IF last half of the year 2007 is any indication of the things and shapes to come for the research and writing of local history, culture, and arts in the City of Naga in 2008, we are in for a big disappointment.

        In his State of the City Report (SoCR) in July 30, 2007, Mayor Jesse M. Robredo made mention of local culture as his weakest point in his administration, though he included vibrancy in local culture and arts in his agenda for his last term in the City of Naga, if only to make the best of the mandate awarded him by the City.

        What vibrancy have research on local history and preservation and development of culture and the arts achieved in the City of Naga since the start of City Mayor Robredo’s nth term? Not very much. Not even an iota of intensity has the City felt of such a spoken vibrancy. Six months into his nth term yet Mayor Robredo has achieved nothing so far.

        Yet surprisingly, Mayor Robredo has entered into a loan agreement with banks and has approved the appropriation of several millions of taxpayers’ money for the rehabilitation of the Naga Coliseum despite the many times this structure was rejected by the elements and by two strong typhoons. If Mayor Robredo would only have as much passion and insistence to make vibrant research on local history, culture and the arts, there could be no doubt that Naga City would not be left behind by Legazpi City or Sorsogon in terms of historical research and the preservation of cultural sites and the arts or by other regions in the preservation of their language and cultural practices.

        Equally surprising is the unimportance the City Mayor gives for sites and structures that have significance to the City’s history and culture. A case in point is Ordinance No. 2000-007 which created the Naga City Council for Culture and the Arts which, in turn, the Mayor could have used for making vibrant local history and culture. Section 3 of this Ordinance provides that the Council “shall be under the office of the City Mayor and shall render an annual accomplishment report to the City Mayor”. Yet the first and last activity of such a Council was the induction of its officer’s way back in 2000. For the past seven years nothing has been heard of such annual accomplishment reports. Why? Elementary, my dear Watson, for the Council could not move without the approval of the City Mayor. The funds appropriated for this Council could only be disposed with the signature of the Mayor and must be appropriated for activities at his discretion.

        Another case in point is the unimportance the City Mayor gave to the few and fewer historical structures the City has. When that old Spanish gate at the corner of Panganiban Avenue and Blumentritt street was being demolished by virtue of a Mayor’s permit, the City Engineer’s Office who equally shares with the orientation the City Mayor has towards such sites and structures did not even exert any effort to have the destroyed structure restored. Where portion of the old gate used to stand now is displayed the commercial sign of a hardware store. That is how cultural structures are given importance by the City Mayor’s Office.

        And to think that the City Mayor himself, without any legislation issued by, or complaint from, the Sanggunian Panlungsod, would permit the use of the hallowed ground of the Plaza Quince Martires for the “Castillo” of the San Francisco Church for the “Encuentro” on Easter Sunday is another case of the City Mayor’s indiscretion for sites most sacred to Naga City’s culture and history.

        So what new is in store for 2008, when the practice of the Office of the City Mayor for less than a score of years has been to give unimportance for historical research, culture, and the arts? Disappointment is an understatement. Truly hard it is to teach an old dog new tricks.