Culture

Sustaining Heritage: A Glimpse Into the BACH CODE

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An hour late, a robust discussion was already ongoing inside the Garcia Hall of the Provincial Capitol when I arrived. It is an informal consultative meeting on the proposed tourism code attended by women and men from different sectors passionate with sustainable development; a loose group with an open membership for all interested which now is dubbed the Bohol Advocates for Sustainable Tourism (BOAST).

The issues where on scope, process and such other concerns related to Bohol’s tourism. The ideas where brilliant and the passion evident. And this brought me back to the days when the Bohol Arts and Cultural Heritage Code (BACH Code) was developed.

In 1998, when the province was alive with the Sandugo mardi gras, and artists were burgeoning with creativity, and the Center for Culture and Arts Development  (CCAD) was yet a novel office under the office of the governor headed by Lutgardo Labad, the earliest plans for a local legislation on Bohol’s heritage was concocted.

But it was only in 2006 when these plans finally found fruition with Ayala Foundation contributing to the Australian Young Ambassadors and the Bohol provincial government fund in the development of the code.

In that same year, I had met the news from Gardy Labad, already the executive director for the Bohol Arts and Cultural Heritage Council, that I, along with Architect German Torrero and Sangguniang Panlalawigan Secretary Bonifacio Quirog had been designated as writers for the Bohol Arts and Cultural Heritage Code with interest and great expectations. The duty is no easy feat, I had been properly cautioned.

Consultations, meetings and voluminous documents including a Bohol Cultural Heritage Inventory in 2000 by the Holy Name University and related laws on heritage, national and local in scope from Vigan to Intramuros, workshops by experts of the different fields of heritage and other related activities had been done in order to develop a comprehensive legislative measure with a local flavor. We had our share of arguments, pangluod ug uban pa. Name it, we went through it. But we pushed on and never settled for less.

In the explanatory note of the code, Provincial Board Member Amalia Tirol pronounced that, “It is, therefore, the primordial duty of the people and the present generation to restore, develop and preserve our province’s cultural properties and attributes, if we are to sustain and maintain the fullest meaning of our nationhood.”

In the explanatory note of the code, Provincial Board Member Amalia Tirol pronounced that, “It is, therefore, the primordial duty of the people and the present generation to restore, develop and preserve our province’s cultural properties and attributes, if we are to sustain and maintain the fullest meaning of our nationhood.”

The primary document considered in the development of the BACH Code was House Bill 430, but the first draft was substantially inadequate to meet the needs of Bohol’s heritage. The code had three concerns; management, conservation and regulation. And then there was the need to cultivate Bohol’s artisans into a viable economic industry. All these were considered in the light of the province’s banner program; eco-cultural tourism.

With only thirty-three provisions, the BACH Code hopes to address all these, keeping in mind efficiency and flexibility of the provisions. Its coverage spans from identification and designation of cultural properties and their protection to regulation of their use, acquisition, and cultivation. It also provides for creative industries and the preference of Bohol’s artists and artistry in tourism.

Backed by Board Member Amalia Tirol, SP Committee Chairperson for Culture, and CCAD head Enriqueta Butalid and a host of personalities and institutions including the Diocese of Tagbilaran, various Non-Government Organizations, and other organizations under the Bohol Arts and Cultural Heritage Council and the support of personalities from national offices, the code was rallied from the Sangguniang Panlalawigan’s passage in February 22, 2008 to the very signing by the Governor on November 5, 2008.

The code today only needs publication to finally take effect and this need is expressed well by Provincial Secretary Bonifacio Quirog in saying, “But we cannot afford to waste time and engage in self-congratulation. Instead, we must move fast and implement it to save whatever is left of our vanishing precious heritage.”

All throughout this exercise, I had learned that the fastest way to create a piece of ordinance is by a Windows application of cut-and-paste. There being no intellectual copyright on legislation, it is easy to take an existing ordinance or law or parts thereof and make it your own. But the only way to create a legislation that matters is by a participatory process and knowing the needs of those who will be governed by it.

As discussions around me became more and more interesting, I have to admit that I am relieved that the drafting of the BACH Code is over. The implementation would be another story but for now, I have only great respect for each individual in this informal consultative meeting for the tourism code. Lobbying, after all, is no minor task.

Tags: bach code, bohol arts and cultural heritage code, cultural development, heritage, sustainable tourism