Friday, September 26, 2008 Wenceslao: P.S. to ‘Artifacts and a tunnel’ By Bong O. Wenceslao Candid Thoughts
MY column yesterday about artifacts dug up at the Plaza Independencia area where a tunnel connecting to the Cebu South Coastal Road is being built generated a reaction from Sun.Star’s Jun Velez, who immediately called me up when he checked the opinion pages before these were printed. He told me to google “Cebu Heritage Walk.”
My article, “Artifacts and a tunnel,” was based on a Sun.Star report. Little did I know that Jojo Bersales already wrote something about it in his own column at the Cebu Daily News a week or so ago. Jobers, who presided over the recent archaeological dig in Boljoon town, was as frustrated as the other posters to the Cebu Heritage Walk thread.
The thread claimed that as early as three months ago, Kajima Construction Corp., which is building the tunnel, was already seeking advice on what to do with the artifacts that they unearthed “all over the place.” On the first month of the digging, Bersales met with City Hall Administrator Bimbo Fernandez to talk about monitoring the tunnel work.
Obviously, nothing much happened from that effort because no monitoring of the digging happened. Bersales said that he finally received deputization from the National Museum only recently, when digging at the Plaza is more than half way. Only the National Museum has the power to monitor construction sites to protect heritage areas.
What I understand from Jobers “rant” is that some government agencies, national and local (those under Cebu City Hall), just didn’t find any urgency or need to intervene. The inaction of National Museum people is condemnable. As for City Hall, perhaps heritage seminars are needed or the right people chosen to head historical affairs sections.
What should be enlightening are the points Bersales raised, like the fact that in other countries archaeologists working in universities can intervene any time there is an ongoing construction work. Because of this, I agree with Jobers’ proposal about amending laws like PD 374(on cultural properties), RA 4868 (on the National Museum).
I am mentioning this because of my experience years ago when I was a reporter of The Freeman and the Heritage Monument at the Pari-an was still being sculpted by Eduardo Castrillo. I received a tip that digging for the monument’s base resulted in the unearthing of artifacts. I went to the fenced off site and found shards of porcelain there.
I remember seeking out Castrillo where he was temporarily staying to ask him about the digging. He was uncooperative and talked about deadlines and the effect if work is stalled especially because funding was dependent on donors. I thought he was worried about intervention by concerned government agencies like the National Museum.
I filed my report, nevertheless, but no government functionary was concerned enough to react. I placed the broken porcelain inside my drawer as a “cherished” possession, then forgot about it and the issue altogether. When I transferred to Sun.Star, that memento got lost in the passing and probably ended up in the trash can.
Looking back, I now think that incident was symbolic of our attitude when it comes to our heritage. We still have a long way to go in making people realize the importance of sifting through our past in a systematic and scientific manner.
(khanwens@yahoo.com/ my blog: cebuano.wordpress.com)
