Saturday, March 29, 2008 Editorial: Beyond blame-throwing
There's more to just blame-throwing in the fire that destroyed the old church and the convent of the Immaculate Conception Parish in Oslob town last Wednesday.
Finding where faults lay is mainly to mine lessons from the fire and ensure that errors won't be repeated so similar incidents won't happen again in Oslob or in other towns.
But the bigger task ahead is the rehabilitation or rebuilding of the church considering the importance of the facility to townsfolk and its significance as a heritage site.
The fire not only wrought considerable damage on the structure and furnishing but also destroyed important documents, including archives on the history of the church.
Which means that any attempt at restoration should include both the structure and the reconstruction of the documents lost considering their historic significance.
Pooling resources
Msgr. Carlito Pono of the archdiocesan commission on cultural heritage has assured that the Archdiocese of Cebu will be “pooling its resources” for the task ahead.
It is obvious, however, that, with the magnitude of the undertaking, the archdiocese needs all the help it can get, whether from the private sector or from government.
Decision
Surely, rebuilding the church and reconstructing the records will take months and millions of pesos to complete, thus the need this early for long-term planning.
The most important decision to be made is, of course, whether reconstruction should pay homage to history or a new and modern church should be built altogether.
Working together
But while negativity maybe conjured in assessing the burden of restoration, people can also view this in a positive light, or as an opportunity to improve the previous setup.
To achieve this, the archdiocese, concerned government entities (the Municipal Government, Capitol, etc.) and private groups should work together with one mind.
Which means that any animosity sparked by the blame-throwing that followed the incident should be set aside so the rebuilding can proceed swiftly and smoothly.
