INQUIRER.net
First Posted 14:16:00 05/27/2008
A country without a memory, is a country of madmen. -- George Santayana
The Church of Sto. Tomas de Villanueva in Miag-ao, Iloilo,
a World
Heritage Site, is made of yellow sandstone
If all uninformed tour guides are to be believed, our churches are held
together with cement and egg white like the confections they are. In my former
life as NCCA's legal conservationist, I've had some side-ripping tourist
moments as some enthusiastic guide with more guesswork than research attempted
to explain their history factoids with gossip and superstition.
Philippine churches are primary tourism targets and a booming industry
surrounds them. Unlike many of their European counter-parts, these churches
remain in use, and are thus showcases of continuing history. Over thirty of
them have been declared national cultural treasures and World Heritage Sites.
Because of renewed interest in these structures, the informality of
accreditation systems for tour guides (not to mention the downright politics of
some of their appointments) and too few sources of information on the histories
of both the locales and structures, too many have taken up occupations as "tour
guides" using savvy business sense and not much else. The result is a
disastrous mish mash of misinformation that often bewilders the educated and
damages the uninformed.
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