Baler town eyed as next heritage zone

BALER, Aurora ,Philippines  – This historic town, the hometown of the late Commonwealth President Manuel Quezon and Sen. Edgardo Angara, has been hailed by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines as (NHCP) as possibly the country’s next heritage zone after Dapitan City in Zamboanga del Norte.

Ludovico Badoy, NHCP executive director, said Baler can be declared a heritage zone, given its historical and cultural heritage.

“It’s highly possible,” Badoy said, when asked if Baler can now apply to be a heritage zone in the mold of Dapitan City where Dr. Jose Rizal spent four years in exile before his martyrdom at Bagumbayan.

Badoy was here with National Museum director Jeremy Barns during the 9th Philippine-Spanish Friendship Day and the 112th anniversary of the “Siege of Baler.”

As a heritage zone, a place will be entitled to state funding and other support for the upkeep of its landmarks and heritage sites.

This town has several known landmarks, the most famous of which is the Baler Church where 54 Spanish soldiers holed up for almost a year on June 27,1898 and defended the stone church for almost a year, not knowing the war had long ended.

Only 33 Spanish soldiers survived and came out of the church on June 2,1899.

On June 30,1899, then President Emilio Aguinaldo signed a decree declaring the surviving Spanish soldiers not as prisoners of war but as friends and granted them safe conduct pass to Spain. The event came to be known as the “Siege of Baler”

In 2009, the church was declared a historical landmark by the NHCP’s predecessor, the National Historical Institute, during the town’s 400th anniversary and its 400th year of Christianization.

Near the church stands the nipa hut of former First Lady Aurora Aragon-Quezon while several meters away is the Quezon Park where a bronze statue of President Quezon and the vintage car he used during his presidency are on display.

Badoy, however, said the declaration of a particular place as a heritage zone will have to undergo a process.

He said the local government may initiate the process by passing a resolution requesting the NHCP to make the declaration.

“After the resolution has been forwarded to us, we will be sending a team to evaluate the application,” he said.