DID YOU KNOW

The Bureau of Archives, the predecessor of the National Archives of the Philippines, was established under the Department of Public Instruction (now the Department of Education) on Oct. 21, 1901, through Philippine Commission Act No. 273. In March 1999, the agency was transferred to the National Commission for Culture and the Arts for program and policy coordination. In May 2007, Republic Act No. 9470 strengthened the management of archival records and gave it its current name. The National Archives is home to about 60 million documents from the centuries of Spanish rule in the Philippines, the American and Japanese occupations, as well as the years of the Republic. It is also the final repository for the country’s notarized documents. The National Archives can be found at U.N. Avenue corner San Marcelino Street in Manila.