 As defined by law, cultural heritage refers to the totality of cultural property preserved and developed through time and passed on to posterity. Cultural property refers to all products of human creativity by which a people in a nation reveal their identity. These include churches, mosques, and other places of worship, schools, and natural history specimens and sites, whether public or privately owned, movable or immovable, and tangible or intangible. In this series of lectures, esteemed educators from our national university lend pertinent discussions thus open academic discourses on Philippine cultural heritage relating to their respective fields of discipline and expertise. These can and may be used as resource materials for further learning and study. Atarni Ryan Oliva talks about the connection between the law and built heritage by giving more comprehensive definitions of the two related concepts. The law ensures the conservation, preservation, restoration, and protection of built heritage by and for past, present, and future generations. He also discusses legal provisions on issues pertaining to utilization and ownership, as well as indulges in the intertwining relationship of culture and history. We will talk about the connection between the law and built heritage. And before we go into that, we have to define what the first is the law. What do we mean by law? Saint Thomas Aquinas defines the law as an ordinance of reason, which is promulgated for the common good and made by him who has cared for the community. But there are also modern-day scholars who have a similar definition of what the law is. And we turn to legal positivist H.L.A. Hart and he says that law is a body of rules fixed and enforced by a sovereign political authority. Now, we turn into what is cultural heritage. Cultural heritage, as defined by Graham Applin, a scholar on cultural heritage, states that it results from human processes and activities. It reflects both productive or non-material activities and non-material activities and values, which are more difficult to define and it can include social, religious, artistic, traditional, and iconic values. It spans movable heritage, immovable heritage, and largely non-material heritage. So we ask, are culture and history intertwined? And the answer is yes, they are. Yes, culture is a way of life, it is a process, and it is affected by history. To illustrate, in Tramuros, the old duality of Manila, is an artifact of colonial Spain and continues to shape our history or sense of history. For writer Nick Joaquin in his essay, Sa Loob ng Maynila, in Tramuros was his boyhood playground. However, on a sad note, for World War II survivors, in Tramuros is also a key player and a witness in the liberation of the city of Manila. But now, fortunately, in Tramuros is a beautiful backdrop for those who are wedded inside its walls. Now we turn into what is built heritage. Built heritage, it's our layered, common, or collectivistry that can be seen, felt, or experienced. Think Palmaholler A.S., for example, or the Rizal Monument. Those edifices or those monuments bring happy memories and connect us with our imagined community, which is our concept of nationhood. Now we turn into the law. How did the law define built heritage? Under Section 3, Paragraph F of the Public Act 10.0066, built heritage shall refer to architectural and engineering structures such as, but not limited to, bridges, government buildings, houses of ancestry, traditional dwellings, lighthouses, small ports, educational, technological, industrial complexes, and their settings, and landscapes with notable historical and cultural significance. So that is the definition of built heritage under the law. Now, why is there a need to protect built heritage? Well, according to the theory of intergenerational responsibility, each generation receives a natural and cultural legacy and trust from previous generations and holds its entrusts for future generations. And this concept is deeply rooted in the diverse legal traditions of the world. And this is, according to Edid Weiss, a professor for international environmental law at Georgetown University. Now we proceed. Are there any laws on preserving cultural or built heritage in the Philippines? Yes. Even the 1987 Philippine Constitution, the highest law of the land, provides that culture must be taken care of. And to be more specific, we have the Natural Cultural Heritage Act or Republic Act No. 10.0066 enacted in 2010. And another law which was strengthening people's nationalism through Philippine History Act or Republic Act No. 10086 also enacted in 2010. They are the two main laws which deal with built heritage. In addition, the Philippines, through its treaty obligations, it ratified the 1972 Convention concerning the protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage or, for brevity, the World Heritage Convention. So what is the consequence of us signing this Convention? Countries which signed it, pledged to preserve not only its World Heritage sites, but also to safeguard its natural heritage. You can see that an example of a World Heritage site is the Poway Church. Further, strengthening people's nationalism through Philippine History Act or, as I already stated, Republic Act 10086, renamed the National Historical Institute into