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NCCA Allocates P3M for Sto. Niño Church
The repair works of the Sto. Niño church along Juan Luna street, Cebu City, owned by the Catholic church is funded by the government but due to lack of funds, “on and off” repair job is noticeable.
This was admitted this morning by Cultural heritage committee in-charge Federico Odulio of the National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA).
The NCCA team was here in Cebu City to advocate their need to fund various cultural and arts projects of the Cebuanos.
Odulio said that the NCCA provided around P3 million for the rehabilitation of the Sto. Niño church which was devastated by the October 2013 7.2 magnitude earthquake.
Odulio added that the Sto. church suffered a slight damage at its left bell tower.
It is one of the century old Catholic churches in the Visayas to include the more than 30 old churches in the province of Bohol which were totally scrapped out by the strong and powerful earthquake.
The centralized funding of the Catholic administration has suffered a setback due to lack of enough funds, according to Odulio.
Thus the NCCA, a national government agency has allocated its own funds to help rehabilitate the said edifice back to its original status, according to Odulio.
One of the reasons why the government has provided funds for this(Sto. Niño)religious facility, ” because being a heritage infrastructure, it is also a part of the government’s project to attract more tourists who are coming to Cebu”, Odulio said.
“if it is not for the heritage, the government would not pour its resources for it, because of the separation between the church and state law”, he added.
Asked if how much is the budget of NCCA for this year to finish therehabilitation work of the Sto, Niño church, Odulio said he does notknow anymore about this matter.
“The only thing I know waS the the P3 million budget last year for that purpose, but i don’t know whether there is an additional budget for this year or none to finish the rehabilitation work”, he said.
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