Cebu Provincial Government
Cebu Provincial Government


Speech of Governor Hilario P. Davide III at the Joint Area Assembly Tourism Architecture


Hilario P. Davide III
Governor of the Province of Cebu
at the Joint Area Assembly Tourism Architecture
February 20, 2015
Waterfront Cebu City Hotel & Casino, Cebu City

One afternoon,  an Engineer and an Architect were looking at a flagpole.  They wondered how tall the pole was.

The Engineer said,  “that’s very easy.” He proposed calling up the Astronomical Laboratory to determine the alignment of the sun relative to the earth,  thereby determining the angle of the shadow.  Measure the length of the shadow to determine the horizontal leg.  Then it becomes  a simple tangent angle equals height over base.

The Architect then proceeded to take down the pole,  lay it on the ground,  and started to measure.

A politician passed by.   He saw the engineer making calls and using his calculator.  And he saw the architect measure something on the ground.  He asked what they were doing.

The Engineer replied they  are trying to determine the height of the flagpole.

The politician shook head.  Dili to gobernador…  barangay capitan to… and said,  “how can you determine the height,  when he is just measuring the length?”

(pause.  recognize the VIPs)

Good evening.

I know that as a lawyer,  I am lost in this gathering of engineers,  architects and professionals adept at mathematics.    Ug ma-apiki,  mukiha lang nya ko…

I would like to thank Architect Roger Ong,  and the organizers of this convention for choosing Cebu as the venue,  and for this invitation.

Most of the countries in Asia,  and  Europe and the Mediterranean use structures unique to their place as tourism attractions.  There are the pagodas of Cambodia,  the ancient temples and the French colonial buildings in Vietnam,  the beautiful palace in Kota Kinabalu and Agra,  India,  the pyramids in Egypt,  the Roman architecture in Germany,  and many other parts of the old world.

In the Philippines we can boast of our Spanish colonial structures.

But what would be very interesting,  tourism-wise, and art-wise,  and relative to the art and science of architecture,  would be  structures in the Philippines, built today,  or recently,  but based on the culture of an island,  and sea-based people.  A sight which evokes the salty breeze of the Pacific,  the gaiety of an island culture,  identifiably Filipino with,  perhaps,  traces of the Chinese who sailed into our country more than a thousand years ago,  traces of the Shri Visayan empire which enveloped this part of the globe once upon a time,  and built with today’s science and technology.

This could be a huge office building,  or just a house.  Or a residential-commercial complex.

Something which could put us in the consciousness of architects elsewhere,  and of tourists from other parts of the world.

Something like Le Corbusier’s chapel in Ronchamp,  or Frank Llyod Wright’s Falling Waters house.  Or I.M. Pei’s monuments all over the world.

A Filipino creation,  designed and built according to our climate and terrain,  and evoking the Filipino culture.

I am certain that such a dream is a worthy challenge for the United Architects of the Philippines.

Thank you very much and good evening