This National Heritage Month, Senate Committee on Culture and Arts Chairperson Senator Loren Legarda called on the country to espouse each Filipino’s shared responsibility to help preserve cultural legacies.
“It is a perfect time to pay homage to the rich legacy of the Filipino people, for our forebearers have given us countless traditions in various forms that we could be proud of,” Legarda said.
“It provides us with blueprints for us to be able to tread a better path towards the future.”
“The month of May reminds us that our past is something that is not to be ignored, and it provides us with blueprints for us to be able to tread a better path towards the future,” the veteran legislator said.
By virtue of Presidential Proclamation No. 439, signed by then President Gloria Arroyo in 2003, May was designated to celebrate the nation’s cultural and historical heritage.
The proclamation stressed the need to create consciousness, respect, and love for the legacies of Filipino cultural history and to raise material support for the protection of tangible and intangible heritage.
A need to strengthen the Filipinos’ awareness of cultural heritage sites and landscapes was also cited.
“We are thankful that there are a lot of things that we could be proud of as Filipinos, among them is our cultural heritage,” the seasoned lawmaker remarked.
“Not only do we have historic sites, but also literature, music, and food, which completes the satisfaction of our five senses.”
“Not only do we have historic sites, but also literature, music, and food, which completes the satisfaction of our five senses,” the lady senator stressed.
She championed the passage of the Cultural Mapping Act, which mandates all local government units to conduct a cultural heritage mapping of respective areas.
It also provided for the establishment of a Philippine Registry of Cultural Properties (PRECUP), which will be responsible for the safekeeping and management of a comprehensive database of all cultural properties in the country.
