Restoration efforts are revealed in the white colored bricks....
Oslob Poblacion's main beach is known as Kuwartel Beach as far as I can remember in my childhood days.
It used to have sand and Oslobanons must have considered it as one of the best beaches in Cebu.
The shore was wide and "untouched" for we, children, can even catch "bacocos" which we would love to grill. The smell of the "burning" bacoco and its crispy-exotic taste give us unending pleasurable delight.
Family picnics, school batchmates and even "walk-in" beachgoers spend long time of fun on the beach while enjoying the sand, sun, food and sea water. Cottages are available for visitors who would spend a night or two in town.
BUT THAT WAS BEFORE.
Whether it is because of the growing number of locals who are getting the gravel and sand for house construction or is it due to the rising of sea water (or BOTH, others blame it to the folks building of seawall/breakwater/reef-raff) that the sand now has disappeared.
Kuwartel (as it was written on a signage hung on the Cuartel itself) Beach that was.
All you see now is a seawall.
In a recent vacation I had in town, I saw the site (pictures above). Having no prior information about it, I have concluded that it was undergoing restoration works, seeing raw stones devoid of brick-like forms and broken bricks scattered inside and around the structure.
Then I have come across this article.
Rehabilitating Oslob Cuartel
By Jobers Bersales
Cebu Daily News First Posted 11:50:00 06/18/2009 Filed Under: history, Construction & Property, Heavy construction
Cebu provincial engineer Eulogio Pelayre waxed poetic and at times romantic the other day as he explained his feeling of a sense of pride and a sense of history at being asked by the governor, Gwendolyn F. Garcia, to carry out the rehabilitation of the unfinished Oslob Cuartel that has almost gone to seed. For, in his words, no other Spanish period building in the country can match the architecture of this building: six roman arches spread on its façade and not just on the ground floor but also on the second story. If I may add, the arches also seemingly embrace the fabric of this building, creating what would have been a magnificent pasillo or hallway on both floors had it been finished.
The occasion that made the normally circumspect and quiet provincial engineer emotive was a meeting with Oslob’s vice mayor, Pacifica Letigio, together with the town’s councilors, barangay chairs and representatives, together with the Oslob Heritage Protection and Conservation Council at Museo Sugbo the other day. The venue was not an accident since these leaders were at the Museo to learn more about preparing museum exhibits – a culmination of a series of meetings that began when the governor quietly started the rehabilitation of this unfinished Spanish-era naval quarters early this year. An open air museum of sorts within a section of the building is in the works and what better way to learn about museums than to visit the premier historical museum in the province today.
Other than the provincial engineer, Tessie Javier, the provincial consultant for architectural affairs, also joined the group and showed the design for a park to be around the cuartel leading to the ruins of the hexagonal watchtower built by the great Fray Julian Bermejo in the early 1800s. The inauguration of a rehabilitated and well-lighted Cuartel is certain to happen in August as part of a long list of events that will mark the 440th anniversary of Cebu province.
According to local lore, the Oslob Cuartel was built around the final decades of Spanish rule and remained unfinished as events in Manila and the capital town of Cebu in 1898 overtook Spanish plans for what appears to be a Spanish naval station. No records have been found at the National Archives in Manila to help explain why this relatively huge structure was built in what was then as now a laid-back town. If my suspicions are right, this must have been intended as a naval station because Oslob faces not only the Bohol Sea but also the bend towards Tañon Strait and is so strategically located that on a normal day one can see not just Bohol and Siquijor but also parts of Mindanao and Negros Oriental.
Unfortunately, decades of neglect and the absence of a heritage movement – only active during the last three years in Oslob after the governor ordered the establishment of heritage councils all over the province – have led to the graduated theft of many of the coral stone blocks on the façade as well as the rear walls of the Cuartel. Unmindful of its distinct historic and aesthetic value, the unscrupulous removed these blocks, called tablillas in Spanish, ostensibly to sell them to manufacturers of costume jewelry and stonecraft, leaving huge gaps showing the argamasa type of masonry, believed to be a mixture of lime, egg-whites and coral rubble that has held this structure together over a century now.
There have been other plans to finish the Oslob Cuartel that were presented early on to the governor. But Governor Garcia wants as little intervention as possible in this unique and time-tested product of Spanish public works. And so the original design to have the structure roofed with clay tiles was squelched as the correct conservation practice would have been to let it remain unfinished and merely rehabilitate those sections of the building fabric that need to stabilized. This then is the task now facing the provincial engineer.
No wonder then that he left the group much more inspired and happy as the barangay chairmen and town councilors present that day committed to join the governor in this project by providing labor to complement the workforce provided by the province. This, as much of the stones needed for the rehabilitation began arriving from the town’s barangays two weeks ago. On Monday, everyone will converge at the Cuartel – both from the provincial government and from the town of Oslob — to carry out the spirit of “alayon”, hand in hand to finally save the cuartel from further ruin.
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