the National Historical Commission of the Philippines and made it an independent agency of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, and the law also expanded its powers. So what is the NHCP and what are its powers? The NHCP shall be governed by a nine-member board composed of five representatives from the private sector and the director of the National Library of the Philippines, the director of the National Museum, the executive director of the National Archives of the Philippines, and the executive director of the NHCP as its ex-official members. So let's talk about who are qualified to sit in the NHCP board. The law mandates that only natural-born citizens of the Philippines, which at least, when at least 35 years old, with good moral character, distinguish in the field of Philippine history and has published works can sit in the NHCP board. An additional safeguard against politicizing the board's decisions, the law states that only regular members could vote on matters regarding historical research and similar academic concerns. And what are these? They are determining the veracity of historical facts as regards to heritage sites, landmark determination, and the like. The NHCP board is also empowered to conduct research and to acquire real property and heritage structures, determine the manner of identification, maintenance and restoration, conservation and preservation of built heritage, approve the declaration of historic structures and edifices, and regulate activities pertaining to the conservation, restoration, and conservation of historical property and resources. To note, both laws define adaptive reuse, conservation, preservation and restoration. We will go to those definitions in a while. It is also important to note that heritage houses are also defined as houses of ancestry with notable historical, cultural, social, architectural and artistic value, and significance as determined by the NHCP. These definitions are helpful in providing us with a frame of reference which previous laws failed to address. Heritage zones can be designated by the NHCP and the National Museum in consultation with the Commission and the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board, or HLURB, and other concerned agencies, like, for example, your local government unit. So now we turn into the definition of adaptive reuse. So what is adaptive reuse? The law defines it as, it shall refer to the utilization of buildings, other built structures, and sites of value for purposes other than that for which they were intended originally, in order to conserve the site, their engineering integrity, and authenticity of design. Here we're looking at the recently inaugurated Result Park Hotel, which formerly used to be the Army and Navy Club of Manila. So now we turn into conservation. Conservation shall refer to all the processes and measures of maintaining the cultural significance of a cultural property including, but not limited to, preservation, restoration, reconstruction, protection, adaptation, or any combination thereof. So here we're looking at the City Hall of Manila, which we understand survived the ravages of World War II. So now we turn into preservation. Preservation refers to all activities that employee needs to control, minimize, or prevent damage or deterioration to cultural property. Regular visitors to the National Museum of Art in Manila would see that it is always constantly being preserved. And now we turn into restoration. Restoration refers to the action taken or the technical intervention to correct deterioration and alterations and return cultural property to its original state or condition. We're looking at the Basilica of Nuesa Señora del Carmen in Chiapo, where heritage conservationists are working doubly in raising funds and in raising public awareness about the deterioration of the building. Because as we all know, this structure is made of steel and as such, it's vulnerable to the elements. So if a building is declared to be a national cultural treasure or a national historical landmark, what gives? Well, under the law, the government could provide priority funding for them for their preservation, conservation, and restoration. And also, an official marker could be installed in an imuhable cultural property to identify the same as an important cultural property. And more importantly, in times of armed conflict, natural disasters, or any other exceptional events that could endanger the cultural heritage of the country, they should be given priority protection by the government. But there is an important question. What if my building, or let's say, our family's ancestral house, is declared to be a national historical landmark? Am I not its owner anymore? Well, the answer to that is a rather complicated answer because, yes, technically you're still the owner, but as an owner, your rights are limited. For example, you cannot just change the exterior of the building without securing permission from the NHCP. Could you sell it? Well, technically you can, but if the NHCP determines in its judgment that it would be wise for government to acquire it, then you have no choice but to sell it to government. So that's it for now. I am Professor Ryan Nuleva from the University of the Philippines College of Law. Thank you very much. Have a good day.