San Vicente, Ilocos Sur - Heritage Zone of the North (RA 11645) Series in 5 parts
To protect their historical and cultural integrity, President Rodrigo Duterte declared Cebu's Carcar City and Ilocos Sur's San Vicente town as Heritage Zones. These are provided under Republic Act 11644 and 11645 signed by the President into law last January 14, 2022.Under RA No. 11645, the heritage zone in San Vicente shall include the “cultural properties declared as National Cultural Treasures and Important Cultural Properties as well as National Historical Landmarks, Shrines, Monuments, and Sites, and such other immovable, movable or intangible cultural properties whether publicly or privately owned.”
Dr Abe V Rotor
Photos from the collection of the author.
Part 1: Old Church of San Vicente, Ilocos Sur*
Aerial View of San Vicente Poblacion showing the church's
location and immediate surroundings, circa 1976
Photos of San Vicente Ferrer church from private collection.
Balikbayan and pilgrims pay homage to the patron saint every Tuesday.
Chapel prior to the building of the church is preserved, It is presently used
as classroom of the adjacent San Vicented Integrated School
Detail of Greco-Roman architecture, typical of European
Renaissance art in the 15th century.
Original interior of the twin towers
Views taken from the choir loft (kuro) during a Sunday mass. The church attracts devotees during Holy Week, town fiesta (2nd Tuesday of April), and pilgrims every Tuesday.
Closeup of devotees lighting candles outside the church before the icon saint.
Left, view of the grotto from the western tower; right, western arch and door
are partly seen between the ramparts. Note periwinkle growing like aerial plant.
Old pillar, once a column against invadersin colonial times, idle you have beenfor centuries, save the tough chichirica*common herbal yet rarely known and seen.
San Vicente plant or Periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus)
*Periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus) produces potent alkaloids, which are known worldwide as an anti-cancer compound. Periwinkle is also known as San Vicente plant. It comes in several variants or cultivars by the color of their flowers - immaculate white, red, and various shades and patterns of pink, and also purple.
Two statues at the front of church, Virgin Mary and Sacred Heart;
sideview of façade on the south.
western wing.
I am a modern day Prodigal Son. I spent sixty long years searching and searching for a place I may call my own in the whole wide world. Yes, sixty long years of my youth and in old age – thrice longer the fiction character Rip van Winkle slept – and now I am back to the portals of my hometown, to the waiting arms of my father.
The proverbial Lamp I still hold flickers, but it is but a beacon in embers now, for it has spent its luminescence in the darkness of human weakness and failures, it beamed across the ocean of ignorance and lost hope, it trailed the path of many adventures and discoveries, and it kept vigil in the night.
And what would my father say? He meets me, embraces me, and calls everyone. “Kill the fattest calf! Let us rejoice.”
San Vicente is my home. It is the bastion of my hopes and ideals. At the far end on entering the old church is written on the altar, faded by the elements of time and rough hands of devotees, Ur-urayenka Anakko – I am waiting for you my child. When the world is being ripped by conflicts or pampered with material progress, when mankind shudders at the splitting of the atom or the breaking of the code of life, when the future is viewed with high rise edifices or clouded by greenhouse gases – my town becomes more than ever relevant to the cause for which it has stood through the centuries - the sanctuary of idealism in a troubled world, home of hundreds of professionals in many fields of human endeavor.
“Kill the fattest calf,” I hear my father shout with joy. It is celebration. It is a symbol of achievement more than I deserve. But my feeling is that I am standing on behalf of my colleagues for I am but an emissary. Out there in peace and trials, in villages and cities, in all endeavors and walks of life, many “Vincentians” made their marks, either recognized on the stage or remembered on stone on which their names are carved. I must say, it is an honor and privilege that I am here in humility to represent them that I may convey their unending faith and trust to our beloved hometown.
The world has changed tremendously, vastly, since I passed under the town arch to meet the world some sixty years ago. I have met wise men who asked the famous question “Quo vadis?” (Where are you going?) I can only give a glimpse from the eye of a teacher, far for the probing mind of Alvin Toffler in Future Shock, or those of Naisbitt and Aburdane, renowned modern prophets. A teacher as I know, and having been trained as one, sees the world as it is lived; he makes careful inferences, and takes a bird’s eye-view cautiously. He is a conveyor of knowledge, and even with modern teaching tools and communication technology, cannot even qualify as chronicler, nay less of a forecaster. I have always strive to master the art of foretelling the future, but frankly I can only see it from atop a misty mountain. How I wish too, that I can fully witness the fruits of the seed of knowledge a teacher has sown in the mind of the young.
