Category Archives: PLACES OF INTEREST

National Museum of Fine Arts (Manila)

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The National Museum of Fine Arts (Filipino: Pambansang Museo ng Sining), an art museum formerly known as the National Art Gallery, is  housed in the Old Legislative Building and is located on  across from the National Museum of Anthropology (former Department of Finance Building) in the eastern side of Rizal Park. Owned and operated by the National Museum of the Philippines, the museum was founded in 1998 and houses a collection of paintings and sculptures by classical Filipino artists such as Juan Luna, Félix Resurrección Hidalgo and Guillermo Tolentino.

Check out “National Museum of Anthropology,” “Old Legislative Building” and “National Art Gallery”

The author at the National Museum of Fine Arts

The National Fine Arts Collection (NFAC), the growing collection of visual arts and archives, constitutes a large part of our country’s artistic patrimony and featuring the achievements and aspirations of Filipino visual artists. It is composed of a significant number of paintings, sculptures, icons, sketches, mixed media, painted photographs, prints, drawings, studies, installation art, sculptures, documents, memorabilia and photographs by Filipino visual artists who significantly impacted the nation’s artistic heritage.  It includes important works of unknown artists of the 18th century, masters of the 19th century, National Artists, up to the leading modern artists of the 1990s to the 21st century.

Its increasing photography collection, by renowned art photographers, is a recent development.  It includes the contemporary works of Isa Lorenzo, Neal Oshima, George Tapan, Bengy Toda, and Ferrante Ferranti.

The present National Museum of Fine Arts houses 29 galleries (most offered to sponsors and patrons, individuals or corporations, for the naming right) and hallway exhibitions comprising of 19th century Filipino masters, National Artists, leading modern painters, sculptors, and printmakers. Also on view are art loans from other government institutions, organizations, and individuals.

First Floor: The Judiciary Floor

  • The Government William H. Taft Entrance
  • The Architect Juan M. Arellano Foyer
  • The Sandiganbayan Reception Hall
  • Seminar Rooms
  • The National Fine Arts Repository
  • The National Archaeological Repository
  • Auditorium (North Annex)
  • Administrative Offices (South Annex)

Second Floor: The House of Representatives Floor

  • The Padre Jose Burgos Entrance
  • The President Manuel Roxas Foyer
  • The Spoliarium Hall
  • Gallery I: Religious Art from the 17th to 19th Centuries (Luis I. Ablaza Hall)- features Christian themed art from the 17th-19th centuries.
  • Gallery II: Gallery of the Via Crusis of an Unknown Bohol Master (Friends for Cultural Concerns of the Philippines, Inc. Hall) – features 14 paintings depicting the Stations of the Cross (Via Crusis).
  • Gallery III: Paintings of the Philippine Colonial Tradition of the Sacred Arts (Ramon and Milagros Del Rosario Family Hall) – exhibits the paintings that show images of saints and the Holy Family.
  • Gallery IV: Paintings of the Philippine Colonial Tradition of Portraiture (Fundacion Santiago Hall) – exhibits more than 30 portraits that showcase the status of the living and memories of the dead.
  • Gallery V: The National Hero in Art (Dr. Jose Rizal Hall) – displays sculptures and paintings made by the Philippine National Hero, Dr. Jose P. Rizal, as well as the artists who created paintings, portrait busts, and sculptures of the National Hero.
  • Gallery VI: Gallery of Paintings of Los Dos Pintores Juan Luna and Felix Hidalgo (Far East Bank and Trust Company – Andres and Grace Luna de San Pedro Memorial Hall) – features major works and oil studies by Juan Luna as well as Félix Resurrección Hidalgo, Luna’s contemporary and friend.
  • Gallery VII (Special Exhibition Hall)
  • Gallery VIII (Silvina and Juan Laya Hall) – features paintings by Filipino artists who want to show the painful and hard life during the Imperial Japanese Occupation during 1941 to 1945, liberation of the Philippines by American and Filipino forces and the damage that happened in Manila during the war.
  • Gallery IX (Early 20th Century Philippine Portrait Hall) – features a collection of works of portraiture and Filipino types by artists under the Classical Realist School during 1903 to 1960 and works of artists that are the pioneer and prolific during that period.
  • Gallery X (Museum Foundation of the Philippines Hall)
  • Gallery XI: Drawings of Fernando C. Amorsolo (Society for the Preservation of Philippine Culture Hall) (SPPC Hall) – features over 100 black-and-white pencil and ink sketches and oil studies of the National Artist Fernando Amorsolo before creating his masterpiece.
  • Gallery XII – Eskultor ng Lahing Filipino:  Honoring the Life and Work of Guillermo Tolentino (Security Bank Hall) – features the work of National Artist of the Philippines for Sculpture (1973) Guillermo E. Tolentino.
  • The President Sergio Osmena Function Hall – houses the Madonna with Angels (ca. 1946), a plaster relief  by Francesco Riccardo Monti, donated by the heirs of Petronillo L. Del Rosario, Sr.

