Philippine tunnel workers get heritage training

Tunnel workers working under Plaza Independencia in Cebu City will undergo heritage training to recognise and preserve pre-hispanic artefacts they might come across while digging. The move by the National Museum is to help prevent further looting from the site.

Heritage training for tunnel workers
Cebu Daily News, 28 September 2008

A representative of the National Museum said workers building the subway tunnel below Plaza Independencia in Cebu City will undergo “heritage training” to help preserve pre-Spanish artifacts dug up in the site.

The information drive will target engineers and other construction workers to make them aware of laws on the protection and preservation of cultural and religious artifacts, said Angel Bautista, head of the cultural properties division of the National Museum.

The move, Bautista said, is part of efforts to curtail further looting in the site, where pre-Spanish pottery, ceramics and other objects have reportedly been taken and believed sold to antique collectors.