The Department of Tourism is taking steps to
preserve four sites included in the UNESCO World Heritage list.
Tourism secretary Ace Durano said local
communities have been tasked to take care of these sites and
visitors urged to help in preserving them.
Five of the country’s sites in the Unesco
World Heritage List are, the Baroque Churches of the
Philippines, Tubbataha Reef Marine Park, and the Historic Town
of Vigan.
The Baroque churches made it to the list
because of their European Baroque architectural style designed
by Chinese and Filipino craftsmen. There are four baroque
churches in Manila, Santa Maria, Paoay, and Miag-ao.
The Tubbataha Reef Marine Park, according to
Durano has been greatly helped by its World Heritage status.
Worldwide attention on the reef park
encouraged local community to help protect the site.
The heritage site is the Puerto Princesa
Subterranean River National Park.
The Subterranean Park features a spectacular
limestone karst landscape with its underground river.
"It’s good to note that Subterranean Park is
no. 1 on the New 7 Wonders of Nature ranking list. It stands out
from the rest because it’s a river that has strong tidal
behaviors, due to its direct connection to the sea. It’s also
every conservationst’s dream – a river that seamlessly flows
into a mountain and forest landscape forming a teeming habitat
of biodiversity," said Eduardo Jarque, Jr., undersecretary for
Tourism Planning and Promotions.
Another notable site is the Ifugao Rice
terraces, a landscape recognized for its unparalleled feats of
history, environment, culture, engineering, and agro-ecosystem.
The Rice Terraces is a 2,000-year-old enduring art from and
scientific design built by hand and simple tools.
"One of the distinctive monuments to the
genius of our ancestors, the Rice Terraces has already been
declared as an endangered heritage, which all the more spurs our
concern and support," said Jarque.
Also up North is the Historic Town of Vigan
which is the best-preserved example of a planned Spanish
colonial town in Asia. Its architecture reflects the coming
together of cultural elements from elsewhere in the Philippines,
from China and Europe, resulting in a culture and townscape that
have no parallel anywhere in Asia.
The UNESCO attributes the inclusion of Vigan to its unique
fusion of Asian building design and construction with European
colonial architecture and planning, and its exceptionally intact
and well preserved concept of a European trading town in Asia.