MABALACAT City Mayor Crisostomo Garbo recently bared pipeline projects aimed at giving the city a cultural and heritage facelift.

Garbo mentioned his cultural revival plans and programs for the city on February 1 during the commemoration of Mabalacat's 309th founding anniversary.

"We need to prepare our city for future development without sacrificing our identity as Mabalaqueños," Garbo said.

"We will start by safeguarding our historical edifices, the old town hall across our Church and the Gabaldon Hall in Poblacion, will be converted into a museum once the restoration and rehabilitation become complete," he added.

Garbo also said pavers and cobblestones will cover the area to offer an ambience of heritage.

"The Mabalacat City Heritage District will be a compact walkable area for our people and our tourists, and a monument of our legacy and source of pride," he said.

In affirmation, Association of Tourism Officers of the Philippines (Atop) National President and Mabalacat City Tourism Officer Arwin Paul Lingat confirmed that the city is undertaking a cultural mapping project with the University of Sto. Tomas (UST) Center for Conservation of Cultural Property and Environment in the Tropics (CCCPET) and the Department of Education (DepEd) Division of Mabalacat City.

"We are closely working with institutions to unearth cultural and heritage records about the city. Having a local museum and a recorded memory of the people through cultural mapping will be a good start for more future plans programs and activities," Lingat said.

Founding anniversary

In the absence of tourism and cultural events due to the pandemic, only mass Holy Masses were allowed to mark the city's founding celebration.

Garbo urged locals to celebrate within the comfort of their own homes as February 2 has been declared as a special non-working holiday throughout the city.

City Tourism Officer Lingat said "the city has no document supporting the date of the foundation."

Nevertheless, the endorsement filed by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) states that "the Commission recommends the observance of foundation of a town based on the feast day of its patron saint or religious tradition in the absence of official documents creating the town, in the case of Mabalacat, February 2."

On a more historical note, Lingat said "the June 9 feast day was not celebrated by our ancestors because it is not a harvest season and at the same time, people cannot celebrate because it is a rainy season."

"The founding anniversary was transferred to February 2 which is also a popular feast in the church calendar, The Purification of Our Lady of Grace. We sought NHCP reference to give legitimacy to our founding anniversary," Lingat added.

Mabalacat City was supposed to stage new editions of Queen Mabalacat City, Caragan Festival, cultural and religious activities this year but was discouraged due to the threats of Covid-19.