Batangas town finds new site for town hall

SAN JOSE, Batangas—Local officials are finally pushing through with a plan to construct a new municipal hall here next month after it was shelved for three years following criticisms from the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) and heritage advocacy groups.

Mayor Entiquio Briones said on Tuesday that the building, which may reach three stories, would rise on a 1.1-hectare property donated by an old clan in Barangay Don Luis, about a kilometer from its present site in the town’s central plaza, which has been declared a heritage site by the Department of Tourism (DOT).

The 1,000-square-meter plaza dates back to the 16th century, and is surrounded by the 1788 Shrine of St. Joseph the Patriarch, a school and the municipal hall. Ancient trees shade the place.

Twice, the NHCP wrote to the local officials, urging them to keep the plaza “open and green to serve as breathing space of the town.” In December 2011, the municipality shelved its plan to construct the building in front of the existing one.

“We succeeded [in preserving the plaza], but to us, is [a new building] really necessary?” said Emma Alday, a resident and head of a good governance watchdog, Sandiwa Multipurpose Cooperative, which was at the forefront of the opposition.

The present two-story building is “old and cramped,” Briones said in a phone interview. He said office divisions had to be torn down and filing cabinets removed to save on space and accommodate about 160 municipal employees.

“That’s why we had several files destroyed during Typhoon ‘Glenda’ [in July] because the records were only piled up on top of the desks,” he said.

Groundbreaking ceremonies were held at the project site on December 20.

Alday said the municipal government should instead use its funds for the new building to address other issues in the town, such as pollution.

Rep. Nicanor Briones of the party-list Agricultural Sector Alliance of the Philippines, who is an older brother of the mayor, said the proposed structure would cost about P70 million, which would be partly funded by the local government and the allocation he requested from the Department of Public Works and Highways.

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