ILOILO City – The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and the Iloilo Science and Technology University (ISAT-U) has launched the Cultural Heritage and Educational Research Center (CHERC).
The center, situated in the university’s La Paz main campus (new site), is a P9-million three-story building project funded through CHED’s Study in the Philippines – Education Tourism Program.
“We want our state universities and colleges to recognize that they have competence in developing local tourism, that they themselves should be tourist destinations, and that they have the capability in research, in education, and extension to partner with local governments to promote tourism at the local area,” CHED chairperson J. Prospero E. De Vera III said.
In his message, ISAT-U president Dr. Gabriel M. Salistre thanked CHED for the support that made the project possible.
“The ISAT U Cultural Heritage and Educational Research Center which has been given the moniker ‘CHERC’, will serve as a museum with a cultural digital platform to communicate the Ilonggo ancestry, heritage, and history to the 21st Century learners in the Philippines and with our partner institutions abroad,” Salistre shared.
The CHERC is envisioned to be “a digital literacy center to further supplement classroom instruction and research in history, social sciences, and as well as ICT (information, communication, and technology).”
As a tourism hub, it will also be a one-stop shop that can cater to local and foreign guests as well as students who might need to do cultural research and exposure.
Meanwhile, the second level of the building bears some samples of ISAT U’s creative industry such as woodworking and fashion and design.
On the other side of the gallery is the so-called “Digital Library” where the digitized copy of the local newspapers dating from 1913 to 1941 can be found, preserving the Ilonggo culture and history.
The third floor of the center is designed for a coffee shop or a café where local products and delicacies are intended to be displayed and savored.
De Vera added that apart from ISAT U, other SUCs in the region were also recipients of the Study PH Edu-Tourism program.
The Iloilo State College of Fisheries established the “Fisheries and Marine Science Museum and Laguerta De ISCOF Animalville,” a sustainable agri-fishery tourism project and Milkfish Farming and Processing, ISCOF’s Niche for Redefining Internationalization Endeavors; the University of Antique with the “JUAN-A GO Tourism Program” and “Sipal eskUelA”, a Tertiary Sports Tourism Summit Project; the “RISE Capiz: Riverine Improvement towards a Sustainable Ecotourism” with Capiz State University; Guimaras State College’s Guimaras 4.0: The Island that Fits Your Taste;and the “Tourism Studies on Island-Based Opportunities for Growth in Western Visayas” of the University of the Philippines Visayas, among others.
“Slowly, our state universities and colleges are recognizing their very important role in tourism promotion and I thank the Department of Tourism also for their full support for the project because we all have to work together to make sure these projects are implemented,” De Vera noted, lauding the SUCs in the region for implementing significant educational tourism project. (PIA–6)/PN
