork for cultural mapping-listing the different elements of cultural heritage-from natural, built, movable, to intangible like stories, songs, poems, and healing traditions.

It was during this part of the meeting that Joe Recalix Alingasa, San Carlos City Tourism officer, started discussing the many challenges to culture and heritage preservation in the city. Alingasa shared that two of the pre-war ancestral houses here are already up for sale at dizzying million-prizes and that the families who own them do not seem open to negotiate for a lower prize with the government.

One is the Broce Building, which once housed the City Hall. Unfortunately, the city could not afford the price posted by the family. Its historical significance is quite obvious and where could we better situate a community museum than in this concrete, neo-classical structure?

Azcona Mansion. Located on the Corner of Azcona Street and the National Highway, this ancestral house owned by the Azcona family was designed by Japanese architect Paul Ishiwata. 

The second is the Azcona house surrounded by sprawling lawns. It is another pre-war bastion of heritage. In fact, it is a landmark along the highway but is also for sale for an amount that the LGU is not prepared to shell out.

And, there is the third, owned by the Atienza, the age of which can very well be approaching a hundred this year. It is not popularly known that this property located on downtown San Carlos is actually for sale since the death of the two old ladies who originally inherited it from their parents.

Photos by Ian Serion, Tourism Office

Grand Interior. The wooden staircase of the Atienza ancestral house-below, dates back to World War I. This landmark is on Locsin Street. 

While these three landmarks are now on the Tourism Office's list for heritage sites, Alingasa admitted that he does not quite know how to approach their owners again to strike a deal that will both be beneficial to the owners and to the people of San Carlos.

But, Del Castillo and Hofileña noted that these heritage sites and all other things that speak of our culture are protected by the National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009 or RA 10066. Based on this law, private owners no longer have the right to destroy heritage items like ancestral houses and pre-war school buildings.

As for the pre-war Recollect school, Colegio de Sto. Tomas-Recoletos (CSTR), Hofileña rejoiced upon knowing that the priests who are administering it have deliberately restored its original architecture as the school undergoes repair from time to time. The history and culture advocate also advised that San Carlos City's effort to establish a museum or even a gallery could start with the school, beginning with a negotiation with its administrators.

Truly, the effort to preserve, protect and promote a community's culture and heritage should not only come from the government through the tourism office. The members of the community themselves, especially the owners of heritage items, need to be pro-active and cooperative to ensure the preservation of cultural heritage and for the said items to become lucrative tourism assets.