DAVAO industry players urged the City Government to come up with an ordinance protecting the ancestral properties while pushing heritage tourism in the city.
Members of the Davao Tourism Association, the oldest and most active private tourism organization in the city, agreed to promote the city potential in heritage tourism during Thursday’s launching of the Turismo Café, a bi-monthly press conference focused on the tourism industry in Davao region at the Marco Polo Hotel in this city.
The move is also strongly supported by the regional office of the Department of Tourism (DOT)-Davao and the City Tourism Operations Office (CTOO).
Alexander Divinagracia, data member and general manager of the Global Wings Travel and Tours described ancestral houses/properties as those that are built for over 50 years ago.
Data members pushed that an ordinance must be passed in the City Council to encourage owners of ancestral houses to maintain and preserve their properties through giving incentives.
City Tourism Officer Generose Tecson said it is already part of the tourism plan for 2017-2018 to push for a resolution retaining the façade of the Davao City Hall.
According to the National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA), to identify historical and ancestral properties in a certain area, a historical mapping needs to be done.
The proposed ordinance, once approved, the city tourism players said, will raise the level of awareness and appreciation of Dabawenyos giving emphasis on local personages, properties who and which have contributed to the history of the city.
It will develop tourism and enhance business opportunities in line with the conservation of the socio-cultural heritage.
Lawyer Kaye Malilong, head of monuments and sites committee of NCCA and consultant of mapping projects from the NCCA “Safeguarding Heritage”, in an interview with SunStar Davao said, under the Local Government Code, a local government unit (LGU) is required to protect its heritage as stipulated under the heritage law or Republic Act 166, mandating an LGU is supposed to come up with an inventory of tangible and intangible cultural heritage.
“We have over 1,000 towns in Philippines but very few has done this (cultural mapping), and we laud those who make a move in recognizing how important safeguarding heritage is,” she said.
She added it is also important that local council should be involved in realizing the ordinance and not only the teachers, the heritage enthusiasts and advocates.
In Davao Region, the town of Kiblawan through its Municipal Council Resolution 2 series of 2016 dated November 7, the Magabilen’s Ancestral House, the house of the Kiblawan’s first municipal mayor was declared as a significant cultural property in the municipality.