ILOILO CITY — The century-old Iloilo Provincial Jail that was converted into the Western Visayas Regional Museum is now an Important Cultural Property of the Republic of the Philippines.
Jeremy Barns, director of the National Museum, formally announced Museum Declaration No.22-2017 during Wednesday’s turnover ceremony of the regional museum to the National Museum.
Citing some provisions of the declaration, Barns said the old jail facility located adjacent to the historic Casa Real of Iloilo, or the old Capitol, “represents a state of the art in prison construction of its era.”
It added that the old jail is a cultural property “enjoying the presumption of law, as an important property possesses exceptional cultural and architectural significance relative to the local areas’ history and culture.”
Built in 1911, the jail, with a lot area of 868 sq. meters, used to house thousands of prisoners but was abandoned after the completion of the new provincial jail in Barangay Nanga, Pototan town in 2006.
The rehabilitation of the old jail into a museum began in 2016 and was carried out by Lim Construction and Trading in two phases.
The provincial government allocated PHP18 million for the first phase of the museum rehabilitation, including demolition and retrofitting of the old jail, which was completed in January 2016.
Phase 2, meanwhile, covered the construction of the dome and landscaping, using an PHP80-million fund from the National Museum.
In a media interview, Barns said they could now start mounting exhibits and drawing up museum operations and educational programs.
He said the ground floor would house the galleries for archaeology, ethnography, fine arts, natural history, and textile, while the second floor would serve as a function area for seminars and conferences. Other vacant spaces would be used for temporary exhibits by artists and photographers.
The centerpiece of the exhibit would be the “Oton Death Mask”, a pre-Hispanic gold mask found in a gravesite in Barangay San Antonio, Oton in Iloilo.
Barns said the gold mask would be brought here from a vault in Manila, along with some fossils from Cabatuan, Iloilo.
He added that several hundred pieces of their artifacts collections, as well as from other provinces in the region, would also be displayed at the regional museum.
“The challenge is to make sure that the whole region is well-represented to enable the visitors to appreciate the diversity and richness of Western Visayas,” Barns said.
“We have already been around Antique, Guimaras, Negros Occidental, Aklan and Capiz, identifying the really great artifacts that people would really want to see,” he added.
Barns said admission to the museum is free to emphasize the importance of its educational mandate more than raising funds.
As of the moment, there are five regional museums in various parts of the country, he said.
Meanwhile, Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor Sr. said the conversion of the old jail facility into a regional museum is a reflection “not only of the glorious past of the province and city of Iloilo but the glorious past and history of the entire region of the whole of Western Visayas.”
“Eventually, it will be part of a tourist attraction in the city and province of Iloilo,” he said. (Cindy Ferrer/PNA)
