Mayor considers incentives for heritage house conservation

By Joseph Bernard A. Marzan

Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas is proposing to enhance real property tax (RPT) incentives for owners of heritage houses and buildings to encourage their preservation. Over the weekend, he discussed plans to review and potentially improve the current incentive system.

Speaking to Daily Guardian on Sunday, May 12, Mayor Treñas revealed he is considering an improved three-year incentive scheme.

According to the existing City Regulation Ordinance No. 2013-329 (Tourism Code of 2013, as amended), there is already a provision for a 50 percent incentive on annual basic RPT for certified or soon-to-be-certified heritage structures by the Iloilo City Cultural Heritage Conservation Council.

The mayor highlighted the legal constraints preventing local and national governments from providing direct support to private property owners. He pointed out that Iloilo City has a significant number of heritage houses, but he cannot cite specific figures.

Treñas underscored the need for the incentives to be “sufficient enough for the owners of buildings in Calle Real to restore, renovate, and repaint their buildings.”

This statement comes in the wake of damage inflicted by fires on March 15 to the Divinagracia and Celso Ledesma buildings within the city’s Cultural Heritage Tourism Zone (CTHZ) under Republic Act No. 10555.

At the time, the mayor considered seeking assistance from the National Historical Commission and the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zones Authority, but acknowledged the difficulties due to restrictions on government support for private properties.

“The city government or national government cannot spend on heritage houses and buildings, considering that they are private properties, and if we cannot give them incentives, it will be hard for them to spend on [the preservation of] these houses and buildings,” Treñas said via phone interview.

He added that improving incentives could also benefit other heritage structures outside of the CTHZ, including San Jose Parish Placer, the Iloilo Masonic Temple, and the Landbank Iloilo building, all located in the downtown area.

Mayor Treñas noted that he would consult with the executive department’s finance committee, the Office of the Building Official (OBO), the City Legal Office, and the Sangguniang Panglungsod regarding these proposals.

The OBO had already initiated outreach to building owners in the downtown area last year, addressing electrical and engineering issues to enhance the longevity of these structures.