Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto amused Filipinos when he dressed up for fun and posed inside the city’s oldest “bahay na bato” in existence which is also considered a tourist spot.
The 30-year-old local chief executive wore a barong Tagalog and a hat that was popular during the Spanish colonial period with a matching quill pen on his hand.
The pictures were shared by the Facebook page of Pasig City Dengue Task Force, which simply captioned the post with “Mayor Vico Sotto sa Bahay na Tisa!”
Based on a video shared by Facebook page “Bahay na Tisa,” the National Museum of the Philippines publicly declared the house as “important cultural property” on Wednesday.
The event was attended by Sotto, Pasig Councilors Corie Raymundo and Quin Cruz and Reps. Roman Romulo (Pasig City, Lone District), Strike Revilla (Cavite, Second District) and Kiko Benitez (Negros Occidental, Third District).
The pictures of Sotto during the event amused Filipinos who described him as “handsome” on his attire.
The city chief was posing inside Bahay na Tisa, the oldest Spanish-era house in Pasig. It was built by Don Cecilio Tech y Cabrera in the early 1850s and has been home to seven generations of the Tech family.
The house has huge blocks of adobe at the ground floor walls. These walls carry the load of the hardwood floorings of the second floor.
Its roof was originally made with tisa tiles but it was destroyed during the World War II. It was then replaced with corrugated asbestos roof.
“Bahay na Tisa” is considered one of the “favorite” venues of television and movie production sets due to its “antiquity and unique character.”
It was conferred the Dangal ng Pasig Award for Culture in June 2009.