PEOPLE POWWOW

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BY HERBERT VEGO
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Restoration of the old Jaro Plaza

ANOTHER vestige of the past is blasting into the present. This is the impression one gets when looking at the newly-restored old “Jaro municipal hall,” which until recently had served as the Jaro Police Station.
The last time I talked to Congressman Jerry P. Treñas (Iloilo City lone district), he enthused, “It’s just a portion of projects implementable under Republic Act 10555.”
The Treñas-authored, mandates the Department of Tourism, Tourism Infrastructure Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA), and other concerned government agencies, in coordination with the Iloilo City Cultural Heritage Conservation Council, to formulate and implement an integrated development plan for seven heritage sites, namely the Jaro Plaza Complex, Jaro Cathedral, Molo Church, Molo Plaza Complex, Iloilo City Central Business District, Fort San Pedro, and the Plaza Libertad Complex.
The old municipal hall being an integral part of the Jaro Plaza Complex, the congressman has talked to officials of the National Historical Commission and the National Museum for the restoration of the old edifice into a regional museum. In fact, the entire plaza will undergo restoration under the tutelage of Architect Toti Villalon.
The Iloilo City Sangguniang Panlungsod has passed an ordinance donating to the National Museum the old Jaro municipal hall.
Rep. Treñas is bullish on the feasibility of the new museum as a tourist destination on the ground that we human beings naturally want to travel back in time.
I researched on the year when the Jaro municipal hall was built, but to no avail. I could only quote these few words from Wikipedia: “Built in the 1930s, the old Jaro municipal hall is an Art Deco building designed by the Philippine National Artist for Architecture Juan Arcellano and was embellished in the facade by Italian sculptor Francesco Monti.”
Calling it “old municipal hall,” however, seems to contradict other historical references referring to Jaro as already a city in the 1930s.  It had been a city since 1886.
Jaro only ceased to be a city when it became part of Iloilo City on July 16, 1937 with the implementation of Commonwealth Act 158, which expanded Iloilo City to include Jaro and the towns of Molo, Mandurriao, La Paz and Villa de Arévalo. Before such merger, Jaro was the largest of the aforesaid districts.
Farther back in time during the Spanish colonial period (1521-1898), Jaro was originally known as Salog. Historical artifacts indicate that it was the center of economic power trading with China and Siam (Thailand).
Jaro is the cradle of various Christian denominations in the Philippines, as may be proven just by moving around the vicinity of Jaro Plaza.  The Jaro Cathedral, built in 1874, is one of the oldest and still the most famous Roman Catholic edifice in Western Visayas. On another corner a few feet away from the cathedral is the Jaro Evangelical Church. Built in 1900 by the Northern American Baptists, it holds the reputation of being the first Baptist Church in the Philippines. Two blocks away on Fajardo Street is the pioneering Jaro Adventist Center, the first Seventh-Day Adventist Church in the Visayas.
Now that it’s all over but the shouting for the restored municipal hall-turned-museum, TIEZA as the funding agency is all set to restore the rest of the Jaro Plaza Complex, including the Jaro Cathedral’s belfry within its boundary.
This plaza, unfortunately, has become very controversial for ceasing to look like a plaza, what with both temporary and permanent shelters jutting out of what used to be grassland. During months encompassing the Christmas and fiesta seasons, it becomes a beehive of entertainment, gastronomic, gambling and other economic activities in the guise of tourism.
We hope and pray that the Iloilo City government would stop such activities immediately after restoration work. Under Presidential Decree 1216, parks are for public use and therefore “beyond the commerce of men.”/PN
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