Monday, November 26, 2007 Group seeks City Hall’s help to preserve heritage project
HAVING spent some P500,000 to preserve Cebu’s cultural heritage, a nongovernment organization (NGO) is appealing to the Cebu City Government to protect their project in the downtown area.
Women’s International League (WIL) Cebu president Adelaida Javier said they already spent half a million pesos to install 25 of 50 street markers on Colon St., but vendors have rendered some of them useless.
The markers, which are mounted on a streetlamp and stand on flower boxes, explain the history of the country’s oldest street, specifically the spot where the marker is located.
WLI sold the markers to residents and to owners of establishments along Colon and installed them in front of buildings or on the sidewalk. The marble markers alone, which have colored photos and a brief description of the establishment or the houses along Colon in the olden times, cost P15,000 each.
Problem
“Our problem is that the pedestrians and the vendors don’t respect our project. The markers cannot be seen anymore because the vendors have their stalls in front of the marker and the plants are damaged,” Javier said.
In a press conference on the launch of the “Kasadya sa Downtown 2007” last Friday, she appealed to City Hall and to the Cebu City Traffic Operations Management (Citom) to do something to protect the markers.
She asked them to put railings or demarcation lines around the marker to keep vendors from blocking them.
“Right now, the markers are not visible because the vendors are right in front of them. But we will never give up. We will try to finish the project for tourists to see what Cebu City was like,” Javier added.
The Heritage Markers for Colon St. is the second phase of the WIL Hapsay Sugbu Foundation Inc.’s project to raise awareness on the historical significance of Colon.
Javier said Colon’s historical and cultural heritage should be given importance since the downtown area has become a tourist destination.
WIL implemented the first phase of the restoration project in 1998 when they constructed the obelisk marker on Colon St. in Barangay Pari-an. (LCR)
