CASA GORORDO is always packed at every
“Gabii Sa Kabilin. This year, the museum opens its newly renovated doors to the public with new rooms and attractions (a green screen room where one can don period costumes and have in the background
a daguerreotype of old Cebu), and a gift shop that stocks items made by communities supported
by the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. (RAFI).
The 103-year-old Gotiaoco building is dressed for a night out tonight. Not just any other night, too. For the first time, she joins the “Gabii sa
Kabilin,” an 11-year-tradition in Cebu that celebrates heritage.
By May of 2018, the century-old office building along MC Briones Street, just behind the Cebu City Hall, will be the home of artifacts donated by 15 prominent Chinese families based in Cebu and will be called the Sugbu Chinese Heritage Museum.
In a sneak preview, a modest display of items including porcelain, antique furniture, and traditional medicine (dried snake, anyone?) were arranged inside their future home.
“I’ve fought hard to keep at least these four original columns,” shares architect Tony Abelgas, who lends his expert hand in the restoration and building of the museum. “We’ve done the computations, there was no way the original columns could support the five floors we are
planning to build.”
BACKSTAGE AT CASA GORORDO, performers practice their
cultural presentations. The two young girls suddenly became shy when I pulled out my camera and covered their faces with their bandanas.
As a compromise to tearing down the original structures and replacing them with structurally more sound columns, there are the four magnificent ones still standing. “These do not support weight anymore, so we can afford to keep them.” They were able to last a hundred yearsbecause they were builtof better cement, and top quality iron. “Most probably shipped all the way from America!”
When I point out that the first Chinese Heritage museum outside of Manila was a long time coming, given the fact that the Chinesehad been trading with Cebu’s port since the 10th century, the museum’s consultant Dr. Joy Gerra sums it up perfectly: “Everything is propelled by commerce, of course.”
The buidling itself—always meant for office space—at the onset did not meet the approval of Don Pedro Gotiaoco, whose son ManueGotianuy pushed for its completion. “At the time, warehouses were raking in the cash, but Manuel had the foresight to conclude thatif you had warehouses in the area, you will be needing headquartersfor your company.”
“At some point in your historyit becomes less about the acquisition of wealth, but more the leaving of a legacy.”
A NEW ADDITION TO one of my favorite stops, the Jesuit House of 1730, is
a coffee shop slash bookstore slash
library, which used to be a section
of the working warehouse where steel bars were stored. It retains the industrial
warehouse feel
in the unfinished floor.