As part of the celebration today (Aug. 8) of the feast of St. Dominic de Guzman, the founder of the Order of Preachers (aka Dominicans), the Dominican Province of the Philippines seeks to strengthen its commitment to both the Church and the state through a symposium on Republic Act 10066: The National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009.

The event will be held Monday (today), 2:30 p.m., at the Angelicum College Auditorium in Quezon City.

According to Fr. Gaspar Sigaya, OP, officer-in-charge of the DPP archives (the office organizing the forum), the discussion of RA 10066 will help give emphasis to the urgency of projects and programs that will attend to culture and heritage issues.

Sigaya says the dialogue on the Heritage Act of 2009 will show “its implication to the Church in the Philippines and [will give] birth to a consciousness [on the significance of] cultural heritage education program and advocacy.”

It should be recalled that an agreement in 2007 between the Vatican and the Republic of the Philippines states: “The Holy See, through the Apostolic Nunciature and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), and the Republic of the Philippines, through the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), shall agree upon the provisions for the conservation, appreciation and proper use of the cultural heritage of artistic and historical significance owned by ecclesiastical institutions and organizations, harmonizing the implementation of the Philippine legislation with the norms of canon law and the exigencies of the pastoral activity in the Church.”

Experts are expected to thoroughly discuss RA 10066 in various perspectives. Among the speakers are Fr. Harold Rentoria, OSA, president of the Society of Ecclesiastical Archivists of the Philippines and former NCCA commissioner; lawyer Jo Aurea M. Imbong, executive secretary of the legal office of the CBCP; and Regalado Trota José, NCCA commissioner and head of its National Committee on archives.

Rentoria will provide an overview of the status of the archives of the country’s Catholic Church; José’s topic is on designing cultural heritage programs. Imbong will discuss the legal aspects of RA 10066.