Check out “Gallery I: Religious Art from the 17th to 19th Centuries,” “Gallery II: Gallery of the Via Crusis of an Unknown Bohol Master,” “Gallery III: Paintings of the Philippine Colonial Tradition of the Sacred Arts,” “Gallery IV: Paintings of the Philippine Colonial Tradition of Portraiture” “Gallery V: The National Hero in Art,” “Gallery VI: Gallery of Paintings of Los Dos Pintores Juan Luna and Felix Hidalgo,” “Gallery VIII,” “Gallery IX,” “Gallery XI: Drawings of Fernando C. Amorsolo” and “Gallery XII – Eskultor ng Lahing Filipino:  Honoring the Life and Work of Guillermo Tolentino”

Third Floor: The Senate Floor.

  • The President Manuel L. Quezon Foyer
  • Gallery XIII (Vicente and Carmen Fabella Hall) – features works by National Artist for Sculpture (1976) Napoleon Veloso Abueva (1930-2018) and a monumental painting by National Artist for Painting (1973) Carlos V. “Botong” Francisco (1912 – 1969).
  • Gallery XIV: Pillars of Philippine Modernism – features Philippine modern art from the 1920s-1970s, most notably Victorio C. Edades, an artist who started the Modern Art in the Philippines.
  • Gallery XV (Emilio Aguilar Cruz Hall) – is dedicated to the life and works of Emilio Aguilar Cruz (1915-1991).
  • Gallery XVI (Philippine General Hospital Hall) – is dedicated to The Progress of Medicine in the Philippines, a set of four large-scale paintings by celebrated muralist and National Artist Carlos V. “Botong” Francisco (1912-1969) that depicts the evolution of healing practices in the Philippines from the pre-colonial period tribal practices to the modern period.
  • Gallery XVII (Special Exhibition Hall Dedicated to Women’s Art)
  • Gallery XVIII: Pillars of Philippine Modernism – features Modernist art pieces from the 1940s to 1980s, with works by a number of National Artists such as Carlos V. “Botong” Francisco (1912-1969), Jose T. Joya (1931-1995), Cesar T. Legaspi (1917-1994), and Abdulmari Asia Imao (1936-2014). Also displayed are palettes of Jose T. Joya and Mauro Malang Santos (1928-2017).
  • Gallery XIX (Philippine Modern Sculpture Hall)
  • Gallery XX (Placuna Placenta: Capis Shells and Windows to Indigenous Artistry)
  • Gallery XXI (GSIS North Hall) – features National Artist Federico Aguilar Alcuaz’s (1932-2011) Art Protis from the collection of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS). Art protis or non-woven tapestry is a unique process developed in Brno, the second biggest city in the Czech Republic. There, Alcuaz met a Czech artist who introduced him to the new textile collage technique. This exhibition shows Alcuaz’s skills and talent in using this foreign technique to create outstanding collage artworks.
  • Gallery XXII (International Rice Research Institute Hall) – features two large-scale paintings and their watercolor studies by National Artist Vicente S. Manansala (1910-1981) from the collection of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).
  • Gallery XXIII (GSIS Northwest Hall) – pays homage to the works of National Artist for Painting Vicente S. Manansala (1910-1981). It contains his works from the National Fine Arts Collection and the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) art collection.
  • Gallery XXIV (Philam Life Hall) – shows seven large paintings by National Artist Vicente S. Manansala (1910-1981) commissioned in the 1960s by the Philippine-American General Life Insurance Company (Philam Life) for its building at United Nations Avenue, Ermita, Manila. Also featured here are rural-themed wood reliefs by renowned sculptor, Jose P. Alcantara (1911-2005), which previously adorned the Philam Life Theater.
  • The Senate Session Hall (Main Level) – features modern and contemporary Philippine art from the 20th to the 21st centuries. All the ornamentation and decoration in this Hall was done by Isabelo Tampinco.
  • The Senator Claro M. Recto Function Hall

“Gallery XIII,” “Gallery XIV: Pillars of Philippine Modernism,” Gallery XV,” “Gallery XVI,” “Gallery XVIII: Pillars of Philippine Modernism,” “Gallery XIX,” “Gallery XXI,” “Gallery XXII,” “Gallery XXIII” and “Gallery XXIV”

Fourth Floor: The Executive Floor.

  • The Senator Benigno S. Aquino Jr. Foyer
  • Gallery XXV
  • Gallery XXVI
  • Gallery XXVII (Special Exhibition Hall)
  • Gallery XXVIII (Special Exhibition Hall)
  • Gallery XXIX (Philippine Modern Sculpture Hall)
  • The Senate Session Hall (Mezzanine Level)
  • The President Jose P. Laurel Function Hall
  • Management Offices

Check out “Circa by Impy Pilapil” and “Placuna Placenta: Capis Shells and Windows to Indigenous Artistry“

National Museum of Fine Arts: Padre Burgos Avenue, Ermita, Manila 1000, Metro Manila. Tel: (632) 8527-1215 and (632) 8298-1100.  Email: inquiry@nationalmuseum.gov.ph.  Website: nationalmuseum.gov.ph.  Open Tuesdays to Sundays, 9 AM – 4PM. Admission is free.  Coordinates: 14°35′13″N 120°58′52″E.

