The old Spanish fort of Pikit which recently has been declared as a national historical landmark is being eyed for further preservation efforts by the local government of North Cotabato.
During a press conference in Davao City last June 9, Governor Emmylou Taliño said that the municipal local government has put up a memorandum banning the building of new structures inside the fort which was built by the Spanish Army in 1893 part of a series of fortifications aimed to consolidate Spanish control in central Mindanao.
Built by stone it had two towers with artillery batteries and a rubble wall 38 meters a side. It was designed to house one Spanish officer, 60 infantrymen and 6 artillerymen. The towers and the rubble wall can still be seen at the site which is located at the back of the Pikit Municipal Hall.
According to the Governor Taliño there has been many modern interventions introduced in the old Spanish Fort which served as a military camp in recent years. She likened the Fort as a small intramuros which unfortunately has been neglected for many years.
Joey E. Recimilla, Technical Working Group Chairman for the preservation of Fort Pikit said that after Spanish troops left it was used as an encampment for American soldiers, a Philippine Constabulary barracks, a garrison for Japanese soldiers in World War II then by the Philippine Army. A unit of the Philippine Marines occupied the camp until they left in 2007. Currently the old Fort is unoccupied.
Taliño said that she is planning to document the fort and submit the necessary papers to the Spanish embassy hopeful that it could be included in a Spanish government’s program of restoring old Spanish structures in its then colonies.
The National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) through a Resolution No. 7 series of 2012 declared Fort Pikit a National Historical Landmark. These after a team from the NHCP conducted ground validation, site visit and investigation of historical facts in March of this year.
The Governor is hopeful that the restoration and development of the fort can help in promoting tourism in the place.
Aside from restoring Fort Pikit, the provincial government of North Cotabato is developing the newly discovered Asik-Asik Falls in Alamada town.
Governor Taliño said that she has allocated P1.5 million for development of the place. P1.2 million will be for the construction of comfort rooms, spring development, bamboo walkway and relocation of commercial structures to the higher grounds.
P300,000 has been allocated as a subsidy to the barangay and local government for six months as the development is set to commence. The Provincial Government is also fixing the roads to the site which is 25 kilometers away from the National Highway.
Asik-Asik Falls is actually a vertical spring. Water gushes out of the cracks in the stone cliff which shields an aquifer, this is unlike traditional waterfalls where a body of water like a river or stream plunges off from a cliff.
According to the Governor the waterfalls was once hidden from view by thick vegetation until a storm uprooted a giant balete tree last year which once covered the falls from plain sight, it didn’t take long when Asik Asik was discovered by residents.
Photos of the waterfalls became viral in the internet particularly in social networking sites which contributed to the surge of tourists in the area.
