in vigan

Last two weeks ago I went to the World Heritage City of Vigan sponsored by UNESCO to represent our very own World Heritage Miag-ao Church. All representatives of World Heritage Sites in the Philippines were there for this important gathering - for the once every six years periodic review and for the reformulation of the Statement of Outstanding Universal Value (SOUV) for each site listed. With a threat of being de-listed from the roll of World Heritage sites I have no choice but to go and suffer the week-long 10 hour a day gruelling task of discussions and workshops. In the end though relationships were forged, contacts with the experts on conservation were strengthened with whole week of playful fun as an added perk. Well, I have been given a standing promise of an excursion to the Tubattaha Reef (though I could not yet imagine myself donning a scuba gear and diving through myriads of corals, fishes, whales and sharks), we were promised a free pass to the Palawan Underground River (though they insisted that the pass is only good one-way, so good luck if you still want to get out of the cave), a guided tour of the Ifugao Rice Terraces, and a logging concession at the Pygmy Forest of Mt. Hamagitan (with their two and a half-foot trees which they promised are good chopstick material).
Vigan is such a wonderful place with the sound of clacking horse drawn carriages on cobbled streets, of living in a hotel that was formerly a bahay na bato, of a bed shaped like a caruaje, and of course, with that pungent but mouth-watering smell of Vigan Longanisa and Bagnet pervading the air.


The work however has just begun starting with the ten-hour bus trip to Manila, the long wait at the airport and the journey home. Too many things were demanded and the task not that easy either. Miag-ao Church has to stay on the list of World Heritage Sites, a site which has universal value for all humanity. With this recognition we could not just simply say we own it and we can do what we want to do with it. As a world heritage site we become mere caretakers of a site that is truly owned by all humanity, now and in the future, because of its significance to the world. This is a value we still have to inculcate in the parish of Miag-ao and among its people. This is plain and simple the value of stewardship, a value that we need to hammer down on ourselves too not just for the stones of a church but for everything that is around us. After all, if we do not take good care of Miag-ao church we would only fear that it be delisted from the list of World Heritage Sites, but if we act with the same carefree and ne’er-do-well attitude with our surroundings, we would be delisting ourselves from the face of the earth. We are stewards of God’s creation, not owners, and it is our responsibility to hand these over to future generations, whole and intact.

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The barangay assemblies which we are holding seem to be going fine except that a good number of members of religious organizations, movements and lay ministers are shunning them. Well I really don’t know what to do with this situation at hand. We have appealed to them, we have encouraged them, we have talked to them, but still only a few came. Well, as they say it takes two to tango. People should not expect us to move on with a parish program when the very people who “man the post” so to say, are not so convinced about it. They could have been the force that would propel the program. But as it is it’s back to what it was always - “to each his own,” and it seems that this attitude will be hard to do away with .
But there are those who came and I am very thankful for their presence. In the barangays that I handled a group from the Legion of Mary came in full force to barangay Lourdes which they chose as their adopted barangay. Two lectors also came to join us in Brgy. Ma. Cristina. So far that’s it. I still have to see the results from assemblies conducted by various teams.
My final appeal then: Please cooperate. I hope you realize that as members of the religious organizations, movements and lay ministers you are either the catalyst or the stumbling block of a parish program. I hope you chose wisely. I hope you will respond positively, affirmatively. And when you do, when you say “yes” to our parish programs you do so with your feet.