Old Legislative Building (Manila)

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The monumental Old Legislative Building (also the Old Congress Building), now the home of the National Museum of Fine Arts (operated by the National Museum of the Philippines since 1996), was formerly the home of the bicameral congress from 1926 to 1972, and the Philippine Senate from 1987 to 1997. The building was originally designed by Ralph Harrington Doane (Consulting Architect of the Bureau of Public Works, precursor of the Department of Public Works and Highways). Doane, with the assistance of Antonio Mañalac Toledo, originally designed the building as the future home of the National Library of the Philippines, according to the plan of Manila of Daniel H. Burnham.

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Old Legislative Building – West Facade

Began in 1918, it was built under the supervision of the architecture firm of Pedro Siochi and Company but construction was delayed due to lack of funds. In 1926, the Philippine Legislature (established on October 16, 1916) decided to move into the Library building and changes to the building’s layout were done accordingly by architect Juan M. Arellano who added the fourth floor and the chambers for legislators, changed the central façade and incorporated the ornamentation and sculptural work.

The Neo-Classical facade

On July 16, 1926, the building was inaugurated with the formal opening of the Second Regular Session of the 7th Philippine Legislature  in the presence of Governor-General Leonard Wood, then Senate President Manuel L. Quezon, House Speaker Manuel Roxas, and Colonel Carmi A. Thompson (envoy of United States President Calvin Coolidge). From 1928 to 1944, it was concurrently the headquarters of the National Library.

In 1935, the Commonwealth of the Philippines was proclaimed and the inauguration of President Manuel L. Quezon was held outside the building which became the home of the National Assembly of the Philippines (it was subsequently known as the National Assembly Building). In 1940, a bicameral Congress of the Philippines, consisting of a Senate and House of Representatives, replaced the National Assembly, with the Senate occupying the upper floors and the House occupying the lower floors. The building would serve as home of the Commonwealth Congress until 1945.

East facade

In February 1945, during World War II, Japanese forces used the building and its premises as their stronghold, modifying it with defensive installations. Surrounding the building were obstacles, roadblocks, trenches, pillboxes and barbed wire and guns and other heavy machine guns were strategically installed on the building floors. For several days until February 27, the American forces bombarded the building with artillery fire and the building’s north and south wings were heavily damaged. Most of the structure was beyond repair, except for the still-standing central portion.

Pediment at east facade

In 1946, with the inauguration of the Republic of the Philippines, the building was rebuilt, mostly from memory and with the aid of a few remaining blueprints, by the U.S. Philippine War Damage Corporation who maintained its original building four-storey height, footprint and dimensions but with less ornate interior and exterior ornamentation. Reconstruction began in 1949 and, that same year, the Congress moved back in. In 1950, the two wings of the building were completed.

Historical plaque (Old Legislative Building) installed by the National Historical Commission in 2010

The building, now known as the Congress Building, continuously served as home of the Congress of the Philippines until 1972 when the Congress was effectively dissolved and the building was padlocked with the declaration of martial law. For a short time, the fourth floor of the building became home of the offices of the Prime Minister of the Philippines (a position established under the 1973 Constitution of the Philippines).  Offices of various government branches were also housed here, with the Ombudsman occupying the third floor, the National Museum on the second floor, and the Sandiganbayan on the ground floor. For the duration of that time, the building was called the Executive House.

Historical plaque (Pambansang Museo) installed by the National Historical Institute in 2001

With the ratification of the 1987 Constitution of the Philippines, the Congress of the Philippines was reestablished with the Senate using the original Congress Building for their plenary sessions until May 1997 (when it moved to the Government Service Insurance System Building on reclaimed land on Manila Bay in Pasay)) and the House of Representatives moving to the Batasang Pambansa Complex in Constitution Hill, Quezon City.   The former office of the Prime Minister was taken as the Office of the Vice-President.

Bronze statue of Sergio Osmena, sitting on a marble pedestal created by Federico S. Ilustre, was created by Guillermo Tolentino and cast by Fonderia Berdicando Marinelle in Italy.  It was unveiled in 1966.  In 2019, this statue was declared as an Important Cultural Property by the National Museum of the Philippines.

In 1998, the building was then turned over to the National Museum of the Philippines. On September 30, 2010, the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) declared the building as a “National Historical Landmark” by virtue of Resolution No. 8 (dated September 30, 2010). A marker commemorating the declaration was unveiled on October 29, 2010.

Bronze statue of Manuel L. Quezon, sitting on a marble pedestal created by Federico S. Ilustre, was created by Guillermo Tolentino and cast by Fonderia Berdicando Marinelle in Italy.  It was unveiled in 1965. In 2019, this statue was declared as an Important Cultural Property by the National Museum of the Philippines.

On October 29, 2012, the restored old Senate Session Hall was inaugurated after a two-year restoration project aimed to bring back its pre-war architectural glory that is intended to be part of the learning tours of museum visitors. On July 16, 2019, the NHCP unveiled the Philippine Flag Hoisting marker to honor the site’s historic value. In view of this, the Philippine Flag is to be permanently hoisted and lighted at night at the National Museum of Fine Arts.

The author at the Old Legislative Building

The four-storey building has a rectangular plan with a layout oriented with its line of symmetry in an east-west axis, longitude in a north-south axis, and its main entrances on the east and the west. Courtyards at the north and south flank the building’s central core spaces. Organized around these courtyards are the associated rooms, with single volume hallways east and west, and double volume hallways north and south. Staircases are located at both ends of the entrance halls and the four corners of the building.

