A few weeks after the earthquake struck Bohol last October, members of the Association of Structural Engineers of the Philippines (Asep) volunteered to survey and to propose procedures to restore, repair or replace damaged heritage structures.
At the end of their useful lives as family residences, many old houses are either simply abandoned or demolished. The more fortunate houses are given the chance to repurpose themselves by adapting to accommodate new uses.
The recent earthquake brought many Bohol houses down. Other structures simply collapsed. With an earthquake that strong, whose impact was compounded by many major aftershocks, only the most structurally sound of houses managed to remain standing.
The answer is no. Contrary to what armchair theorists claim, the lack of steel reinforcement is not the reason why heritage structures collapsed during the recent earthquakes and typhoons.
Here is a question: As we find more national and international assistance to restore churches and public buildings damaged by recent earthquakes and killer typhoons, what assistance is available to restore privately owned structures, whether they be of heritage quality or not?
Nothing could be more touching than the discovery that the Philippines has friends in far-off places.
On observing earthquake damage to buildings in Bohol, and seeing the devastation from Supertyphoon “Yolanda,” the conclusion is that many of the houses and buildings of recent construction are death traps.
Typhoon “Yolanda” made first landfall at the town of Guiuan, Eastern Samar, devastating the town’s church of La Purisima Concepción, considered one of the finest and most beautiful Spanish colonial structures in the country.
It was 1970. I went to India for the first time to see Chandigarh, a city that then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru built as the new capital of Punjab state. It was designed by the Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier.
Although the destruction of Bohol and Cebu churches is devastating, even more disastrous is the loss of lives and livelihood that takes precedence over the loss of heritage in the massive post-earthquake reconstruction effort.
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