Limited my experience may be, allow me to speak my mind about progress and developments in the sixty years I was away from home, but on the other side of midnight, so to speak.
1. The monster that Frankenstein created lurks in nuclear stockpiles, chides with scientists tinkering with life, begging to give him a name and a home.
2. Our blue planet has an ugly shade of murk and crimson – fire consuming the forests, erosion eating out the land, polar ice shrinking, flooding the shorelines, and boring a hole in its jacket.
3. One race-one nation equals globalization. But globalization is not the ultimate goal of mankind, and neither shall build for him the dreamworld of Utopia. The shrinking of the gene pool predisposes man, or any species for that matter, to its doom.
Acculturation is leading mankind to early to its demise. Homogenization is the death sentence amid a bed of roses for mankind. How we have taken the role of God in our hands! It could be the greatest sin of disobedience after the banishment of our ancestors from Paradise because they ate the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.
* The church is currently undergoing renovation and beautification under
the initiative and supervision of our parish priest, Fr Felisisimo A Ferrer.
Part 2: The Church - zone of peace and holy ground
San Vicente (My Hometown)
In my childhood I saw detours of footprintsdividing the East and the West, two warring nicheswhere the zone of peace was the holy ground,and beyond was wilderness - and the unknown,beyond the confines of Subec and the Cordillera,the memory of Diego Silang, and the Basi Revolton old meandering Bantaoay River.
In my youth I saw the sun sittingon acacia stumps and on the tired landscape,but rising in dreams and visions on the horizon,and in the wisdom of my forebears,the old guards of your fort.
Time has stood still since then.
I come to pay homage in your temple,and into the arms of my people, my roots;I see the footpath of yesteryears,now grown and multiplied, and always fresh,leading from the East and West,and the many corners of the earthconverging at your portals in pilgrimage. ~
Reprint from Light in the Woods by A V Rotor, Megabooks 1995
Stained glass of St Vincent Ferrer, with prayer imploring his mercy, in Ilocano
Part 3 - Return of the Native ("Ur-urayenka, Anakko"
- I am waiting for you my child)
"Now I am home, my father, my hometown.
I thank you for being a native of this most beautiful
place on earth." - avr
San Vicente (Ilocos Sur) Parish Church built in the 17th century
I am a modern day Prodigal Son. I spent sixty long years searching and searching for a place I may call my own in the whole wide world. Yes, sixty long years of my youth and in old age – thrice longer the fiction character Rip van Winkle slept – and now I am back to the portals of my hometown, to the waiting arms of my father.
The proverbial Lamp I still hold flickers, but it is but a beacon in embers now, for it has spent its luminescence in the darkness of human weakness and failures, it beamed across the ocean of ignorance and lost hope, it trailed the path of many adventures and discoveries, and it kept vigil in the night.
And what would my father say? He meets me, embraces me, and calls everyone. “Kill the fattest calf! Let us rejoice.”
San Vicente is my home. It is the bastion of my hopes and ideals. At the far end on entering the old church is written on the altar, faded by the elements of time and rough hands of devotees, Ur-urayenka Anakko – I am waiting for you my child. When the world is being ripped by conflicts or pampered with material progress, when mankind shudders at the splitting of the atom or the breaking of the code of life, when the future is viewed with high rise edifices or clouded by greenhouse gases – my town becomes more than ever relevant to the cause for which it has stood through the centuries - the sanctuary of idealism in a troubled world, home of hundreds of professionals in many fields of human endeavor.
“Kill the fattest calf,” I hear my father shout with joy. It is celebration. It is a symbol of achievement more than I deserve. But my feeling is that I am standing on behalf of my colleagues for I am but an emissary. Out there in peace and trials, in villages and cities, in all endeavors and walks of life, many “Vincentians” made their marks, either recognized on the stage or remembered on stone on which their names are carved. I must say, it is an honor and privilege that I am here in humility to represent them that I may convey their unending faith and trust to our beloved hometown.