The columned portico, at the second floor, signals the west entrance which is accessed via a flight of stairs and the carriageway ramp coming from ground level along Padre Burgos Street. The west portico has four Corinthian columns that rise the full height of the building.

Entrance lobby

The Neo-Classical  façade is articulated with giant Corinthian columns and pilasters rising from the second floor level to the height of the two storeys of the building, with the first storey resembling the one-storey high plinth where these columns and pilasters rest.

Bronze statue of President Manuel A. Roxas, created by Guillermo Tolentino, was cast by Fonderia Berdicando Marinelle in Italy.  Commissioned by Gerardo M. Roxas in 1968, it was unveiled in the lobby on April 15, 2016.

The columns and pilasters surrounding the entire wall are topped by decorative entablatures.  The projecting central bay, featuring a group of four columns, has corbelled balconies on the third level. Another group of four columns, with similar Corinthian capitals, are also featured at the corner bays.

Fenestrations consist of rectangular windows decorated with grillwork.  Except for the west central bay with the columned portico, both the east and west façades are identical. Identical east and west pediments, with relief sculptures, surmount the central part of the building. Relief sculptures on the tympanum of the pediment, depicting “Inang Bayan” surrounded by Greek deities, emphasizes grandeur and nationalism and ennobles the edifice. From the west and south of the building, respectively, you can enjoy a splendid view of Intramuros and Rizal Park.

Statue of Diwata , a sculpture of a winged fairy done in reinforced concrete by Guillermo Tolentino, welcomes visitors tot the museum.

An arched porte-cochere, protecting the east entrance at the ground level, is approached via the east driveway from the present east open space (formerly a southward radial road with Agrifina Circle as its terminus).

Old Legislative Building: Padre Burgos Avenue, Ermita, Manila 1000, Metro Manila. Coordinates: 14°35′13″N 120°58′52″E.

Minor Basilica and National Shrine of St. Lorenzo Ruiz (Binondo, Manila)

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Minor Basilica of San Lorenzo Ruiz

This church was founded by the Dominicans in 1587 to serve Chinese converts.  Fronting Plaza San Lorenzo Ruiz (formerly Plaza de Calderon de la Barca), it was built before 1614 and transferred to its present site in the 18th century. Formerly known as Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary Parish, it was renamed after St. Lorenzo Ruiz, the Philippines’ first saint.

Historical plaque

Beatified on February 18, 1981 and canonized by Pope John Paul II on October 18, 1987), he was born of a Chinese father and a Filipino mother, trained in this church, served as a sacristan (altar boy), clerk and notary and, afterwards, went as a missionary to Japan, where he and his companions were martyred on September 19, 1637 in Nagasaki for refusing to renounce Christianity.

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The five-storey, octagonal Chinese-influenced bell tower

In 1762, the original building was destroyed by British bombardment and its roof replaced with nipa in 1778 as the wood was destroyed by termites.   In 1781, its dome was constructed by Spanish architect Domingo Cruz y Gonzalez.

The church’s dome

In 1852, a new granite church was completed on the same site, featuring an octagonal, pagoda-like bell tower which suggests the Chinese culture of the parishioners. The church was slightly damaged (the mirador or viewing window at the top of the bell tower was destroyed) during the June 3, 1863 earthquake. In March 1893 or 1894, Andrés Bonifacio and his second wife, Gregoria de Jesús were wed in Catholic rites in the church.

On September 22, 1944, American bombing destroyed the structure, burning everything including the archives of the parish. Nothing was left behind except the stone walls of the western façade of the church and the five-storey octagonal bell tower.

The church’s interior

The present church was rebuilt, in three phases, between 1946 and 1971 by Msgr. Federico V. Navarro, partly continued Msgr. Guillermo S. Mendoza from 1971 to 1976 and restored and reconstructed from January 1977 to January 1984.  On May 9, 1985, it was blessed by Jaime Cardinal Sin.  The roof behind the pediment, the three-storey parish center, convent and the walls at the left of the façade were added.

Pastel-colored gilt reredos behind the main altar (loosely modeled after the façade of St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City

The imposing, still original (with some renovations) Italian High Renaissance facade is buttressed on the sides by pilasters terminating in urn-like decorations.  Its pediment, framed by a foliated scroll and topped by a tower at the apex, has a centrally located small circular window framed by smaller columns and pediment.

Ceiling paintings depicting scenes from the four mysteries of the Holy Rosary

The original six-storey octagonal bell tower (based on the Chinese tradition on luck and fortune), on the right, has pedimented window openings and cantons at the angles.  Inside the church are ornate pastel-colored gilt reredos behind the main altar (loosely modeled after the façade of St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City) and it houses the image of Nuestra Señora del Rosario.

Ceiling paintings depict scenes from the four mysteries of the Holy Rosary.  Fronting the church is (or simply Plaza Binondo).  Masses are said here in Filipino, Mandarin, Hokkien, and English.

Minor Basilica and National Shrine of St. Lorenzo Ruiz: cor. Ongpin and Quintin Paredes Sts., Binondo, Manila.  Tel: (632) 8242-4850 and 8242-4041.  Fax: (632) 8241-4653. E-mail: binondochurch1596@gmail.com. Coordinates: 14.60021°N 120.97470°E.

