Youth Artists Decry Demolition of Rizal’s Second Home

January 10, 2010

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Reference: Marish Viola

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Youth Artists Decry Demolition of Rizal’s Second Home



UgnaYAN, a network of youth artists, joins the people of Binan in their calls to stop the imminent demolition of the Alberto House, the 200-year old ancestral home of Teodora Alonzo, Jose Rizal’s mother, and challenges the upcoming Noynoy administration to defend our national heritage.

“The love of the people to its country is reflected on how they value their culture and how they would respect the inheritances of their history,” said EJ Mijares, spokesperson of UgnaYAN. “The Alberto house is not only an invaluable treasure to the people of Binan and Laguna, but an historical and architectural treasure that survived since 1765 to the nation as well.”

Recently, the lone heir of the Alberto family found that he could no longer maintain and repair Jose Rizal’s second home, which suffered from government neglect and deterioration. After hearing no response to his call for help from the local government, he was compelled to sell the house that lead up to its attempted demolition. Reports stated that about 20 percent of the house has already been torn down before the Binan authorities acted upon it.

“We believe that the Alberto house needs to be guarded not just with crossed fingers but with a vigilance that such an historical and culturally significant artifact deserves,” Mijares declares, “It is evident that the government’s attention to the preservation of our culture is lacking and we enjoin the president-elect to provide programs that care for our heritage and thus develops national culture.”

Recently, artists in support of the preservation of the Alberto house demonstrated their unity in a night of cultural performances of songs, poetry and the like in the town plaza of Binan.

“The deterioration of the Filipino culture can be directly attributed to the existing attitude of our responsible institutions. This is an issue of our sense of nationhood, and our willingness to promote a culture and society that is relevant to its people,” Mijares concluded. ###