Goal 11 of the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals prescribes that
culture matters. However, the case of Escolta, Manila presents otherwise. This paper
investigates the ways how cultural heritage can be a driver for economic development
in the Philippines following the Van Der Borg and Russo’s (2005) Culture-Oriented
Economic Development (COED) framework. It stresses the interrelationship of inner
cultural cluster dynamics, economic impacts, and socio-environmental impacts which
provides for a cycle composed of culture promoting development and in return
development fostering culture, then leading to development. The case of Escolta,
Manila was compared to the case of Vigan, Ilocos Sur using the one-off initiative
framework provided by UNESCO World Heritage Centre for heritage conservation.
The results revealed that it is the lack of interest of property owners in Escolta,
Manila as the principal shareholders that makes built-heritage conservation
unmanageable. Since most built heritages are privately owned and have not been
granted heritage status by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines
(NHCP), efforts to revive Escolta face significant threats. Thus there is a need for
concrete legislative frameworks to address such apathy. Interestingly, the results
corroborated the findings of Palaña (2015) explaining why it is easy for owners to sell
the property or leave it to deteriorate than be burdened by its preservation costs
without any definite return of investment. The thrust of Vigan’s development
framework was anchored on cultural heritage conservation leading to people
emancipation as local guardians of cultural heritage resulting to direct and indirect
economic benefits. If such framework can be replicated in the revitalization of
Escolta, Manila, the Queen of Streets of Manila will rise back, pronouncing once
more that cultural heritage can be the driver of economic development and that
cultural heritage conservation is not always an obstacle to urban development in the
Philippines.
Key Words: cultural heritage; culture development; heritage conservation; adaptive
re-use; culture-oriented economic development