Plaza San Lorenzo Ruiz (Binondo, Manila)

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Plaza San Lorenzo Ruiz

The 1,460 sq. m. (15,715 sq. ft.), ellipse-shaped (unlike other plazas in Manila) Plaza San Lorenzo Ruiz (or Plaza Lorenzo Ruiz),  a major public square fronting the Minor Basilica of San Lorenzo Ruiz (Binondo Church), one of the main churches of the City of Manila, is considered the center of Binondo as a whole. It is bounded by Quintin Paredes Street (formerly Calle Rosario) to the east and Juan Luna Street (formerly Calle Anloague) to the west, parallel to the Estero de Binondo.

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Minor Basilica of San Lorenzo Ruiz

Originally called the Plaza de Binondo (sometime in the 1700s or 1800s), and then Plaza Carlos IV (after Charles IV of Spain), the plaza was eventually renamed Plaza Calderón de la Barca (often shortened to Plaza Calderón), after the famous Spanish playwright Pedro Calderon de la Barca later in the 19th century. It is believed that the plaza may have been renamed after Calderón either by the then-sitting Governor-General, or by the Dominican friars who had adored his works and who were, at the time running the Binondo Church.

Plaza San Lorenzo Ruiz was created to serve as the largest plaza (originally an open grass field) of Binondo, the settlement of for Chinese migrants arriving in Manila which was established in 1594 on the northern bank of the Pasig River by then Governor-General Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas. During the Spanish colonial period, the plaza was a hub for economic activity, now surrounded by trees and tipped with two large fountains, both of which still stand today.

Trade around the area increased with the completion of the Binondo Church in 1854, and several large buildings and mansions were built around the plaza. During American rule, economic activity continued to grow in Binondo, and the plaza, alongside other major plazas in Manila, was a busy center of activity, being also well-served by Manila’s pre-World War II tram network.

A small Chinese shrine

During the Battle of Manila in 1945, the plaza was spared and economic activity in Binondo recovered thereafter.  However, around the 1960s, the area around the plaza started declining when most business activity shifted from Manila to Makati and Cubao in Quezon City.

Fountain at northwest corner

On September 12, 1981, by virtue of Batas Pambansa Blg. 133, the plaza was renamed after Lorenzo Ruiz, one of the Martyrs of Japan and the protomartyr of the Philippines.  In 2005, during the tenure of Lito Atienza, Plaza San Lorenzo Ruiz was redeveloped by the Manila city government with help from the Metrobank Foundation (which donated Php3 million for the project). A perimeter fence which previously circled around the plaza was removed. In 2014, during the tenure of Joseph Estrada, another redevelopment was completed.

Fountain at southeast corner

With a fountain on each end, Plaza San Lorenzo Ruiz is paved with granite tiles and multicolored interlocking concrete bricks (similar to Plaza Miranda in Quiapo, with park benches, installed around the plaza’s perimeter, and a number of royal palm trees planted in the plaza’s center, complementing a number of existing narra trees. At night, the plaza is lit with 42 promenade lampposts, 32 floodlights and 24 uplights that have been installed at strategic points around the area.

Statue of San Lorenzo Ruiz (Eduardo Catrillo)

When the plaza (and the area in general) was in serious decline by the 1980s, the plaza became the repository for four monuments (two of which are over a century old), moved from nearby Plaza Cervantes and Plaza Goiti (now Plaza Lacson), which were cleared to make room for parking space.  A 12 ft. high, brass statue of Blessed Lorenzo Ruiz, repositioned to face the Binondo Church (where he was baptized and served as sacristan and clerk at the parish office), is the most notable monument.  Created by the late Filipino sculptor Eduardo Castrillo in 1989, it was installed during the 2005 rehabilitation.  A memorial to Chinese Filipino victims of World War II, behind the statue, was erected in 1995 by the Confederation of Filipino Chinese Veterans.

Memorial to Chinese-Filipino Victims of World War II

A small, unassuming and sadly not well-maintained monument to Joaquin Santa Marina (the founder of the La Insular Cigar and Cigarette Factory), said to have been built in the late 19th century, is found at the southern end of the plaza. A taller obelisk, at the northern end of the plaza, dates back to 1911.  Erected in memory of Tomas Pinpin, the first Filipino printer, it was moved, from the smaller Plaza Cervantes (south of Plaza San Lorenzo Ruiz), to the plaza in 1979.

Monument to Joaquin Santa Marina

AUTHOR’S NOTES:

Today, the park and plaza looks run-down and in a sorry state of neglect, with homeless people, beggars and vagrants using it as a clothes drying, sleeping and dining area. Trees are untrimmed, bushes overgrown and statues dirty and filled with graffiti.  Trash was everywhere. Surprisingly, both fountains were still functional. So sad…..

A number of notable structures, aside from the Binondo Church, are (or were) located within the vicinity of Plaza San Lorenzo Ruiz. The aforementioned La Insular Cigar and Cigarette Factory, a filigreed construction of stone and cast iron opened in 1883 after the lifting of the Spanish tobacco monopoly three years earlier, was the largest building to have been built around the plaza. It was, however, destroyed by fire during the Battle of Manila and the site is now occupied by the Wellington Building, once the headquarters of the Metropolitan Bank and Trust Company (Metrobank), founded by Chinese Filipino businessman George Ty, but still home to the Binondo offices of a number of Metrobank-affiliated companies.

