Escuela Taller Magazine - Issue 1

#HeritagePH
policies. San Fernando was the first local government
unit to grant real estate tax exemption for heritage
properties in 2004. Similar exemptions have been
enacted in Iloilo City, Silay City, and Angeles City.
The rationale behind incentives is that conservation,
especially in the private sector, will not be sustainable
without economic activity to fund or fuel it. There
is a need for incentives to encourage private sector
conservation initiatives, participation, and compliance
with conservation guidelines.
Calle Real in Iloilo City has
benefitted immensely from
real estate tax discounts given
by the city government to
heritage buildings that have
been repainted or restored.
There are many studies outside the Philippines about
heritage incentives. Pickerill and Pickard (2007) found
that because government resources are limited
and increasingly inadequate to meet the needs of
heritage conservation, it was necessary to create fiscal
incentives to encourage the private sector to engage
in heritage conservation. They found that “the choice
and form of tax incentives is influenced by political
traditions in different countries”.
Tax incentives seem to be a common theme in many
studies that sought to encourage the participation of
the private sector in conservation. Bullen and Love
(2011) noted that “the ability to make heritage buildings
attractive to developers as viable reuse projects
relies heavily on the introduction of legislation that
reduces building code and planning requirements
and offers substantial financial incentives in the
form of tax concessions”. Bullen and Love (2009)
found that the LA adaptive reuse program is based
on ordinances that introduce financial incentives to
provide income and property tax reductions. Rojas
(2002) found that in Latin America and the Caribbean,
subsidies and incentives could be offered to induce
owners to preserve heritage. Benhamou (2003) cited
Tyler (2000) who found that in the United States,
below-market rates or guaranteed loans to owners of
heritage properties are given for their restoration or
rehabilitation work.
Aside from adaptive reuse, heritage tourism also
becomes an incentive for conservation as it provides
potential funding for maintenance and conservation
costs, as well as much needed returns on investment.
The good news is that the proposed heritage incentives
law, which the Heritage Conservation Society has been
working on since 2013, has been filed in the Philippine
Senate by Senator Bam Aquino as Senate Bill No. 1234
– An Act for the Stewardship and Conservation of Built
Cultural Heritage. A counterpart measure, House Bill
No. 4438, was filed by Ilocos Sur Representative DV
Savellano in the House of Representatives.
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