Senator Loren Legarda is now pushing for a measure seeking to enhance the country’s heritage protection policies by granting incentive mechanisms to privately owned heritage buildings and ancestral houses by amending the National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009.

In filing Senate Bill No. 1852, or the “Strengthening the Conservation and Protection of Philippine Cultural Heritage Through Heritage Incentives,” Legarda sought to amend the country’s cultural heritage law by extending tax relief and credit benefits to private owners of cultural and heritage buildings to address the high cost of conservation, restoration, and maintenance, which are key factors behind the deterioration or loss of many historic structures.

According to Legarda, the need to treat heritage not only as a cultural symbol but also as an economic resource, must be sustained through deliberate policy interventions.

“The preservation of our nation’s built heritage is not merely a matter of aesthetics or nostalgia; it is a duty to safeguard the tangible expressions of our collective memory, identity, and history,” said Legarda, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Culture and the Arts.

SB No. 1852 proposes the establishment of a Cultural Property Incentive Program covering declared heritage structures and ancestral houses.

The bill introduces a package of fiscal incentives designed to make conservation financially feasible for owners and stewards of cultural properties, providing grants and facilitating access to financing and loan windows through government financial institutions.

Primarily, the bill seeks to grant tax credits for ownership transfers and the restoration of Grade I and II structures, as well as real property tax exemptions for these grades.

Grade I structures include those declared as world heritage sites, national cultural treasures, national historical landmarks, national historical shrines, national historical monuments.

Grade II structures include declared important cultural properties, natural properties of cultural significance covered by or located within a protected area under the Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System (E-NIPAS) Act of 2018, declared archaeological sites, heritage houses, historic sites, heritage trees, heritage zones, other marked structures, and all Gabaldon school buildings.

The bill will also allow local government units (LGUs0 to extend exemptions to Grade III  which include all other cultural property, and natural property of cultural significance not covered by or located within a Protected Area under the ENIPAS Act in the Philippine Registry of Heritage (PREH), including those declared by LGUs) structures.

Additional incentives include exemptions from income tax, import duties, and value added tax (VAT) for eligible conservation activities.

“Our built heritage is often lost not to neglect, but to unaffordable upkeep. This bill eases the tax and cost burden on owners who meet conservation standards, making restoration feasible. The bill recognizes that heritage protection cannot rest solely on regulation and enforcement. It must be supported by positive incentives that mobilize both public and private stakeholders toward a common goal: the preservation of our built heritage for future generations,” Legarda stressed.