The Historic Town of Vigan: Preliminary Findings from the Case
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PHILIPPINES RIGHTS AND WORLD HERITAGE RESEARCH BRIEF June 2016 The Historic Town of Vigan: Preliminary Findings from the Case Study Vigan was inscribed on the WH List there is a perception that economic further development and “eradicate” in December 1999 and was cited in opportunities from the heritage enterprise poverty. This confidence is sound if the are not uniformly available across the capacity of the more economically UN Habitat’s Best Practices on population. Advancing the consultation vulnerable people is likewise strengthened Social Sustainability in Historic process and ongoing research could help for them to be able to substantially Districts in 2008. In 2012, its facilitate the expression and resolution of participate in and profit from the heritage recognition as Model for Best remaining aspirations and concerns. enterprise. Practice in WH Site Management Heritage-based initiatives in Vigan pre-date also signified the historic town’s its inscription on the UNESCO World achievements in terms of Heritage List. Some citizens and local Vigan’s inscription and recognition as a conservation efforts. government actors have long seen the model for WH Site Management town’s rich heritage as its greatest asset in The City Government of Vigan has been the pursuit of development and an Vigan’s inscription as a WH Site gave the pursuing a “heritage as tool for improved quality of life for its population. city’s government the power to chart a development” strategy to improve quality However, heritage-and-development efforts future built upon a systematic heritage of life in the city. The research focused on have been significantly bolstered by the conservation and management program. In the city’s heritage-and-development inscription. The majority of Vigan’s October 2012, thirteen years after experience to explore rights issues within residents acknowledge the dramatic inscription, this strategy was boosted by the site’s WH context. Findings so far recent transformation of the town, whose Vigan’s recognition as a model of best suggest that Vigan’s development will reputation, in the 1990s, was still beset by practice in World Heritage management involve determining how sustainable its violence-scarred history. While social- because of its multi-faceted sustainable tourism is linked with the city’s capacity to systemic and environmental constraints conservation and management approach address environmental issues and poverty. still provide challenges to the city, its for the protection of the property, “with More particularly, there are difficulties in government remains confident that its relatively limited resources” but with the the maintenance of “the ancestral houses” heritage conservation program will, with participation of the local community. as well as some indigenous industries, and the participation of the people, produce 1 “Pride of place” and heritage Situated on the western coast of Luzon, 408 kilometers north of Manila, the historic town of Vigan, in the province of Ilocos Sur, was designated a World Heritage Site on The City Government consistently looks for December 2, 1999. It met criteria for inclusion on the WH list because it “represents a ways to increase pride in Vigan and its unique fusion of Asian building design and construction with European colonial heritage among its residents. This value is architecture and planning” (c. ii), and “is an exceptionally intact and well-preserved expressed in policies of quite different example of a European trading town in East and South-East Asia” (c. iv). sorts, including attempts to improve social services. It reflects the view that pride in Vigan was already important to regional trade prior to the arrival of Spanish place and satisfaction with living conquistador Juan de Salcedo in 1572. The town became the center of colonial conditions are connected, so that heritage government in the north; Villa Fernandina de Vigan’s grid layout was defined in conservation and general development are accordance with the Spanish empire’s Leyes de Indias of 1680. It became Ciudad mutually supportive. Such satisfaction and Fernandina after the seat of the Archdiocese of Nueva Segovia was transferred to the the confidence it generates are seen as site from Lallo, Cagayan in 1758. especially helpful in a region where memories of the violence of the 1960s and Vigan has kept most of its centuries-old Spanish heritage, despite colonial upheavals 1970s are still active. and WWII, which destroyed architectural heritage in many other parts of the country. It was with the aim of inculcating pride that The Mayor’s Office likewise issued an through the VMP were the restoration of the City Government promoted and Executive Order creating the Vigan the old Vigan Sports Complex to become invested in Vigan’s competition with Conservation Council in 1999 given the the Vigan Culture and Trade Center, a two- hundreds of cities to become one of the “urgent need to create a management phased potable water network project, a “New 7 Wonder Cities of the World”. Its body involving all the major stakeholders in food security project with the fishing campaign was successful: Vigan earned the conservation of the historic district in communities, and a resettlement program the title in December 2014, after a highly Vigan that will be vested with all the powers for informal settlers. Each taking at least energetic campaign that capitalized on the and functions necessary to properly four years for actual implementation, the city’s heritage and constantly urged protect the fabric of Vigan’s historical last three projects involved a series of Filipinos and supporters elsewhere to cast district ...” consultations and organizing efforts that multiple votes for Vigan through cellphone saw the beneficiary communities as main texts. The City Government sees this new Projects that helped in shaping the actors and partnering government and status as strengthening its “desire to heritage-founded development path of non-government organizations as supporters conserve (Vigan’s) priceless heritage and Vigan were carried out under the leadership and facilitators. sustain excellence in local governance.” of a range of agencies1 and with the participation of representatives of the The resettlement program proved to be the Vigan has also been accorded recognition different stakeholders’ groups. The Vigan most challenging among said projects through numerous regional and national Masterplan Project/VMP, a Development because of limitations that could be awards, which have included those for Plan for the Revitalization of the Historic attributed to resource constraints: The excellence in various aspects of local Center of Vigan, was formulated in 1999- piece of land that could be availed of by the governance. The people’s “pride of place 2002. Among the activities that emerged government for the purpose is situated at and heritage” has truly surged since it the city’s margins, with some parts of it in began to develop in 1999. low-lying area and therefore vulnerable to 1 The development of the Vigan Masterplan flooding during heavy rains; and the quality involved the following: The Government of of the row houses is only as much as what Spain (represented by the Agencia government or privately-donated resources History of the heritage plan: Heritage Española de Cooperacion Internacional); could allow. Yet, the program must be conservation as tool for “development” Government of the Republic of the credited for peacefully allaying earlier Philippines (represented by the Department The path to WH status began with the resistance by addressing most of the of Tourism); Vigan Heritage Village conviction among some prominent citizens affected people’s concerns, for the smooth Commission; Provincial Government of that Vigan had a unique strength, and relocation process, for making ownership Ilocos Sur; Municipal/City Government of thanks to its “ancestral” heritage. of settlement more possible for the urban Vigan; and Fundacion Santiago. The VMP Precursor activities included the poor, and for enhancing the latter’s started when Vigan was still a Municipality, establishment of the Ancestral Homeowners’ capacities to improve their lot in their new and was completed more than a year after Association and the initiatives of this group communities through poverty-alleviation Vigan regained its cityhood in 2001. The such as the launch in the early 1990s of initiatives. Indeed, a few residents have cultural mapping was under the guidance the annual Viva Vigan Festival to promote already managed to gradually develop of the USTGS-CCCPET. The local stakeholder culture and the arts, which was taken over their units into better ones. groups who participated in this mapping by the local government several years activity are numerous, with Since there was still much to be desired in later; the organisation of international representatives from City Government the city’s socio-economic life, Vigan’s conferences on heritage conservation; and departments; educational institutions from cultural mapping activity was undertaken the 1993-1996 inventory of ancestral the Department of Education Vigan City in 2006 with the initiative of the City houses. Local government was also active: Division to the University; craftspeople Government and under the guidance of the Significantly, it introduced ordinances in (weaving, pottery); hotels & restaurants’ University of Santo Tomas Graduate School 1997 to delineate the boundaries of the association; community