A netizen on Wednesday shared a Facebook post about the San Sebastian Church pulpit being restored overnight without any permission. The post gained negative comments and reactions from other netizens saying that it would be disrespecting to restore the national artifact without any consent and proper preservation process.
The San Sebastian Church is one of the oldest and is known to be only steel church in the Philippines. It was established in 1891 and is well-known for its Gothic Revival architecture. Hence, the national artifacts inside the church were carefully preserved throughout the years.
According to the post, the new parish priest ordered to paint the pulpit inside the church with what looks like a cheap gold paint that can be bought in bookstores. When in fact, national artifacts like this must have a proper process done by expert preservation artists in order to maintain the right look and aesthetic of the artifacts.
It is essential to educate the people that national heritages and national artifacts are very important parts of our culture and history. These shouldn’t be restored or renovated without the permission of the right people for this can cause an alteration to the pieces or worse, our history.
The new parish priest, San Sebastian Church, or National Historical Commission of the Philippines have yet to comment about the issue.
