The National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) is partnering with local government units (LGUs) to enhance history and heritage education in the Negros Island Region.
At the opening of the first Negros-wide LGU training on history and heritage at the Bago City Community Center on Tuesday, NHCP Chairperson Regalado Jose Jr. emphasized the crucial role of cities, municipalities, and provinces in historical education, cultural preservation, and nation-building.
The three-day training program gathers approximately 150 participants, including tourism officers, cultural workers, educators, and cultural enthusiasts and advocates from various LGUs.
The program features lectures and workshops led by NHCP experts covering a range of topics, including The Flag and Heraldic Code of the Philippines, guidelines for naming and renaming streets, public spaces, and place names, as well as the declaration of local holidays. It also addresses protocol practices for local commemorations and observances, and the recognition of historic sites and structures.
Additional topics include guidelines for the preservation of heritage structures, understanding the agents of deterioration and basic material conservation, creating a local history museum, and establishing a local historical committees network.
In her message, Mayor Marina Javellana-Yao expressed pride in Bago City’s meaningful partnership with the NHCP, which honors the roots of the Bagonhons’ identity. “This is an opportunity to listen to the voices of the past and allow them to guide our present actions. It is a moment to reflect, to reconnect with the values of our forebears, and to renew our shared duty to preserve what is truly ours,” she stated.
Javellana-Yao expressed hope that the training would ignite renewed passion and purposeful action in the communities “so that no name, no place, no memory worth honoring is ever forgotten.”