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IN an extraordinary twist of fate, Bambi Harper—the articulate and
elegant but fiery defender of the cultural legacy of the Philippines
who took on long standing Intramuros Administration administrator
Butch Ferrer all the way to the Supreme Court because of his alleged
sins of omission and commission at the agency—has been appointed
by President Gloria Arroyo to replace him as the IA’s new boss.
It’s a bold and progressive appointment on the
part of Malacañang for—according to long time watchers of the
Filipino cultural scene—this will be the first time since the days
of former administrator Jimmy Laya that the IA will have at its helm
someone who is not only passionate and knowledgeable about
Philippine heritage, but with a proven track record of fearlessly
defending it at every turn.
Harper’s friends are both aghast and delighted
in equal measure by this remarkable turn of events. Aghast, because
she needs a stint in government service like a bullet in the head.
But delighted, for in Harper the IA will find a caring and
passionate advocate who does not suffer fools (or wise guys, for
that matter) gladly when the nation’s heritage is being tampered
with.
The lady herself seems slightly embarrassed by
it all, more so because she—on behalf of the Heritage Conservation
Society—has been having this legal battle with Ferrer after filing
graft and corruption charges against him for giving the go-ahead for
a so called re-generation project that, according to Harper (and
anyone taking a look around that particular part of Intramuros that
now sits disheveled and abandoned may tend to agree with her) only
succeeded in hideously defacing the historic character of the place.
Subsequently, the Presidential Commission on
Graft and Corruption also investigated Ferrer (who is a career
official at the IA and has been its head for almost a decade) and
having found him guilty, instigated his removal from the IA.
Admits Harper: “It was kind of difficult when
I was officially approached to take over at IA exactly because of
the long running battle in the courts that I have been having with
Ferrer. What I didn’t want is people thinking that I went after
him because I wanted his job.
“But the point is that in recent years I have
been so critical about what was going on at the IA. So when this
opportunity came I saw it as a tremendous challenge to try to help
fix the problems rather than sitting on the sidelines and basically
sniping and achieving nothing. It’s been a tough decision on my
part, but I just couldn’t run away from the offer because that
would have been a bit cowardly on my part.”
A former intuitive cultural (and breezy society)
columnist in the Philippine Inquirer, Harper has spent the past year
at the University of the Philippines where she has been taking up a
doctorate in literature—telling friends who raised their eyebrows
at her sudden scholastic pursuit that she did so because she wanted
to be tagged as a “doctor” in her obituary! (Though some of us
did advice her that the same end could be achieved by a quick
two-hour trip to Recto rather than the tiring daily trek spread over
three years to the far flung Diliman campus!)
Harper has two priority areas that she initially
wants to focus on as the new administrator.
Says she: “First, I want to have an urgent
inventory done on all the antique treasures costing almost P500
million by today’s estimation that were acquired by Jimmy Laya
during his tenure and diligently documented by him in the books when
he left. Some have been lent to the National Museum, Casa Manila,
National Heritage Institute and a few other places. I want to be
sure that the IA collection that Laya so carefully put together is
still intact and all accounted for.”
Her second priority covers a more sensitive
matter since it involves cleaning up Intramuros. This essentially
means removing the squatter colonies that have sprung up within its
walls in the past few years—with Harper believing her predecessor
turned a blind eye to the nagging problem.
Almost as an after thought she adds: “But
course, I will also have to contend with having the church as a
neighbor. So I will have to be a really good girl.”
But most certainly a girl who just won’t take
no for an answer when it comes to the preservation of the nation’s
heritage.
rjottings@yahoo.com
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