If you are into arts and culture, more specifically, the Philippine historical sites, then you would be appalled at what is happening to a small rock wall only a short distance from Manila.
According to a report by Mynardo Macaraig of Agence Free-Press (AFP), the wall with "enigmatic carvings that are believed to date back 5,000 years are in danger of disappearing before their mysteries can be solved."
The 127 engravings of people, animals and geometric shapes are the Southeast Asian nation's oldest known artworks, but encroaching urbanization, vandals and the ravages of nature are growing threats.
"Eventually they will disappear... preservation is out of the question," veteran anthropologist Jesus Peralta, who did an extensive and widely respected study of the carvings in the 1970s, told AFP.
The artworks have been declared a national treasure, regarded as the best proof that relatively sophisticated societies existed in the Philippines in the Stone Age.
"They show that in ancient times, the Philippines did have a complex culture. It's a recording of our ancestors," said Leo Batoon, a senior researcher of the National Museum.
Museum scientists believe the carvings date back to 3000 BC, based on carving tools and pottery shards discovered at the site, indicating they originated before the use of metal tools.
This makes them far older than the country's second oldest known artworks, a series of geometric shapes in the mountainous northern Philippines that are believed to date to 1500 BC, according to Batoon.
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