VARIOUS stakeholders in Iloilo City and the province of Iloilo gathered on Thursday to discuss strategies, including cultural mapping, in enhancing Iloilo’s rich tourism potentials.
The discussion involved the preservation and protection of the declared national treasures and heritage sites in the city and the province.
Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog said the program will help Iloilo be in the forefront of emerging cultural heritage revival in the Philippines.
Mabilog said Iloilo City is one of the three finalists to be named business-friendly city in the country. The other city finalists are Mandaluyong and Olongapo.
Provincial tourism officer Bombette Marin said the National Commission on Culture and Arts declared the three historic churches in the towns of San Joaquin, Miagao, and Dumangas as national treasures.
Meanwhile, the National Historical Institute (NHI) also declared the churches of Sta. Barbara, San Joaquin, and Miagao as important heritage sites.
Also included in the list was the golf course in Sta. Barbara and Casa Real, the old Iloilo Provincial Capitol.
Marin said there are still several sites in the province that need declaration from the NHI. Among these are the old camposanto or cemeteries built during the Spanish times in several towns, churches in the Iloilo municipalities of Leon, Janiuay, Tigbauan, Tubungan, Dingle, Leganes, Pavia, Oton, and Dueñas.
In Iloilo City, seven important heritage zones are currently being rehabilitated jointly by the Tourism Infrastructures Economic Zone Authority of the Department of Tourism, the Iloilo City Cultural Heritage Foundation, the City Government, and the Office of Congressman Jerry P. Treñas.
These declared heritage zones are the Port San Pedro, Plaza Libertad, central business district, Jaro Plaza, Jaro Cathedral, Molo Plaza, and Molo Church.
Several other recognized heritage sites in Iloilo City are the Graciano Lopez Jaena Shrine; heritage houses in Jaro district like the Montinola Antillan House, Nelly Garden, Angelicum School, Ledesma Mansion, Doña Magdalena Jalandoni Mansion; Boat House and Colonial Mansion, Doña Mariquit Lopez House, old Ledesma Mansion, Lopez-Vito House, and the old Jaro municipal building currently being rehabilitated into a museum.