Palace vows to protect heritage status of PHL’s Baroque churches

Malacañang on Thursday vowed to protect San Agustin Church and three other Baroque churches in the Philippines which are at risk of being removed from UNESCO's World Heritage List due to the construction of China-funded Binondo-Intramuros Bridge across the Pasig River in Manila.

The United Nations cultural agency earlier warned that the bridge would encroach on the buffer zone required by the organization for the churches to be included in the prestigious list.

The other Baroque churches on the list are San Agustin in Paoay, Ilocos Norte; Nuestra Señora de la Asuncion in Santa Maria, Ilocos Sur; and Santo Tomas de Villanueva in Miag-ao, Iloilo.

"I was listening in the news story yesterday [Wednesday] that the contractor is saying that it will not. So we don’t know exactly whether or not it will, because if it will, then certainly it is right to object," presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said at a news conference.

Asked if the government will not allow an encroachment, Panelo said: "Definitely, because that is a World Heritage [site]. It’s part of our history."

Panelo added there will be no encroachment if the location of the bridge is transferred.

“Not necessarily ‘not push through’, because you may remove the locations to maybe a hundred meters away. I don’t think that will be a problem,” he said.

Costing around P4.24 billion, the 734-meter Binondo-Intramuros Bridge will be a two-way four-lane bridge envisioned to provide Binondo district a new link to Intramuros.

China is also funding the 506.46-meter Estrella-Pantaleon Bridge that will replace the existing bridge connecting Estrella Street in Makati to Barangka Drive in Mandaluyong. — BM, GMA News