Tomas Pinpin Monument (1918)

Beside it was the Hotel de Oriente, then the most popular hotel in Manila which also served as the erstwhile headquarters of the National Library of the Philippines.  National Hero José Rizal once stayed in Room 22.  In fact, Plaza San Lorenzo Ruiz is mentioned in Chapter 4 of José Rizal’s novel Noli Me Tángere (where Crisostomo Ibarra reaches the plaza and its vicinity after attending Captain Tiago’s dinner party at his house on Calle Anloague). Unlike the La Insular Cigar and Cigarette Factory, the Hotel de Oriente was only partially destroyed in the Battle of Manila but it was demolished afterward and the site is now occupied by Tytana Plaza (home to the current Binondo offices of Metrobank). The Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar complex in Bagac, Bataan has a replica of the Hotel de Oriente.

Wellington Building

Also nearby, sandwiched between the Asia United Bank Building and the San Fernando Building, is the decrepit, century-old Pansiteria Macanista de Buen Gusto, a now crumbling 1880s wooden building, with dilapidated capiz shell windows, which was mentioned by José Rizal in the novel El Filibusterismo. In Chapter 25 of the novel (entitled “Smiles and Tears”), Rizal wrote that the panciteria was the venue of a meeting of 14 students where they ate pancit lang-lang while mocking the Spanish friars. Now owned by Ever New Realty and Development Corp., the building is a “Presumed Important Cultural Property” which means it is protected from being demolished.

Pansiteria Macanista de Buen Gusto

Plaza San Lorenzo Ruiz: Juan Luna St., Binondo, Manila. Coordinates: 14°36′01″N 120°58′26″E.

Co Ban Kiat Buiding (Binondo, Manila)

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The Co Ban Kiat Buiding, standing in a busy portion of Juan Luna Street in what was once called “Chinatown’s Wall Street,” was the former SJ Wilson Building, named after the American expatriate Samuel J. Wilson who was behind the printing business Carmelo and Bauermann before World War II.

Co Ban Kiat Building

Built in 1937, the SJ Wilson Building, in its heyday, also housed the Standard and Chartered Bank, the Manila Stock Exchange and even the Japanese Consulate General. In 2011, the building came under the ownership of Binondo-based Co Ban Kiat Inc. (CBCI), the biggest supplier of hardware in the Philippines for retail, commercial and industrial projects.

Our guide Mr. S.J. Go of Renacimiento Manila narrating the history of the building

Initially, company president Johnny O. Cobankiat, the third-generation scion, as well as his colleagues in the real-estate industry and immediate family members, had no inkling of the building’s architectural and heritage value. Not seeing any value in it, they saw demolition as the most convenient way to redevelop the property. Fortunately, the owner was convinced by Deogracias B. Degala, the in-house architect, and other conscientious minds to take the path of conservation.

During the two-year, trial-and-error restoration, a full diagnosis of the building’s structural integrity was undertaken.   Also, for the refurbishment of the façade, interiors and ceiling roof, the owner and architect were guided by the principle of keeping as much of the original details as possible. No details were removed, and ornaments, such as the cornices, moldings and the striped pilasters were restored.

In keeping with texture that followed the patina of the old building, the late 1930s period, Art Deco, boxy and geometric façade was painted with China white, an off-white/light-beige tone. Now, heritage-conservation advocates and concerned members of the Chinatown community are celebrating this building’s rebirth.

Viewing this building’s massive bulk from the street, the heavy façade of the Co Ban Kiat Building, looming like a behemoth, is somehow softened by its tall, rectangular, encased windows protected by original wrought-iron grillwork.

The main entrance, along obscure Nimfa Street, is located at the southern portion of the building’s façade. Its doorway, flanked by a pair of Ionic columns and topped with an escutcheon, opens up the ground floor and main office of the company. Welcoming customers at the main entrance are details from the original company address on Quintin Paredes Street (ironically torn down) such as the old glass panels, originally a form of street-level advertising, with the embellished gold-gilt company name.

The still original decorative window grilles

The design firm Atalyer, led by chief integrating officer León Araneta, created what is probably one of the most delightful commercial interiors in all Chinatown, with a high and airy ceiling evoking a Commonwealth-era downtown-Manila spirit. The white walls and massive support columns are softened by brown veneer wood cladding. Wood partitions, with fence-like railings acting as partitions, demarcate the spaces within, giving a nostalgic twist reminiscent of old banks from that era.

At the center of the hall hangs the Chinese characters zhit tiak ti giap, a visual link to the company’s ethnic Chinese origins, honors Mr. Co Ban Kiat, the current owner’s great-grandfather and the founder of the company. Traditional black signboards, with gold-leaf lettering, are widely used among old Tsinoy businesses in Binondo to indicate the business name and its purpose.

The fourth floor cafeteria, reached via the original hand-cranked elevator, combines modern edgy lines with nostalgic black-and-white photos of Manila. Miniature wooden signboards of past tenants, adorning the support columns, subtly integrates more of the building’s history. A lovely open deck has a front view of downtown Manila’s architectural symphony.

