INQUIRER Global Nation

The Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, through its Cultural Heritage Program (CHP), recently conducted a “Reporting Heritage” seminar-workshop at the Department of Tourism conference room in Iloilo City.

The workshop, organized by the Iloilo City Cultural Heritage Conservation Council (ICCHCC), was attended by heritage workers and enthusiasts in Iloilo province, and linked them into one network.

The workshop, the first to be conducted in Iloilo, aimed to promote heritage writing in the media and merge local heritage in school curriculum, particularly in Makabayan and MAPE subjects.

The resource speakers were Dr. Jocelyn Gerra, CHP executive director; Dr. Henry Funtecha, director of University of the Philippines in the Visayas’ West Visayan Studies; Haidee Palapar, the foundation’s Communications officer and Eugene Jamerlan, an Ilonggo heritage writer and ICCHCC officer.

Gerra spoke on heritage concepts and processes; Funtecha gave an overview of the center, the wealth of heritage materials and sources that writers can tap; Palapar shared the impact of first “reporting heritage” to the Cebu media; and Jamerlan read an example of heritage writing in essay format.

The workshop also included a half-day tour to some of the heritage sites in the city, such as the Monterola ancestral house, San Jose College, Casa Mariquit, Nuestra Señora delos Desamparados chapel and Jaro Cathedral.

The foundation also participated in the “Owning Heritage” exhibit at SM City Iloilo from May 8-31.

The foundation displayed articles from the Casa Gorordo Museum and some of CHP’s projects featured in Cebu newspapers.

CHP conducted its first heritage writing workshop in 2007 at the Casa Gorordo Museum in Cebu City.