Palace won’t allow China-funded bridge project

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang yesterday assured the public that it would not allow the San Agustin Church in Manila and three other baroque churches around the country to be delisted from the World Heritage list because of the China-funded Binondo-Intramuros Bridge.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has warned that the bridge, intended to connect Solano street in Intramuros with San Fernando street in Binondo, would encroach on the buffer zone required for San Agustin Church as a World Heritage Site.

Other churches that are at risk of being removed from the prestigious list are San Agustin in Paoay, Ilocos Norte, Nuestra Señora de la Asuncion in Santa Maria, Ilocos Sur, and Santo Tomas de Villanueva in Miag-ao,
Iloilo.

Business group Chamber of Commerce of the Philippine Islands has also opposed the construction of the bridge, saying it could destroy the Chamber of Commerce building and Intramuros’ historical environment including the Plaza de Mexico Park and Monument, Intendencia, Puerta Isabel Monument, and the very walls of Intramuros.

Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said the Philippines could object to the construction of the bridge if it would affect the country’s heritage sites.

“I was listening in the news story yesterday (Nov. 21) that the contractor is saying that it will not. So we don’t know exactly whether or not it will, because if it will, then certainly it is right to object,” Panelo said.

Asked if the construction of the bridge would no longer push through if the project would encroach on San Agustin Church’s buffer zone, Panelo replied: “Not necessarily not push through because you may remove the locations to maybe a hundred meters away. I don’t think that will be a problem.”

Panelo said the Duterte administration would not allow the encroachment because the sites are “part of our history.”