Don’t take that shack for granted!
All structures built in 1961 or earlier and works of National Artists for architecture (Leandro Locsin, Pablo Antonio, Juan Nakpil, and Ildefonso Santos, Jr., landscape architect) regardless of age are automatically considered “Important Cultural Property” (ICP) unless delisted by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) or the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), respectively. Other “products of human creativity” having “exceptional cultural, artistic, and historical significance” may be declared ICP.
These are in R.A. No. 10066 (Secs. 5 and 3-w), the National Cultural Heritage Act that was signed into law in March 2010 to protect Philippine cultural heritage. The Act covers tangible and intangible heritage, of which the former can be movable or immovable.
This article focuses on structures, including the following types that are specifically mentioned in the Law: (a) “built heritage” -- “architectural and engineering structures such as but not limited to bridges, government buildings, houses of ancestry, traditional dwellings, quartels [sic], train stations, lighthouses, small ports, educational technological and industrial complexes, and their settings …,” and (b) “cultural property” – including “… churches, mosques and other places of religious worship, schools …” (Note: “traditional dwellings” include nipa huts and informal settler shacks.)
Provisions apply specifically to structures already with a historical or cultural marker or are declared by the National Museum (NM) and/or the NHCP as “National Cultural Treasure” (NCT) or ICP:
• The “… modification or demolition” of ICP is regulated (Sec. 5);
• ICP “may … receive government funding for … protection, conservation, and restoration,” noting that NCT and national historical landmarks have greater privileges (Sec. 7);
• “[I]ntervention works and measures on conservation” on NCT, ICP and marked structures require prior approval of the NCCA through the NM/NHCP which is then supposed to supervise actual work (Sec. 15);
• Methods and materials used are to follow accepted international standards of conservation (Sec. 15), defined as “processes and measures … including … preservation, restoration, reconstruction, protection, adaptation or any combination thereof.” (Sec. 3-i);
• ICP are to be registered in a Philippine Registry of Cultural Property and such registration is to be annotated in the corresponding land title (Sec. 14-a);
Cultural property (not only those considered important) may be sold or resold only with prior NM/NHCP clearance. Dealers of cultural property, presumably including real estate brokers handling 50+ year old structures, must be licensed and are required to submit quarterly inventories. (Sec. 14)
A procedure is outlined for the declaration of a structure as ICP and as NCT (Sec. 8). Since structures at least 50 years old are automatically ICP, the procedure presumably applies to more recent structures. The owner or any interested person (a historical or cultural preservation society, for example) may petition the NCCA for such a declaration. The NCCA would then refer the application or petition to the NM or NHCP for the investigation, position paper analysis, and hearings needed to reach a decision.
There must be hundreds of thousands of structures built before 1961. Both implementation and financial assistance expectations are daunting challenges. - Article courtesy of Manila Bulletin
Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites
