Mt. Province historical body starts work

By Roger Sacyaten

BONTOC, Mountain Province – The newly minted Provincial Historical Committee met for the first time since it was institutionalized by provincial ordinance No. 496, series of 2023 dated July 17,
2023 to tackle its first work.
    The Sangguniang Panlalawigan enacted the provincial ordinance with mandating the Committee to formulate programs and projects to perpetuate the history of Mountain Province, offices of the provincial government, among others.
    The history of the province was already published in the book Mountain Province: Then and Now.
    The histories of the respective offices of the provincial government have been identified as the new task of the Committee.
    The Committee met at the Pearl Café and Restaurant Aug. 7 to discuss and start writing histories of respective offices of the provincial government.
    Focal persons were designated per office composed of permanent employees.
    Among salient points discussed were guidelines in making the write-ups such as when and legal bases of creation of offices, who were the first and succeeding heads of offices and what they did, vision, mission  and resources of each office then up to the present.
    The manuscripts were agreed to be submitted on or before June 2024. The researches and gathering of data were to be done right after the meeting and to be presented, including initial write-ups in the next quarterly meeting of the Committee.
    Technical writing workshop was requested to be conducted for the writers before the next meeting which the presiding officer affirmed.
    Other requests made were in social media by personalities who lauded the provincial government led by Gov. Bonifacio Lacwasan, Jr. for coming up with the Committee.
    Proposed topics for articles included documentation of historical buildings and sites in the province, including exploits of local heroes in World War 1 and II.
    Among policy statements of the ordinance was, “diverse rich historical and cultural heritages of the province are to be preserved and passed on to the people and incoming generations to be aware of.”
    Another was to recognize historical uniqueness and resources of the province.