The fight to save Catbalogan’s Pieta Park continues, a year after the monument honoring the victims of the 1987 MV Doña Paz–MT Vector tragedy was demolished to give way to a branch of a popular pizza chain.

This comes after the Diocese of Catbalogan, which claims ownership of the park, petitioned the city government last March to reclassify the area where the monument once stood from heritage status to commercial use.

A public hearing is ongoing, while the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) is conducting a “comprehensive review” of the case, particularly the clearance it previously issued to the diocese, as new details have surfaced.

In a letter dated 21 April 2026 to lawyer Alma R. Uy of Catbalogan, NHCP chair Regalado Trota Jose Jr. said the agency is “coordinating with the Diocese of Calbayog and other concerned stakeholders to ensure that all relevant historical, legal, and cultural considerations are currently examined.”

Jose said the review is being undertaken “to allow for a more thorough evaluation consistent with heritage conservation principles and applicable laws.”

He also assured Uy and the public that the “NHCP remains committed to exercising its mandate with due diligence, fairness, and respect for the historical significance of the site and the sentiments of the community.”

Pieta Park

Erected in 1989, Pieta Park featured a concrete Pieta monument in memory of the more than 4,000 people who perished in the 20 December 1987 collision and sinking of the MV Doña Paz and MT Vector at Tablas Strait.

According to Samarnon historian Charo Cabardo, the MV Doña Paz was the last ship that year to leave the ports of Tacloban and Catbalogan in time for Christmas in Manila. Tragically, it sank on the night of its voyage, with many of its passengers reportedly not recorded in the manifest.

“To remember this tragedy, the Katbaloganon Foundation, Inc. erected a monument, The Pieta, in front of the Catholic Church in Catbalogan, the only monument in the whole country ever built in their memory,” Cabardo said.

“For the past 38 years, parents, orphaned children and relatives of the victims would gather every year at The Pieta to offer a Mass and light candles to their memory,” she added.

Cabardo said many Samarnons have opposed the conversion of the park into a commercial area, calling the proposed reclassification “a shame and a monumental loss of the historical and cultural heritage not only of Catbalogan but of Samar province as a whole.”

Historic site

Following the erection of the Pieta monument, the area became known as Pieta Park. Traditionally, however, it was Catbalogan’s Spanish colonial plaza, a historic site that advocates say should be protected by the government.

NHCP Resolution No. 7, series of 2018, declared all Spanish-era and American colonial plazas and public squares as National Historic Sites, protecting them against damage, demolition, and inappropriate development.

Cabardo said the plaza was “established as a hub for the church, the governance and other social and even economic activities, thus becoming the heart of the community life.”

“It is where historical and even political events in our province of Samar took place, dating back when the whole island was but one province and Catbalogan was the cabecera,” she added, describing the plaza as the heart of community life.

Given its local and national importance, Cabardo questioned whether the local government and church authorities would heed the people’s appeal not to redevelop or desecrate the site.

“Or are they too callous and too uncaring to let the historical, religious, social and cultural heritage be erased for a pizza parlor and too cold-hearted to demolish this monument to the memory of thousands of victims of the Doña Paz tragedy?” she asked.

In previous statements, the diocese promised that the monument would be replaced, while the pizza chain said it was “deeply disheartened by the accident that caused damage to La Pietà.”