INQUIRER Global Nation

LOCAL officials voiced fears that some historical artifacts found inside a subway tunnel under construction leading to the South Coastal Road (SCR) in Cebu City are being sold by unscrupulous people.

Councilor Arsenio Pacaña, chairman of the Cebu City Council's tourism, cultural and historical affairs committee, said he received reports that items like jars and plates dating back hundreds of years before the arrival of the Spaniards are being claimed by people at the construction site.

According to Jose Eleazar Bersales, chairman of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of San Carlos, a 150-year old cemetery was located in a subway tunnel being worked on by Kajima Construction.

The tunnel will pass under the Plaza Independencia.

An archaeological assessment done last 2006 as a requirement by the National Museum for building a tunnel yielded potteries and different ceramics called Chingpai wares.

These artifacts are said to be remnants of the Ming dynasty.

Bersales said the recovery of human bones during the excavation led them to believe that the area was a cemetery.

Both Pacaña and Bersales said the Philippine National Museum should have the area monitored owing to its status as a pre-colonial site.

Pacaña said any items recovered must be surrendered to the National Museum or to the Cebu City government.

He said without any monitoring the items may be sold to the wrong people.

“What bothers me is that for a little amount of money, it will deprive the future (children) from knowing their history through these artifacts. These should not go to the wrong hands,” Pacaña told .

He said he will call on the National Museum to take action on the case.

Bersales said he is only waiting for deputization from the National Museum to enter the dig site.

A P5,000 penalty awaits those who recovered but chose to keep artifacts from areas owned by the national government.

If these items will be traced and recovered it will be confiscated by the National Museum.

In related news, Pacaña said there are plans to convert the Cebu City Museum into an art-history museum.

Cebu City Administrator Francisco Fernandez said the library may be relocated to the Cebu City Central School or the Labangon Elementary School.