TAGBILARAN CITY, (PNA) — President Benigno S. Aquino III said on Wednesday that his administration is committed to assist the province of Bohol restore its old churches damaged by an earthquake this week.
During a briefing with his Cabinet secretaries and other local government officials, the President said he already ordered a study about the possible assistance of the national government to restore damaged old churches in Bohol with historical value to the country.
“You can expect me to help in getting the private sector to help kung hindi puwede ang gobyerno as far as ‘yung historical churches are concerned—at least to get them back,” the President said.
He said rebuilding damaged churches must be structurally compliant with the country’s 2010 building code.
Loboc Church and Baclayon Church, two of the oldest churches in the Philippines, were heavily damaged on Tuesday after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit Bohol.
The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) said it was distraught by the extent of damage to churches in Bohol by the October 15 quake. It said more engineering assessment has yet to be done to determine the severity of the damage to the churches.
The Church of San Pedro in Loboc and Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception in Baclayon are both being conserved by the National Museum with the funding of NCCA.
The NCCA and its affiliates like the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP), the National Museum, the National Archives Library, Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino (KWF) are working together to assess the aftereffects of this week’s earthquake in Bohol.
Even before the October 15 quake, the NCCA spearheaded the conservation of 26 Spanish colonial-era churches in the country, especially those that were recognized as National Cultural Treasures by the National Museum in 2001. It is in support of the state policy to preserve and protect important cultural properties and safeguard their intrinsic value.
Those churches have outstanding historical, cultural, artistic and scientific value and are representative of the original church-building orders of Augustinians, Franciscans, Jesuits, Dominicans, and Augustinian Recollects, and all the major regions of the country.