Will DPWH hold off demolishing century-old houses or is road widening more needed?
You can’t easily find a turn-of-the-century house like this anymore in Cebu City. The house of Juanita Chiu on M.J. Cuenco is due for demolition to give way for road widening. Will the Cebu City Council’s certification that the house is a “historical landmark” protect it? (CDN PHOTO/ TONEE DESPOJO)
Two century-old houses along M.J. Cuenco Ave. in Cebu City will have to give way to road-widening project by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH-7).
But Acting Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella pressed the pause button, saying he wanted the demolition suspended.
He expressed alarm over the presence of scaffoldings and sacks of sand and gravel in the two-story “Balay na Bato” in barangay Mabolo, his neighborhood.
“It has been brought to my attention that the said project will entail the demolition of two structures, namely the Balay na Bato of Mr. Nersas Macasero and the ancestral house of Ms. Juanita
Chiu, both of which have been recognized as historical landmarks by the City of Cebu through SP Res. No. 12-3636-2012, dated July 08, 2012,” Labella said in a letter sent to DPWH-7 Regional Director Ador Canlas.
The acting mayor referred to the DPWH’s road-widening project in M.J. Cuenco that was supposed to start in 2012 but got delayed due to opposition from house owners.
“In this regard, it is requested that the said demolition be held in abeyance pending resolution of the matter by the Office of the Mayor,” Labella said in his letter.
Store
Labella, as vice mayor, sits as the head of the Cebu City’s Cultural and Historical Affairs Commission (CHAC).
The Balay na Bato at the corner of M.J. Cuenco Ave. and L. Tudtud St. was built in the 1890s. The ground floor’s walls are made of coral stones and its second floor is made of bayong and Molave hardwood.
Carpenters already started pushing back the frontage of the “Bahay na Bato” of Nersas Macasero which is due for demolition. (CDN PHOTO/ TONEE DESPOJO)
At present, the ground floor is used as a store selling concrete products for construction.
Labella said the house survived the American and Japanese Occupation and has “intricate Chinese-influenced wood carvings”. The house was also used as a hospital during World War II.
Heritage sites
Another house, owned by Juanita Chiu near the corner of the Hipodromo Access Road in the same area. Its wide grilled windows with wooden ventanillas reflect architecture of Filipino houses designed for the tropical climate.
The front of the house has to be set back five to seven meters for a road-widening project.
Labella said the owners had asked the CHAC to declare their houses heritage sites in an effort to prevent the DPWH from demolishing the houses for the road project.
But DPWH won’t recognize a declaration if it comes from the local historical commission.
Sought for comment on Labella’s request, Canlas of DPWH 7 said the structures’ heritage value should be declared by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines.
Accreditation
“As far as I know, the M.J. Cuenco and the heritage houses—according to RA 10066, any structure is considered heritage or historical if certified as such by the NHCP. As far as I know, there is no such accreditation,” Canlas told Cebu Daily News.
Under Section 5 of Republic Act No. 10066, or the National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009, structures dated 50 years old or more should be declared by the “National Archives” of the NHCP for it to be protected against exportation, modification, or demolition.
“We were not the ones who ordered the demolition. There was a writ of possession from the court. As far as I can remember, all the structures demolished whether by owners of the structures, were the subject of a writ of possession,” Canlas added.
He said the project was sourced from DPWH’s 2012 budget and has been stalled due to opposition from residents. Another factor was the lengthy expropriation process for lots affected by the road right-of-way for the project. Canlas said DPWH has just started widening portions of the national road that were already cleared.
DPWH-7 Chief Legal Officer Brando Ray Raya said they had sought court intervention in the project due to opposition of some structure owners.
“There was already a final writ of possession issued by the court for those houses. And it’s not us who are demolishing it, it’s the owners. Our main objective is to widen the road to ease traffic woes,” Raya said. As of press time, Raya wasn’t able to present a copy of the writ.
Raya also said other house owners voluntarily implemented the court’s writ of possession by demolishing their own structures.
Vice Mayor Labella said he would look deeper into the issue.
“I’m waiting for their response. Let’s find that out. I will talk to them. I’m just concerned because this is a (heritage) property. That’s why we asked to hold demolition in abeyance pending consideration of the issues concerned,” Labella said. He said he wasn’t able to talk to the owners yet about the latest moves.
He said he would seek them out for a talk.
“If that’s the case and the demolition has been allowed, I just want to make sure if the proper procedures were followed,” Labella added.