DFA Conducts First Ever Pasay City Food and Heritage Walk in collaboration with the Pasay City Tourism and Cultural Development Office
PASAY CITY 26 September 2024 - The Department of Foreign Affairs-Office of Cultural Diplomacy (DFA-OCD), in collaboration with the Pasay City Tourism and Cultural Development Office, and with support from DepEd - Pasay, conducted the first hour-long Pasay City Food and Heritage Walk during lunch time on 23 September 2024, for the Department’s officers and personnel, along with members of the Pasay City Tourism Office.
DFA-OCD Assistant Secretary Celia Anna M. Feria and DFA-IAS Assistant Secretary Noel Eugene M. Servigon led the Department’s team composed of participants from the Office of Cultural Diplomacy, Office of Public Diplomacy, Internal Audit Office, and Office of International Economic Relations.
Local researcher John Lherry Santero with the assistance of Ronn Merwin Javier from the Pasay City Tourism and Cultural Development Office, facilitated the tour, providing the group with historical information on the background and significance of heritage structures within the close vicinity of the DFA. Among the places that the group visited were the Old PLDT Building on Harrison Street (designed by National Artist Leandro Locsin), the grand Galvez Mansion on Park Avenue built during the American Period, and the residence of National Scientist Dr. Mercedes Concepcion PhD., Mother of Asian Demography, located on Zamora Street.
The group also visited the St. Mary’s Academy, formerly the Escuela Católica de Pasay (the oldest Catholic School in the city), established in 1922, and the Sta. Clara de Montefalco Church, a post-war structure built in the 1950’s, located beside the current Pasay City General Hospital. The latter was built on the site of the former Pasay Municipal Hall, built in 1863 until it was ravaged in flames in the 1980’s. This was said to be the location of the seat of power of Pasay during the Spanish, American, and Japanese periods of our history. This was followed by a visit to the Pasay Alternative Learning System (ALS) - Community Learning Center (Gabaldon Building), which was previously the Pasay Central School in the early 1900s. The building is one of the few remaining heritage structures in Pasay, built of wood with traditional capiz windows and a cisterne in the building’s basement to catch rainwater. The ALS building and compound is a heritage haven in Pasay City. During the Japanese Occupation, the Church of Sta. Clara de Montefalco and Pasay Central School were turned into a garrison. The group ended the hour-long tour with a lunch at the 7373 Cafe, which was a former ancestral house along P. Burgos Street.
This tour is part of the activities of DFA-OCD in incorporating the local history of the area around the DFA, which for the past 35 years has been located along Roxas Boulevard in Pasay City. This is the first of a series of tours that aims to encourage the Department’s personnel to be more knowledgeable of the history of Pasay City. END
