[ Manila Bulletin Online ] May 7, 2008
By JACK C. GADAINGAN
TACLOBAN CITY — The province of Leyte, through the Provincial Tourism, Culture and Arts Council (PTCAC), will render a grand presentation of its people’s rich cultural heritage in a month-long festival this month of May.
Dubbed as the Leyte Heritage Festival, this month-long merry-making will be manifested with several cultural activities and tours in the province’s rich architectural heritage.
Professor Joyce Durado of the UP-Leyte Samar Heritage Center, who also heads the Leyte Heritage Festival committee, said activities lined up aim to evoke the people’s consciousness in the love and respect for the legacies of Filipino cultural history.
The festival aims to uplift consciousness for the conservation of our provinces heritage such as historical sites and monuments, old churches and houses, local cuisine, traditional dance, music, poetry and drama, rituals and visual arts and crafts in the province of Leyte and in the entire Philippines, Prof. Durado said.
Among the highlights of the Leyte Heritage Festival -- in consonance with the mandated National Heritage Month Celebration -- are the cultural heritage tour, visual arts exhibit, cultural performances of traditional dances, music, poetry and drama and other exhibits.
For the cultural heritage tour, the locations to be visited are architectural heritage monuments and houses in the towns of Dulag, Tanauan, Dulag, Hilongos and the city of Baybay.
A must-see place in Tanauan is the Parish Church of Our Lady of Assumption. Although newlyrestored, the brick walls of the rectory, the pulpit and fortress ruins are still part of the original church. What is also noteworthy is the Spanish terra cotta Via Dolorosa.
Dulag is one of the oldest towns Christianized in Leyte that dates back to 1595. At the center of the town lies a most prominent historical spot, the 1595 Jesuit Seminary Ruins where the Our Lady of Refuge Parish Church is presently located.
The municipality of Baybay must have originated as a little pagan tribe with natives scattered from the seashore and over the hills before the Spaniards had arrived. This newly declared city is also known for its numerous heritage houses and the Immaculate Conception Parish Church that was built 157 years ago.
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