Cebu City mayor Michael Rama (3rd from left) receives the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) officially turning over the restored Port San Pedro to the Cebu City government from the National Heritage Commission of the Philippines (NHCP). Maria Serena I. Diokno, (2nd from left), NHCP chairperson, represented the heritage commission during yesterday’s turnover ceremony. (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)
The National Historical Commission of the Philippines will now focus on the restoration of the Basilica Minore del Sto. Niño following the completion of the Fort San Pedro and Magellan’s marker.
The commission yesterday turned over the newly-restored Fort to the Cebu City government and the Magellan’s Monument in the historical Liberty Shrine to the Lapu-Lapu City government.
These were restored more than two years after the 7.2-magnitude earthquake that struck Cebu and Bohol.
Maria Serena Diokno, NHCP chairperson, said they hope to complete the restoration works of the Basilica del Sto. Niño by January next year.
It will be the third heritage site that they would restore, if ever it will be completed on schedule.
“Ideally, before the International Eucharistic Congress, before the Sinulog. I was told earlier that by December, the bulk of the work will be completed,” she said.
The finishing touches of the restoration will be done in January, she said.
Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama and Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella expressed their gratitude to the NHCP during the turnover.
“I’m a native Cebuano. And the importance of this edifice for me cannot be overemphasized,” said Labella, who is also the chairman of the city’s Cultural and Historical Affairs Commission (CHAC).
Rama said the completion of the project shows that agencies can succeed if they work together.
Cebu City mayor Michael Rama (center) do a selfie with NHCP chairperson Maria Serena I. Diokno, (3rd from left) the and Hon. Ludovico D. Badoy (2nd from left), NHCP Executive Director III before cutting the ceremonial ribbon for the official turn over of the fully restored Fort San Pedro. (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)
“It took an earthquake to bring that area to sanity. Thanks to the quake, now, it is functional,” he said.
Diokno said the NHCP took less than six months to complete the restoration works of the 277-year-old Fort San Pedro.
The restoration work of the fort, which had a budget of P21.9 million, started last June.
She said the main structure was completed last August in time for the visit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) delates in Cebu.
For the restoration of Magellan’s marker, Diokno said the commission allotted P2 million.
The marker was built in 1866 in honor of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who was killed by Datu Lapu-Lapu in the historic Battle of Mactan.