Monday, January 29, 2007 Capitol assigns group to repair Boljoon church
THE Cebu Provincial Government has delegated the task of restoring the four centuries-old Boljoon church, which is already declared a national historical landmark and a national cultural treasure.
The Boljoon Heritage Foundation, a nongovernment organization, is designated to implement the much-needed restoration work of the church.
Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia signed the agreement with the foundation, which is tasked to “strictly” follow the detailed engineering study prepared by the National Commission for the Culture and the Arts (NCCA).
The agreement also specified that the local group, although nongovernment, will be subject to all policies of the Cebu Provincial Government and the all existing government auditing rules.
Restoration
Restoration of the dilapidating church has long been overdue, but the project was delayed because of government rules.
Taking care of all national historical landmarks and national cultural treasures is the responsibility of the NCCA.
Because of the urgency, the Capitol asked the NCCA to designate to the Capitol the actual restoration work. The agreement between the Capitol and the NCCA states that the Province can delegate the actual implementation to a nongovernment organization.
But a technical working group composed of officials from the NCCA, the National Historical Institute, the National Museum and the Province will monitor the restoration project.
Suroy-Suroy
The signing of the agreement between Garcia and the foundation took place Wednesday night before participants of the three-day Suroy-Suroy Sugbo who were shown the municipalities’ tourism sites and heritage structures.
In yesterday’s Suroy-Suroy, the visitors saw the Sadsad Festival dancers in Oslob and Tostado Festival dancers in Santander in the morning.
They were also made to ride on carabao-driven carts in Samboan, where they witnessed a cockfight, which is considered part of local culture. Ginatilan, meanwhile, offered traditional Cebuano songs over lunch while Malabuyoc gave the visitors a boatride that ended near a watchtower.
Alegria’s dancers showed steps for its Kawayan festival with small bamboo huts displayed on the sides. Yesterday’s tour ended with visitors taking photos in Cebu’s most famous tourist spot, the Kawasan Falls in Badian. (JPM)