The world has changed tremendously, vastly, since I passed under the town arch to meet the world some sixty years ago. I have met wise men who asked the famous question “Quo vadis?” (Where are you going?) I can only give a glimpse from the eye of a teacher, far for the probing mind of Alvin Toffler in Future Shock, or those of Naisbitt and Aburdane, renowned modern prophets. A teacher as I know, and having been trained as one, sees the world as it is lived; he makes careful inferences, and takes a bird’s eye-view cautiously. He is a conveyor of knowledge, and even with modern teaching tools and communication technology, cannot even qualify as chronicler, nay less of a forecaster. I have always strive to master the art of foretelling the future, but frankly I can only see it from atop a misty mountain. How I wish too, that I can fully witness the fruits of the seed of knowledge a teacher has sown in the mind of the young.
Limited my experience may be, allow me to speak my mind about progress and developments in the sixty years I was away from home, but on the other side of midnight, so to speak.
1. The monster that Frankenstein created lurks in nuclear stockpiles, chides with scientists tinkering with life, begging to give him a name and a home.
2. Our blue planet has an ugly shade of murk and crimson – fire consuming the forests, erosion eating out the land, polar ice shrinking, flooding the shorelines, and boring a hole in its jacket.
3. One race-one nation equals globalization. But globalization is not the ultimate goal of mankind, and neither shall build for him the dreamworld of Utopia. The shrinking of the gene pool predisposes man, or any species for that matter, to its doom.
Acculturation is leading mankind to early to its demise. Homogenization is the death sentence amid a bed of roses for mankind. How we have taken the role of God in our hands! It could be the greatest sin of disobedience after the banishment of our ancestors from Paradise because they ate the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.
4. Today the whole world is wired, and it travels fast on two feet. Thanks to communication and transportation. The Concord, the first supersonic commercial transport, would take a busy executive around the world and back virtually in three days, sending to the archives Jules Verne's 17th century novel, Eighty Days Around the World. Space tourism has began, and soon people would be traveling to the moon or Mars like hopping from one continent to another. Video-conference, satellite images, kinect sensor, virtual realities, and the Internet, continue to give us more and more access to the enormous wealth of information, through the magic of communication the world over.
And the greatest human invention - The Tablet like Pocket PC, smartphone, and i-Pod have become available to the ordinary person, thus making him "citizen of the world" in modern parlance. Despite these, scientists are wary about the "diminution of man role amid his own inventions," which leads us to wonder what lies in our future.
5. Man-induced phenomena are too difficult to separate from those of natural causes. We take the latter as an excuse of our follies, a rationalization that runs counter to be rational. Only the human species has both the capability to build or destroy – and yet we love to destroy what we build.
6. The dangerous game of numbers is a favorite game, and our spaceship is getting overloaded. Man’s wants, more so man’s needs, become burgeoning load of Mother Earth, now sick and aging. Will Pied Piper ever come back and take our beloved young ones away from us, as it did in Hamlyn many years ago?
And the greatest human invention - The Tablet like Pocket PC, smartphone, and i-Pod have become available to the ordinary person, thus making him "citizen of the world" in modern parlance. Despite these, scientists are wary about the "diminution of man role amid his own inventions," which leads us to wonder what lies in our future.
5. Man-induced phenomena are too difficult to separate from those of natural causes. We take the latter as an excuse of our follies, a rationalization that runs counter to be rational. Only the human species has both the capability to build or destroy – and yet we love to destroy what we build.
6. The dangerous game of numbers is a favorite game, and our spaceship is getting overloaded. Man’s wants, more so man’s needs, become burgeoning load of Mother Earth, now sick and aging. Will Pied Piper ever come back and take our beloved young ones away from us, as it did in Hamlyn many years ago?
7. Conscience, conscience, where is spirituality that nourishes it. Where have all the religious teachings gone? Governance – where is the family, the home? Peace and order – Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Ukraine – another Korea, another Vietnam, only in another place, in another time. And now social unrest continues to sweep over North Africa, the Middle East, Afghanistan. And ironically, over the US the richest and most powerful nation.
8. Janus is progress, and progress is Janus. It is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It is The Prince and the Pauper. Capitalism has happy and sad faces – the latter painted in pain and sadness on millions all over the world. It is inequity that makes the world poor; we have more than enough food, clothing, shelter, and energy for everybody. What ideology can save the world other than Capitalism?
As I grew older I did not only learn to adjust with the realities of life as I encountered them, but to grasp their meaning from the points of view of famous philosophers and writers. I studied them with the famous lines from William Blake’s famous poem, Auguries of Innocence.
To wit.