The eighth floor, the most striking feature of this building, has stylized buttresses and a mansard-like concrete roof.  Envisioned to be a museum of sorts, here you will still find remnants of the building’s past activities such as a gold-smelting facility.  The uneven framed outline of the exposed, largely deformed, web-like roof trusses, conserved as a vestige of the structure’s history, came when a major fire in 1969 resulted in the twisting of the cast-iron support.

Co Ban Kiat Building: 231 Juan Luna St, Binondo, Manila, 1006 Metro Manila.  Tel: (632) 843-1931, 843-2734 and 8243-5265.  E-mail: jao@cobankiat.com.ph.  Website: www.cobankiat.com and www.cbkhardware.com.

China Banking Corporation Building (Binondo, Manila)

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The magnificent, seven-storey China Banking Corporation (China Bank) Building in Binondo, originally designed by German architect Julius Arthur Niclaus Gabler Gumbert (also the designer of the Yutivo Hardware Building in Binondo and the San Miguel Brewery Building, now the New Executive Building of the Malacanang Complex) in the Neo-Classical fashion, utilizing a variation of the Beaux-Arts style.

China Banking Corporation Building

It was built from 1923 to 1924 as the head office of China Bank. Originally it had five storeys but it was later extended to seven. During the Japanese Occupation, it was used as a headquarters of the Japanese and, during the Battle for Manila in 1945, was burned by the Japanese and destroyed.

The restored building’s Neo-Classical facade

After the war, it repaired and again used as the office of the bank in July 1945. The building served as the bank’s head office until 1969, when China Bank moved its key operations to Makati. On March 14, 2018, to mark the 100th anniversary in 2020, China Bank decided to restore building and the Binondo Heritage Restoration Project team, led by SVP Alexander Escucha, was tasked with the job. For the restoration, they engaged the services of heritage architect and author Manuel Noche (Noche + Architects), former secretary of the Heritage Conservation Society which advocates for the restoration and renewal of the Binondo area.

A row of fluted Corinthian pilasters

Much of the construction work, to make the building LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, the widely used green building rating system in the world) compliant, required extensive structural, architectural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and insulation work, aimed to strengthen the building, make it energy efficient, and bring it up to modern building codes and safety standards.

Reliefs of festoons in the shape of garlands and wreaths

On April 04, 2019, construction started. All the floors were retrofitted with a Japanese technology of rubber dampeners, the first of its kind in the country.  A commissioned hydrological study showed that the lobby was below the Pasig River’s level at high tide, so a modern pipe system and a cement barrier was installed in the ground floor.

The arched arcade

The original grills and arches, previously walled in for the last 70 years, were meticulously restored, giving the refreshed building an elegant and nostalgic vibe.  Inside, the high ceiling, beautiful granite floor, and natural light streaming in from the arches opened up the space and made it look grander.  Professionally designed exterior lights were installed to light up the building at night.

National Historical Commission of the Philippines plaque

On August 14, 2020, the restored façade and ground floor were unveiled, just in time for China Bank’s centennial anniversary and, on December 17, 2020, was declared by the National Museum of the Philippines as an Important Cultural Property.  On January 31, 2021, the Binondo Business Center (BBC) Cash Department was officially opened at the lobby and, on December 22, 2021, a historical marker from the National Historical Commission of the Philippines was unveiled.

National Museum of the Philippines plaque designating the building as an “Important Cultural Property”

The China Bank Museum, curated by Marian Pastor Roces, was also built at the fourth floor (which formerly housed the executive offices) for the public to appreciate the business and culture of banking through memorabilia, art, and mementoes.

AUTHOR’S NOTES:

The corner facing façade of the building has an arcade lined with semicircular arches, reaching up to the mezzanine level, with corbel keystones.  Above the cornice are rows of fluted Corinthian pilasters up to the fifth level and flanking rectangular windows topped by triangular pediments. Below some of the windows are reliefs of festoons in the form of garlands and wreaths.  The roof cornice is lined with dentil moldings.

China Banking Corporation (China Bank) Building: Dasmarinas cor. Juan Luna Sts., Binondo, Manila. Tel: 2247-5388.

Old HSBC Building (Binondo, Manila)

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The former, now century-old Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation ((HSBC) Building, situated just before the El Hogar Filipino Building at Juan Luna Street, going towards the Pasig River, was designed in the then prevailing Neo-Classical Revival Style seen in many office buildings of the era by British architect G.H. Hayward (who worked out of Hong Kong) and built, from 1921 to 1922, by contractor Oscar F. Campbell.

The former HSBC Building

The building was inaugurated on September 22, 1922 with Acting Governor General of the Philippines Charles Emmett Yeater doing the honors.

Check out “El Hogar Filipino Building”

HSBC, which established its first branch at a former wooden building along Rosario Street, Binondo on November 11, 1875, is the first and oldest foreign international financial institution in the Philippines.  It was, very much, a vital force in the Philippine economy, helping finance the sugar industry and the building of railways, among others.

The five-storey, concrete-encased steel structure, with its unique double finial architectural feature which highlights its corner main entrance, stands on a 10,706 sq. m. lot.  It had 20-inch armored concrete walls reinforced by two networks of twisted steel bars and treasury vaults with 1 m. (40 in.) thick encasing walls. The ground floor had 7 m. (23 ft.) high ceilings while upper floors had ceilings as high as 4.9 m. (16 ft.).

