(Noel Pabalate/ MANILA BULLETIN)


House Deputy Speaker and Batangas 6th district Rep. Ralph Recto has called for a reconstruction of the razed Manila Central Post Office building even as its embers have hardly cooled down. "Government should rebuild the National Post Office Building. Fast, and not in slow mail fashion," Recto said in a statement Monday, May 22. "The post office is an art work designed and built by Filipino geniuses. It was an architectural jewel of the bygone Pearl of the Orient," he said. Recto, a former Senate President Pro Tempore, noted that it  wasn't the time first time the building was destroyed. "Firebombed by US (United States) and Japanese forces, it was reduced to a rubble during the Battle of Manila. But even though short of cash, the newly-born Philippine Republic made sure that it would rise from the ashes of war, because such would be proof of a new nation’s determination to rebuild," he said. "Because they believed then, as we must do now, that to let it physically disappear, is to purge it from our people’s memory," he said. Recto said that, once rebuild, the post office building can even be mixed-use or be multipurpose in function, enhancing its value, "for as long as the original design is maintained". He noted that, under Republic Act (RA) No.10066 or the National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009, “national historical landmarks, sites or monuments” shall be entitled to “priority government funding for protection, conservation and restoration". He further said that the P13-billion contingent fund and P19.03-billion calamity fund could both be tapped for the purpose of rebuilding the burned down post office. Recto said Taipans can also help in reconstruction, and their donations, under Section 35 of RA No.10066 “shall be exempt from the donor’s tax and the same shall be considered as allowable deduction from the gross income in the computation of the income tax of the donor". "This was how Italian Roman- and Renaissance-era sites were restored -- under the auspices of companies, who regarded those as prestige and patriotic projects," he said.