8. Janus is progress, and progress is Janus. It is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It is The Prince and the Pauper. Capitalism has happy and sad faces – the latter painted in pain and sadness on millions all over the world. It is inequity that makes the world poor; we have more than enough food, clothing, shelter, and energy for everybody. What ideology can save the world other than Capitalism?
As I grew older I did not only learn to adjust with the realities of life as I encountered them, but to grasp their meaning from the points of view of famous philosophers and writers. I studied them with the famous lines from William Blake’s famous poem, Auguries of Innocence.
To wit.
“To see the world in a grain of sand;And a Heaven a wild flower;Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,And eternity in an hour.”
- William Blake, Auguries of Innocence
If ever I have ventured into becoming a redeemer of sort, armed with a pen in hand, I too, have learned from Blake’s verse of the way man should view the world in all its magnanimity yet in simplicity. If ever I have set foot to reach the corners of the Earth, and failed, I am consoled by the humble representation of “a grain of sand” that speaks of universal truth and values.
And beauty? If I have not found it in a garden of roses, I dare not step on a flowering weed. And posterity and eternity? They are all ensconced in periodicity, a divine accident of existence – to say that each and every one of us is here in this world by chance – an unimaginable chance – at “a certain time and place” which - and I believe - has a purpose in whatever and however one lives his life. But I would say that a lifetime is all it takes “to see the world” and be part of it. It is a lifetime that we realize the true meaning of beauty, experience “infinity and eternity”. Lifetime is a daily calendar of victories and defeats.
While the world goes around and around . . .
The world like in Aristotle’s time continues to struggle with the preservation of values; the species will continue to evolve as postulated by Darwin though largely influenced by man; culture will express itself more fully since the first painting of early man dwelling in the caves of Lascaux in France.
Trade and commerce will continue to progress, reach a plateau and decline - a normal curve that goes with the rise and fall of civilizations. Yet leaders do not see it that way. Not even the Utopia of conquerors like Alexander the Great whose global economic vision two thousand five hundred years ago is basically the same as those of the great powers of today - United States, European Union, ASEAN.
The great religions will continue to bring man to his knees and to look up to heaven amidst knowledge revolution and growing complexity of living. Man’s infinitesimal mind continues to probe the universe. Never has man been so busy, so bothered, so confused, yet so determined than ever before, trying to fill up God’s Seventh Day.
As I go on reflecting I came across the book of Pope John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, 1994. He warns us succinctly.
“This world, which appears to be a great workshop in which knowledge is developed by man – which appears as progress and civilization, as a modern system of communication, as a structure of democratic freedom without any limitations – this world is not capable of making man happy." - Pope John Paul II, On the Threshold of Hope
Now I am home, my father, my hometown, my townmates. Thank you for being a native of this most beautiful place on earth.
Take me into your arms once more, dear father. ~
If ever I have ventured into becoming a redeemer of sort, armed with a pen in hand, I too, have learned from Blake’s verse of the way man should view the world in all its magnanimity yet in simplicity. If ever I have set foot to reach the corners of the Earth, and failed, I am consoled by the humble representation of “a grain of sand” that speaks of universal truth and values.
And beauty? If I have not found it in a garden of roses, I dare not step on a flowering weed. And posterity and eternity? They are all ensconced in periodicity, a divine accident of existence – to say that each and every one of us is here in this world by chance – an unimaginable chance – at “a certain time and place” which - and I believe - has a purpose in whatever and however one lives his life. But I would say that a lifetime is all it takes “to see the world” and be part of it. It is a lifetime that we realize the true meaning of beauty, experience “infinity and eternity”. Lifetime is a daily calendar of victories and defeats.
While the world goes around and around . . .
The world like in Aristotle’s time continues to struggle with the preservation of values; the species will continue to evolve as postulated by Darwin though largely influenced by man; culture will express itself more fully since the first painting of early man dwelling in the caves of Lascaux in France.
Trade and commerce will continue to progress, reach a plateau and decline - a normal curve that goes with the rise and fall of civilizations. Yet leaders do not see it that way. Not even the Utopia of conquerors like Alexander the Great whose global economic vision two thousand five hundred years ago is basically the same as those of the great powers of today - United States, European Union, ASEAN.
The great religions will continue to bring man to his knees and to look up to heaven amidst knowledge revolution and growing complexity of living. Man’s infinitesimal mind continues to probe the universe. Never has man been so busy, so bothered, so confused, yet so determined than ever before, trying to fill up God’s Seventh Day.
