THE MUSEUM OF THE FILIPINO PEOPLE

PRESIDENT-ELECT Ferdinand “Bongbong” Romualdez Marcos, Jr. will take his oath of office as the country’s 17th President at the National Museum of the Philippines.

Formerly known as the Old Legislative Building, it served as the venue for the inauguration of former Presidents Manuel L. Quezon (1935), Jose P. Laurel (1943) and Manuel Roxas (1946).

Presidential Management Staff (PMS) Secretary-designate Zeinada “Naida” Angping said that the inaugural committee members found the National Museum to be a suitable venue for the historical event.

“The National Museum of the Philippines building and its surrounding areas match our requirements for President Marcos’s inauguration,” she said.

In 1918, the construction started for the neoclassical building that originally housed the Philippines' legislative arm. Initially, Ralph Harrington Doane and Antonio Mañalac Toledo worked together on the architectural design. It was later on revised by Juan M. Arellano.

Legislative building

On July 16, 1926, the Legislative Building was officially opened during the Second Regular Session of the 7th Philippine Legislature. The building was later renamed the National Assembly Building, which housed the National Assembly of the Philippines. Five years later, the

National Assembly was replaced by the Congress of the Philippines.

At the height of World War II, Japanese forces used the building as a stronghold in February 1945. During the Battle of Manila, the entire national collections were destroyed when the Legislative Building, where most items were placed for safekeeping, as well as the Bureau of Science building, were reduced to ruins. The building's north and south wings collapsed due to the exchange of heavy machinery between Japanese and American forces, but the central portion was left standing.

Following most its original blueprint, the building was rebuilt from 1949 to 1950. The Congress of the Republic of the Philippines moved back to the Congress Building, the one that is also known as the Old Legislative Building.

After the war, the Natural History Museum Division was reunited with the National Library’s Fine Arts Division to become the National Museum – its final change of name – under the Office of the Executive Secretary.

Since the 1970s, the National Museum has conscientiously maintained and preserved the building as a historical structure of the highest importance. It also hosts the country’s most historic works of culture and national heritage.

Umbrella organization

Today, the National Museum of the Philippines serves as an umbrella government organization that oversees a number of national museums in the Philippines including ethnographic, anthropological, archaeological, and visual arts collections. Its main branch is comprised of the National Museum of Fine Arts, the National Museum of Anthropology, and the National Museum of Natural History.

Located at the old Legislative building along Padre Burgos Drive, the National Museum of Fine Arts hosts the largest public assemblage of Philippine fine arts that can be accessed by Filipinos and tourists.

It is a National Historical Landmark and houses 29 galleries, exhibitions of important works of unknown artists of the 18th century, 19th century Filipino masters, National Artists, leading modern painters of the 1990s to the 21st century, sculptors, and printmakers.

Agping said that while the committee considered the Quirino Grandstand a potential venue for the inauguration, the committee’s ocular inspection team observed that there were still several Covid-19 hospitals in the area.

“The safety and welfare of our people are paramount. As such, we chose to avoid disrupting the medical care being given to the Covid-19 patients housed there. That’s why we opted for the National Museum as the venue,” she said.