CULTURAL PROPERTIES. Antique songwriter/composers Dante Beriong (left) and Sammy Rubido entertain guest during the Kapitolyo Market in December 2020. The Antique Provincial Board on April 22, 2021 passed an ordinance mandating local government units to have an inventory of their cultural properties, including songs, for preservation. (Photo courtesy of Antique PIO)
SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique – Local government units (LGUs) in Antique are mandated to maintain an inventory of their cultural properties for protection and preservation.
Antique Provincial Board Member Errol Santillan, chairman of the committee on history and cultural heritage, said in an interview on Tuesday that they approved on April 22 an ordinance mandating all LGUs to maintain an inventory of cultural properties, to be known as the local cultural database, under their jurisdiction.
“The ordinance is in compliance with Section 2 of Republic Act No. 10066, known as the National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009, which mandates the protection, preservation, conservation, and promotion of the nation's cultural heritage, its property and histories, and the ethnicity of local communities,” he said.
Cultural properties, the ordinance said, "refer to all products of human creativity by which a people and a nation reveal their identity, including churches, mosques and other places of religious worship, schools, and natural history specimens and sites, whether public or privately-owned movable or immovable, and tangible or intangible."
Santillan said the ordinance, now with Governor Rhodora J. Cadiao for signature, is also in support of Joint Memorandum Circular 2018-01 of the National Commission on Culture and the Arts and the Department of the Interior and Local Government that enjoins all LGUs to establish and maintain a local inventory of cultural property.
“The local inventory of cultural property is also one of the Department of the Interior and Local Government’s assessment criteria for the Seal of Good Local Governance for LGUs,” he said.
Santillan sponsored the ordinance because of the many cultural properties in Antique, such as songs in the local dialect, that need to be preserved.
Antiqueño composer Sammy Rubido said in a separate interview that his song “Napulo ka Kadatuan” (Ten Datus) narrates the first Malay settlement in Antique where they established the first barangay in the country.
“The song needs to be preserved because of its cultural and historical significance,” Rubido said.
He added that the song of songwriter/composer Dante Beriong, “Kabuganaan” (Abundance), is a cultural property of the province as it tells how beautiful and richly blessed Antique is.
Beriong is known for having composed the 1998 Philippine Centennial Independence Theme Song, “Mabuhay Ka Pilipino”.
Santillan said with the inventory of the cultural properties comes the creation of the cultural heritage unit under the Antique Provincial Tourism and Cultural Affairs Office that would maintain the local cultural database.
“The cultural heritage unit will guarantee the safeguarding of historical assets by increasing awareness of cultural heritage, especially in local communities,” he said.
The cultural heritage unit will also identify and provide information on all available cultural resources, which shall be essential in formulating local legislations and providing guidelines in declaring the important cultural properties, Santillan said. (PNA)
