ILOILO CITY (PIA) -- The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and the Iloilo Science and Technology University (ISAT-U) has launched the Cultural Heritage and Educational Research Center (CHERC) in the university’s new site as part of the La Paz main campus in this city.

The center is a P9-million 3-storey building project funded through CHED’s Study in the Philippines (StudyPH) - Education Tourism Program.

“We want our state universities and colleges to recognize that they have competence in developing local tourism, that they themselves should be tourist destinations, and that they have the capability in research, in education, and extension to partner with local governments to promote tourism at the local area,” CHED Chairperson J. Prospero E. De Vera III said.

According to ISAT U, the CHERC is envisioned to be “a digital literacy center to further supplement classroom instruction and research in history, social sciences, and as well as ICT.”

As a tourism hub, it will also be a one-stop shop that can cater to local and foreign guests as well as students who might need to do cultural research and exposure.

Meanwhile, the second level of the building bears some samples of ISAT U’s creative industry such as woodworking and fashion and design.

On the other side of the gallery is the so-called “Digital Library” where the digitized copy of the local newspapers dating from 1913 to 1941 can be found, preserving the Ilonggo culture and history. For this purpose, ISAT U collaborated with the very first Ilonggo Printing Press, the Makinaugalingon Printing Press, with the digitization of the archives of books and print collections of the Mejica Repository.

After serving the brain with the knowledge of the local culture and history, the third floor of the center is designed for a coffee shop or a café where local products and delicacies are intended to be displayed and savored.

De Vera added that apart from ISAT U, other SUCs in the region were also recipients of the Study PH Edu-Tourism program.

“Slowly, our state universities and colleges are recognizing their very important role in tourism promotion and I thank the Department of Tourism also for their full support for the project because we all have to work together to make sure these projects are implemented,” De Vera noted, lauding the SUCs in the region for implementing significant educational tourism project. (AAL/FRG/PIA6)