As I go on reflecting I came across the book of Pope John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, 1994. He warns us succinctly.
“This world, which appears to be a great workshop in which knowledge is developed by man – which appears as progress and civilization, as a modern system of communication, as a structure of democratic freedom without any limitations – this world is not capable of making man happy." - Pope John Paul II, On the Threshold of Hope
Now I am home, my father, my hometown, my townmates. Thank you for being a native of this most beautiful place on earth.
Take me into your arms once more, dear father. ~
Part 4 - About San Vicente Ilocos Sur
San Vicente is a fifth class municipality in the province of Ilocos Sur, Philippines. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 11,720 people.
The municipality is known for its production of beautiful furniture made from narra and other tropical hardwoods, even from old wood previously used in wooden sugarcane crushers and old houses to make reproduction antiques.
Barangays
San Vicente is politically subdivided into 7 barangays.
- Bantaoay
- Bayubay Norte
- Bayubay Sur
- Lubong
- Poblacion
- Pudoc
- San Sebastian
Etymology
The municipality's name came from the name of Saint Vincent Ferrer, whose winged statue was found inside a box entangled in fishing nets. The fishermen consulted this matter to the friars in Villa Fernandina (now Vigan), who identified the person depicted by the statue. The statue was carried to the town's center, where a church was built. From then on, the town formerly known as Tuanong (sometimes called Taonan) became San Vicente.
History
In tracing the history of San Vicente, one always has to start from Vigan. Vigan was established by the Spanish colonizer, Juan de Salcedo on June 13, 1573 up to 1582, there were only 800 residents.
Upon Salcedo’s return in 1574, he brought with them the Augustinian friars in order to teach Christianity to the inhabitants. After Salcedo’s death on March 11, 1576, Franciscan friars replaced the Augustinians in the year 1579. These same friars spread up to San Vicente to convert the people to the Catholic faith.
In 1591, Vigan has already an organized form of government, which included these barrios namely: Bo. Tuanong, Bo. Sta. Catalina de Baba and Bo. Caoayan. There were then a population numbering about 4,000 inhabitants.
Between the years 1720 and 1737, the first chapel of Bo. Tuanong was erected. Later in 1748, the Confraternity of Jesus of Nazareth was organized. In one record of the Vigan Convent archives, a funeral that happened on January 29, 1748 at the Chapel Bo. Tuanong was recorded. Two chaplains Bro. Don Agustin de la Encarnacion and Don Pedro Geronimo de Barba were the priest stone the chapel in that year 1748. It is believed that the chapel is the first stone building that sees upon entering the San Vicente Central School from the main road. Bo. Tuanong which belonged to Vigan was the old name of San Vicente.
On June 16, 1751, the chaplain was Don Miguel de Montanez. He was the first priest there and also in the chapel of San Sebastian. It is found out that Barangay San Sebastian already erected.
Hardship in reaching Bo. Tuanong and Bo. Sta. Catalina de Baba from Vigan especially during the months of June to October was experienced, due to the absence of dike or bridge. Priests from Vigan reached these places by means of a raft. The problem prompted the separation of these two barrios from Vigan in 1793.
In 1795, it was the initiation of the seat of municipality and the church and Bo. Tuanong became San Vicente de Ferrer. Don Pedro de Leon was the first parish priest and he was believed as the initiator of the construction of the Church of San Vicente.
Source: Wikipedia, Internet; Poem reprinted from Light in the Woods: Photographs and Poems by Dr A V Rotor Megabooks 1995
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Press Release
January 17, 2022
January 17, 2022
Part 5 - Folk Re-enactment of the Passion of Christ
San Vicente, Ilocos Sur
Dedicated to my kababayan, particularly to the players of the Good Friday passion play. These shots were taken with a palm size digital camera with 7.2 Mega pizels, photos are unedited.
Calvary scene where the seven last words of Christ reverberated throughout the world - the most revered moment of His life that made Christianity the world's biggest religion ever: 1.2 billion followers two thousand years after - and still growing.
The living icons are natives of the town - artisans, farmers, students, fisherfolk and a host of natural artists, who know too well about the kind of life they portray for and on behalf of Christ in His greatest hour.
The game cock enthusiast offers his hobby and trade; the tippler knows just how sober it is to lose oneself that he may enter into the world of spirituality - an apostle worthy of partaking in Christ's last supper.
