The wearing of our story: A response from the City

CEBU, Philippines -  I owe the Cebu City Tourism council an apology for belatedly publishing their rejoinder to the article I wrote sometime February. Here it is:         

Dear Mr. Malazarte:

Thank you very much for your constructive criticism on the state of Fort San Pedro, in your column, The Freeman, dated February 15, 2014.

Let me take this opportunity to inform you that by the middle of this year, the Fort will be undergoing a total Rehabilitation, Restoration and Strengthening with an initial budget of P10 Million Pesos.  It will be a tedious task since restoring it to its original state will be very difficult.  Experts have to be hired and damaged assessments have to be done.

The walls of the Fort, after 276 years of existence, and after 449 years since it was constructed on the very same site, and after more than 4 centuries, the Fort has badly deteriorated, coupled with calamities that struck Cebu recently like the October 15 earthquake and the November 8 Super Typhoon... The Fort could no longer withstand the power of nature.

Civil Engineers and Architects have already inspected the place, and all suggested that if we have to rehabilitate the Fort, it should not be on a staggered basis, the whole structure must be rehabilitated and restored.  With this, we are in a dilemma whether to close down the Fort for several months or still allow tourists to visit on a controlled basis, for the Fort is the No. 1 Tourist Destination in Cebu, as per official record.

Thank you very much and we are hoping for a complete understanding from the Cebuano people.  The Fort is managed by the City Government but it is the Cebuanos, all of us, who owns and have that responsibility to take care of this historic site, the symbol of the First Spanish Settlement in the country.  The Fort San Pedro is 7 years older than Fort Santiago (Fort San Pedro - 1565; Fort Santiago - 1572).

In service,

ERWIN A. DE LA CERNA

Executive Director  

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I take with a grain of salt their explanation on the current condition of the Fort. But I wonder why, after all this time, the repair works have to be done now? And for a measly sum of P10M? Since when did we start collecting entrance fees from tourists and usage charges from the events held there?

There is no need to blow this issue up. But I think the City owes the Cebuanos some explaining. May be it’s worth knowing how the money is spent from the income of the Fort and we will be glad to put them here in this column.  

For those who have not read the article, you may want to google the title: The wearing of our story: Our history.