Dateline Ibalon

The Movement to Protect Naga City’s Remaining Cultural Properties | Judge Soliman M. Santos, Jr. (Retd.)

The month of February is a momentous period of milestones in the history of Naga City and the preservation of its important cultural properties.

The Nueva Caceres Heritage District

Building on the thrust by Naga City Mayor John Bongat’s administration (2010-2019 term of office) to enhance awareness of local cultural heritage, the Nueva Caceres Heritage Movement, Inc. (NCHMI) proposed to establish the Ciudad de Nueva Caceres heritage district in the city center through a resolution adopted on February 18, 2016. The district largely encompasses the Central Business District I and is bounded by Ateneo Avenue to the north, Igualdad (now J. Hernandez Avenue) to the west and Naga River to the east and south. 

Historical print depicting the arrival of Gov. General Narciso Claveria y Zaldua at Nueva Caceres, February 16, 1845. The painting by Jose Honorato Lozano is currently in the University of Nueva Caceres Museum.

 Historical sites

There are 27 historical sites spread across the district, ten of which are still existing. These are: 

  • Escuela Normal (now Universidad de Sta. Isabel) 
  • Seminario (Holy Rosario Minor Seminary) 
  • Catedral (Naga City Metropolitan Cathedral) 
  • Palacio (Archbishop’s Palace) 
  • Administracion del Correo (the Philamlife property hosting the old Post Office building) 
  • Bishop Barlin Monument 
  • Cuartel de la Guardia Civil (Naga City Police headquarters) 
  • Plaza de San Francisco (Plaza Quince Martires) 
  • Iglesia de San Francisco (San Francisco Church) 
  • Plaza Alfonso XIII (Plaza Rizal) 
  • Abella Building and Fuente de Claveria (Tabuco Bridge)
Vicinity map showing the location of historical sites in the Nueva Caceres Heritage District

On the other hand, there are 17 historical sites that no longer exist: 

  • Ruina de la Catedral 
  • The old Episcopal Palace and the old Cemetery (now located in the Naga City People’s Mall) 
  • Plaza del Fuente (Plaza Oragon) 
  • Casa de Clerigos (the original site of the seminary and now the Benito Commercial building) 
  • Mercado (Aristocrat Hotel up to Regent Hotel) 
  • Casa del Escribano (now UCPB, BPI Family Savings Bank and former New England Restaurant) 
  • Tribunal (former Naga City Library building) 
  • Casa del Gobernador and Carcel de la Provincia (LBRDC, BDO and PNB buildings) 
  • Casino Español (McDonald’s and Bigg’s Diner, in front of Quince Martires) 
  • Hospital Medalla Milagrosa (Barlin Satellite Market) 
  • Escuela Comun (Grageda Apartment)
  • Imprenta (current Philamlife Building)

Protecting the remaining Spanish-era civil building ruins

On February 10, 2026, the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Naga ordered the suspension of construction in front of the city’s only remaining Spanish-era civil building ruins in Barangay San Francisco through a 20-day Temporary Restraining Order (TRO), to prevent irreversible damage while the case is being heard. A P100K bond is required for the TRO to take effect, funding for which is currently being raised by Naga City’s heritage advocates (see image).

The old buildings, previously declared as Important Cultural Properties (ICPs) by the City Government of Naga, were variously used as a Barracks (Cuartel) and a Storehouse (Almacen), as an Administraccion del Correo complex with postal office and telegraphic station, as charitable foundation, as prison of the city or of the province, as torture chamber, as war room, as infirmary, as hospital, as schools superintendent’s office, as public library, among others. 

Remembering places in old Naga City

To many senior citizens whose generation would remember places in the old Naga City, the words of John Lennon’s song “In My Life” are prescient, evoking a sense of loss over a number of heritage buildings gone during the past decades (although a few remain):

There are places I'll remember
All my life, though some have changed
Some forever, not for better
Some have gone and some remain.

 -- The Beatles, “In My Life,” Rubber Soul (1965)

The header shows a file photo of the remaining edifice of the old provincial jail, located within the Administracion del Correo complex (credit: Memories of Naga and Bicol)

About the author

SOLIMAN M. SANTOS, JR. is a retired Judge of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Naga City, Camarines Sur and a resident of neighboring town Canaman in that province.  He has a trilogy of books on his court work and practice: Justice of the Peace (2015), Drug Cases (2022), and Judicial Activist (2023), all published by the lawbook publisher Central Books, Inc., Quezon City.

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