Young centurions dreaming of bringing peace and order in a troubled world, reversing the biblical role into honor and heroism. The re-incarnated Pontius Pilate, allegory of power abuse among today's leaders, softens in the heart of a young boy whose innocence shall grow into the idealism of new young leaders.
Judas Iscariot hanging on a tree, believed to be the haunting strangler's fig or balete, likewise haunts those who turn their back against Christ. The player broke the omen, indeed a most difficult role in the stage play, by asceticism, an old principle of perseverance with meaning. The difference of a repentant Judas who took his own life with that of a neo-Judas today is that there is redemption in the latter in Christ's own way of human salvation - which is the essence of His coming as the Messiah
ANNEX: PRRD signs laws declaring heritage zones in Cebu, Ilocos Sur
By Azer Parrocha January 17, 2022, 3:21 pm
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte (Presidential photo)
MANILA – President Rodrigo Roa Duterte has signed into law two measures declaring heritage zones in the provinces of Cebu and Ilocos Sur
President Duterte signed both Republic Act 11644 or the “Carcar City Heritage Zone Act” and RA 11645 or an act establishing a heritage zone within the municipality of San Vicente, Ilocos Sur on Jan. 14, 2022.
In signing RA 11644, Duterte recognized that the Constitution “mandates the State to conserve, develop, promote, and popularize the nation's historical and cultural heritage and resources, as well as its artistic creations.
The Constitution also provides that all the country's artistic and historic wealth “constitute the cultural treasures of the nation and shall be protected by the State, which may regulate its disposition.”
"Towards this end, the promotion and preservation of the cultural and historical landmarks that highlight the uniqueness and beauty of Carcar City, including all century-old architecturally significant and historic houses thereat, shall be pursued in the development and management of its tourism industry, cultural heritage and resources," RA 11644 read.
Under the law, Carcar City will be accorded priority development by the Department of Tourism (DOT), in coordination with the provincial government of Cebu, the city government of Carcar, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and its affiliated cultural agencies, and other concerned agencies of the government, subject to the rules and regulations governing the conservation and preservation of heritage zones.
The DOT, in coordination with local governments of Cebu and Carcar City, the NCCA and its affiliated cultural agencies, and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), will immediately prepare the development plan involving the preservation, conservation, restoration, and maintenance of cultural and historical sites and structures for the enhancement and sustainability of tourism in Carcar City.
The NCCA will approve only those methods and materials that strictly adhere to the accepted international standards of conservation in undertaking conservation and restoration works as provided for in Section 15 of RA 10066 or the National Cultural Heritage Act. Applicable provisions of Republic Act 7586 or the National Integrated Protected Areas System Act of 1992 as amended by Republic Act 11038, will be applied in the management of the protected areas within the City of Carcar in coordination with the DENR.
The DOT, in coordination with the Provincial Government of Cebu, the City Government of Carcar, the NCCA and its affiliated cultural agencies, and the DENR will promulgate the necessary rules and regulations for the effective implementation of this Act. The Act which originated in the House of Representatives was passed by the House on Dec. 17, 2019, amended by the Senate on Sept. 27, 2021, and which amendments were concurred in by the House on Nov. 23, 2021.
Under RA 11645, the DOT, in coordination with the Province of Ilocos Sur, the Municipality of San Vicente, Ilocos Sur, and the NCCA and its affiliated cultural agencies, will also immediately prepare the development plan involving the preservation, conservation, restoration, and maintenance of cultural and historical sites and structures for the enhancement and sustainability of tourism in San Vincente, Ilocos Sur. The NCCA will approve only those methods and materials that strictly adhere to the accepted international standards of conservation in undertaking conservation and restoration works, as provided for in Section 15 of RA 10066.
Within one year from the effectivity of this Act, the Municipality of San Vicente, Ilocus Sur will pass a municipal ordinance to operationalize appropriately the management of its heritage zone, including all the cultural properties designated as intrinsic thereto, in accordance with the development plan and in line with the objectives and provisions of RA 10066 and RA 11645. The preservation, protection, study, and promotion of the cultural and historical integrity of the geographical area represented by the heritage zone will receive priority development attention, assistance, and funding from the NCCA and its affiliated cultural agencies, and from the DOT and its attached agencies, subject to existing appropriate government rules and regulations. (PNA) ~
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