When I started my practice in the mid 1970s, the Municipal Trial Court in Cities was simply known as the City Court and the Regional Trial Court, the Court of First Instance (CFI). All the CFIs were located inside the Provincial Capitol compound, the municipal courts at City Hall and the neighboring Yutivo and Gotiaoco buildings.
With four floors, Gotiaoco was the tallest of the three buildings. I would later learn that it had an elevator, the first building in Cebu to be so equipped. I didn’t have to use the elevator anyway; the two city court branches were on the second floor and at 23, I could run up the stairs, no sweat.
Built in 1914, it was obvious that the building, the second floor at least, had seen better days. Think of a once beautiful lady who has suffered the ravages of time and you’ll get an idea of what I am saying.
Last Monday, I stepped inside Gotiaoco again, from the ground floor to the fourth, and found it delightfully beautiful again. Elizabeth Go, wife of University of Cebu owner Augusto W. Go, whose grandfather, Don Pedro built the edifice, was deservingly beaming as she assisted the guests who were given a tour of Gotiaoco.
Credit the transformation to the Sugbu Chinese Heritage Foundation, Inc., a group of Chinese Filipino businessmen and professionals, who took over the lease of the government-owned land and building with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, through the National Museum, after the original contract with the Gotiaocos expired.
Gotiaoco now hosts the Sugbu Chinese Heritage Museum, the first of its kind in the country that houses “artifacts, heirloom pieces and collections” that showcase “the enduring legacy of the Chinese Filipino community in Cebu.”
Foundation Chairman Bob Gothong sees a vital role for the museum in the transformation of Cebu because of its strategic location at the heart of the port area. It is a “potential anchor for a vibrant, culturally driven waterfront revitalization, bringing together heritage conservation, youth education, creative industries, and tourism-based livelihoods.”
Cebu City has a hidden crown jewel in its waterfront, Gothong told a select audience that included incoming Cebu City Mayor Nestor Archival last Monday.
“Every great city has one — a vibrant waterfront anchored by a fresh seafood, produce and cultural marketplace,” Gothong said, citing Tokyo’s Tsukiji Market, San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf and New Taipei City’s Tsamsui Fisherman’s Wharf as examples.
He urged the City and the Province to help develop a world-class waterfront that would include a heritage walk from Plaza Independencia to the Basilica, a modern Carbon Market and Puso Village, and a redevelopment of the Cebu Port Authority’s Compaña Maritima.
In his brief remarks, Archival promised to support the Museum’s initiatives.