NHCP eyes another museum in Sta. Barbara

THE National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) is planning to put up an ecclesiastical museum in Santa Barbara, Iloilo.

The museum will house ecclesiastical art collection of the Santa Barbara parish, priestly garbs, and other historical materials related to the town’s churches, according to NHCP Executive Director Ludovico Badoy.

“One of the oldest diri sa aton ang Santa Barbara church and this was used by Gen. Martin Delgado,” Badoy said in an interview on Nov 12, 2018.

The town’s church and the convent used to serve as the general headquarters of the military forces when the revolution against Spain broke out.

The museum will be established at the convent of the Santa Barbara church, which was declared a National Historical Landmark in 1991.

The town already hosts the Santa Barbara Centennial Museum built in 1998.

Either the church or the local government will run the new museum, Badoy said.

He said the previous parish priest was not in favor of their plan, thus they had to shelve it in the meantime.

“Ara na ini ang kwarta pero indi nagpayag ang dating pari. We don’t have the money now but we have to ask Congress for the funding,” he said.

The NHCP is also looking forward to the opening of the Visayas Economic Museum at the old Commission on Audit (COA) building near Plaza Libertad, Iloilo City.

“We are hoping it will be opened before the year ends. We are now doing the curatorial work, the structural is completed,” he said.

Badoy also urged government leaders and the people of Iloilo to issue a formal communication for the establishment of a museum dedicated to national hero Graciano Lopez Jaena, a revolutionary born in Jaro, Iloilo.

“It will be good if they will put a museum for Lopez Jaena. They have to write us. We will follow up by way of helping,” Badoy said.

SOURCE: The Daily Guardian

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