When the Roman Catholic Apostolic Vicariate of Montañosa in the Cordillera region of the Philippines was divided into three ecclesiastical jurisdictions in 1992, the church properties within their respective territories were transferred to the three newly-formed religious corporations. However, the prime commercial Church property along Session Road, Baguio City, Philippines was consensually agreed on by the three jurisdictions to be owned and managed collectively by them—the Vicariate of Baguio which later became Diocese of Baguio, Vicariate of Bontoc-Lagawe, and Vicariate of Tabuk—under a new corporate entity, Montañosa Pastoral Resources Corporation. These motherland- and Blessed Mother-named buildings and prime properties—Patria de Baguio built in 1956, Puso ng Baguio which was turned over to the Church under a build-operate-transfer scheme in 2009, and Antipolo building erected in the 1960s, and later on Porta Vaga which was completed in 2002—generate so-called ‘ecclesiastical fruits’ or rent income which are shared equally among the three jurisdictions and used for pastoral work in their respective territories. This case study explores the delicate process of heritagization and adaptive reuse of the commercial properties as the church leadership, the community of believers and the public at large advance their own claims, given a dominant belief that heritage properties can be viable social enterprises.
Santos Jose O. Dacanay III is Professor at the Institute of Management, College of Social Sciences, University of the Philippines Baguio. The paper acknowledges support from the Cordillera Studies Center Research Grant for Cycle 2018-2019.