SABLOT (LITSEA GLUTINOSA), LOUR ROB., IN THE CONTINUING PRESERVATION AND CONSERVATION OF THE CULTURAL HERITAGE OF ILOCOS (PHILIPPINES): A HISTORIC AND TECHNICAL APPROACH

Materials science and engineering improves crude tools and gadgets and enhances the productivity, effectiveness and efficiency of men. To do this, it discovers new sources of materials, Improves operations and performances at lower costs. This study aimed to promote the use of sablot in the conservation and preservation of the heritage structures of Ilocos, Philippines, and to demonstrate the structural feasibility of sablot paste as cement substitute. Interviews with selected senior citizens knowledgeable of the construction methods were conducted to determine the proportion of the aggregates and the sablot paste. From the interviews, samples were constructed to replicate the proportion original formulation of the sablot paste and aggregates. Records show that the churches of Ilocos were constructed earlier than the recorded date of invention of cement which was introduced to the world in 1824 by Joseph Aspdin, an English inventor. Indigenous materials were used for the construction of said Ilocos structures, like coral bricks made of sticky clay and molasses mixed with leaves and trunks of a tree called “sablot” soaked in water were used instead of cement. This fact then necessitates that in the preservation and conservation of the heritage structures, the original set of materials be used, thus, the need to replicate the mixtures done by the forefathers. This research compares the strength of original mixtures vis-à-vis the present-day set of reconstituted materials against that of cement, which invite a highly feasible “genuine” preservation and conservation procedure for the aging structures, instead of using modern methods.