National Museum Of The Philippines

The National Museum of the Philippines () is an umbrella government organization that oversees a number of national museums in the Philippines, including ethnographic, anthropological, archaeological, and visual arts collections. From 1973 until 2021, the National Museum served as the regulatory and enforcement agency of the government of the Philippines in the restoring and safeguarding of significant cultural properties, sites, and reservations throughout the country. The mandate has since been transferred to the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.

The National Museum operates the National Museum of Fine Arts, National Museum of Anthropology, and the National Museum of Natural History, all located in the National Museum Complex in Manila. The institution also operates branch museums throughout the country.

The National Museum also established and operates regional museums across the Philippines, including the National Museum Eastern-Northern Mindanao (Butuan), National Museum Central Visayas (Cebu City), National Museum Western Visayas (Iloilo City), National Museum Western-Southern Mindanao (Zamboanga City), and National Museum Ilocos ( Vigan City).

History

Spanish era

The first predecessor to the current National Museum of the Philippines was the Museo-Biblioteca de Filipinas, which was established by royal decree by the Spanish colonial government in the Philippines on August 12, 1887. Its first museum library opened at the Casa de la Moneda, along Cabildo Street, on October 24, 1891. It later moved to a building along Gunao Street in Quiapo, before becoming defunct sometime around the onset of the American occupation of the Philippines, in 1900.

American era

The American-supervised Philippine Commission established the Insular Museum of Ethnology, Natural History, and Commerce under the Department of Public Instruction on October 29, 1901, through Act No. 284, to replace the museum library. The Insular Museum was founded to complement the Bureau of Non-Christian Tribes, which was later renamed as the Bureau of Ethnological Survey. After the Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904, the Insular Museum was renamed to the Philippine Museum. The Bureau of Ethnological Survey was abolished as a separate bureau and was reorganized as the Division of Ethnology under the Bureau of Education in 1905. It was subsequently moved to the Bureau of Science in 1906.

In 1916, the organization of the Philippine Museum underwent another overhaul. Through Act No. 2572, the Philippine Library and Museum was created through the merger of the Division of Ethnology and the Fine Arts Division of the Philippine Museum. The Philippine Museum's Natural History Division was retained under the Bureau of Science.

The National Museum of the Philippine Islands would be established on December 7, 1928, through Act No. 3477, and placed under the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources. It was abolished in 1933 by Act No. 4007. The Division of Fine Arts was placed under the Philippine Library and Museum (now National Library of the Philippines), while the Division of Ethnology was placed under the Bureau of Science. The National Museum Division was created from the merger of the Division of Ethnology and the Natural History Division. The National Museum Division was renamed as the National History Museum Division, with the Office of the Secretary of Agriculture and Commerce named as its parent agency via Commonwealth Act No. 453, in 1939. The division was later merged to the National Library's Division of Fine Arts to become the National Museum, under the Office of the Executive Secretary.

World War II

The Japanese occupation of the Philippines during World War II brought the Natural History Museum Division and the National Library's Fine Arts Division back under a single organization, but the museum lost a large part of its collection during the Liberation of Manila of 1945, when the Old Legislative Building and the Bureau of Science Building were destroyed. The organization that resulted from the divisions' merger was named the National Museum and placed under the Office of the Executive Secretary.

Contemporary era

The museum's role in cultural growth was recognized as contributing to the government's desire for national development. In 1966, President Ferdinand Marcos signed Republic Act No. 4846, or the Cultural Properties and Protection Act. On September 12, 1991, President Cory Aquino signed Proclamation No. 798, declaring October as "Museum and Galleries Month", a celebration to be led by the National Museum, whose aims were to arouse national consciousness and pride in the Philippines' rich culture and national identity, expressed in all media of art and culture as well as historical and religious artifacts. In 2013, President Noynoy Aquino launched the construction of the National Museum of Natural History, which opened in 2018. Aquino also backed the construction and development of several regional museums, including in Batanes, Vigan, Marinduque, Bohol, and Iloilo, while supporting the heritage preservation projects of the National Museum, including the restoration of churches damaged by natural calamities, such as in Cebu, Bohol, and Eastern Samar.

From 2013 to 2015, entry to museums administered by the National Museum was made free in cooperation with the Aquino government; this policy became permanent in 2016. In 2019, President Rodrigo Duterte changed the agency's name from National Museum to National Museum of the Philippines through Republic Act No. 11333.

In 2025, the museum extended its opening hours to include all seven days of the week, having previously been closed on Mondays.

Museums

Central museums

The National Museum Complex consists of the central museums of the National Museum of the Philippines in Metro Manila. These are the National Museum of Fine Arts, the National Museum of Anthropology, and the National Museum of Natural History. The National Planetarium is also part of this complex.

Satellite museums

The National Museum has also established numerous satellite museums outside Metro Manila. Currently, there are no regional museums in 10 of 18 regions in the country, namely Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Bicol, Eastern Visayas, Northern Mindanao, Davao Region, Soccsksargen, and Bangsamoro. Regional museums are mandated by law. Small area- or site museums exist in some of the country's regions.

Regional museums

Area museums

Site museums

Former facilities

Museums

The National Museum had a satellite museum in Bolinao, Pangasinan, an archeological museum featuring historic objects retrieved from the different parts of the province, first opened in 1970.

National Planetarium

A national planetarium was first planned in the 1970s by former National Museum director Godofredo Alcasid Sr., with the assistance of Maximo P. Sacro Jr. of the Philippine Weather bureau and one of the founders of the Philippine Astronomical Society.

Construction began in 1974 and was completed nine months later. It was formally inaugurated on October 8, 1975. Presidential Decree No. 804-A, issued on September 30, 1975, affirmed the planetarium's status. The site is between the Japanese Garden and the Chinese Garden at Rizal Park. The planetarium was decommissioned and closed in 2021 due to development works by the National Parks Development Committee.

Future facilities

In 2024, the National Museum assumed possession of the ancestral house of Aniceto Lacson, the first and only president of the Negros Republic, located in Talisay, Negros Occidental, after it was donated by Lacson's heirs. P20 million was allotted to restore the house as part of plans to convert it into a museum.

Restitution claims

In 2023, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., agreed to return the remains of 64 Filipinos that it acquired without consent during the American occupation for anthropological research, including to support racist beliefs about white supremacy, to the National Museum, following discussions with the latter and the Philippine Embassy.

In February 2024, the museum received a donation of four early 19th-century panels depicting various saints from the pulpit of Boljoon Church in Cebu from Union Bank of the Philippines CEO Edwin Bautista. The news of the donation led to demands from the Archdiocese of Cebu as well as officials and residents of the province for the panels to be repatriated, citing the fact that they had gone missing from the church during the 1980s due to either theft or an illegal sale by the parish priest. In response, the museum said that it was open to share the panels with Cebu, adding that the donors procured the panels through legitimate means, "highlighting their commitment to ethical acquisition". A copy of the deed of donation of the panels obtained by Rappler read that the panels should stay with the museum, which would hold them in perpetuity and put them on display, while acknowledging that they came from Boljoon Church.

On April 1, the Cebu Provincial Board passed a motion to file charges against the National Museum and others who took custody of the panels. On May 8, the museum's board of trustees ruled in favor of returning the panels to Boljoon Church, which it finalized on March 14, 2025.

References

Further reading

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External links

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{{Authority control

Philippines
Government agencies under the Office of the President of the Philippines
Government agencies established in 1901
1901 establishments in the Philippines
Department of Education (Philippines)
Museum organizations