The buildings lower floors were then occupied by HSBC, while the upper floors were leased out to Smith Bell & Co. Ltd., representative of Sun Life Insurance of Canada, among others.  After World War II, the building housed the British Consulate from 1946 to the1960s as well as the William H. Quasha Law Office. When Citibank moved its business from the FNCB Building to Makati. Thereafter, HSBC followed suit and vacated the building and moved to Makati in 1971.

For many years, the former HSBC Building was in a state of neglect. Renamed the Hamilton Building, it was, for many years, the bodega of a lighting fixtures supplier.  Its facade dingy, with almost a century’s worth of grime, graffiti and gunk and its main entrance door was blocked by street people who seemed to have camped in the premises.

When Noble Place, adjacent to the former HSBC Building, broke ground on November 2014, and it seemed like the old, abandoned and derelict building was next. In March 2017, conservation groups were alerted that the windows of the building were being removed.

The main entrance

However, the new owner assured heritage advocates that he appreciated heritage buildings and would not demolish the edifice, revealing that he plans to adaptively reuse the structure through retrofitting and restoration: partly as a restaurant (now the modern artistic bistro – Grand Café 1919) on the ground floor, and the rest of the floors will be office spaces for lease.

Though the interiors were redecorated, the 7 m. high ceiling of the bank’s former lobby, the intricate grille windows and the columns’ Corinthian capitals were retained.  A replica of the commemorative plaque originally found at the building’s main entrance was enhanced in polychrome. The Neo-Classical façade, which lends an air of timeless elegance to the building’s exterior, was scrubbed up and repainted.

Former HSBC Building: 117 Juan Luna cor. Valentin St. (formerly Callejon San Gabriel), Binondo, Manila 1006.

Pacific Commercial Company Building (Binondo, Manila)

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The historic, five-storey Pacific Commercial Company Building, also known as the  Juan Luna Building, Juan Luna Plaza, the First National City Bank (now Citibank) Building and the Ayala Building, was built in the 1920s. Designed by American architects Murphy, McGill and Hamlin of New York City and Shanghai, it was built at a cost of two million pesos, finished by July 1922 and inaugurated on November 13, 1922.

Pacific Commercial Company Building

Later bought by Enrique Zobel, the building was known as the “Ayala Building” from 1940 to 1959. In 2007, LBC Properties Inc. led a renovation of the building. The First National City Bank also occupied the building.

In 2009, the building was bought by businessman Carlos Araneta who planned to the building to host a business process outsourcing company. The building underwent renovation in 2012 and was meant to be named as the Juan Luna e-Services Building. The facade of the building was preserved. However lack of investors hindered Araneta’s plan and the Juan Luna Building was purposed as a mixed-used building that also serves as a living museum.

Historical plaque installed by the National Historical Commission in 2017

Past midnight of May 28, 2018, a fire broke out at the nearby Land Management Bureau Building. By 8 AM (PST +8:00), the fire has reached the Juan Luna Building and the fire affected the third floor and portions of the fourth floor.  The fire, put out around 4 PM, also affected the 150 Plaza Cervantes Building, the Moraga Mansion and the National Archives of the Philippines office (although the agency stated that no historical documents were burnt since it keeps these in their offices in Paco and Ermita). Due to the timing of the start of the fire, the incident is suspected to be caused by arson.

Occupying an approximately 1,800 sq. m. (19,000 sq. ft.), irregularly shaped corner lot adjacent to El Hogar, it has a frontage of 43 m. (141 ft.), along General Luna St., and 46 m. (151 ft.) along Muelle de la Industria, along the Pasig River.

Check out “El Hogar Filipino Building”

The building’s design is derived from the trademark architectural features set by the International Banking Corporation of New York for its overseas branches. The bank’s prototype, made up of a row of colossal columns in antis, was faithfully reproduced for its Manila headquarters. The ground floor, with arched openings with fanlights emphasized by stones forming the arch, was fully rusticated to effect a textured finish.  Lintels, resting on consoles, adorned the main doors.

Six three-storey high, engaged Ionic columns, dominating the south and west facades above the ground floor, end in an entablature topped by a cornice and are flanked by a pair of pilasters on both fronts. The slightly indented fifth floor is also topped by an entablature crowned by strip of anthemion.

Pacific Commercial Company Building: Juan Luna St. cor. Muelle de la Industria, Binondo, Manila.

El Hogar Filipino Building (Binondo, Manila)

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The El Hogar Filipino Building (Spanish: Edificio El Hogar Filipino), also known simply as El Hogar, was an early skyscraper in the Philippines. Built sometime between 1911 and 1914, it was designed by Spanish-Filipino engineer Don Ramón José de Irureta-Goyena Rodríguez and architect Francisco Perez-Muñoz in the Beaux-Arts style, its architecture reflecting elements of Neoclassical and Renaissance styles.  Opened on December 2014, it was one of the first buildings in Manila built entirely out of concrete.

El Hogar Filipino Building

Right across Juan Luna Street, on its northern front, is Pacific Commercial Company Building (commonly known as the First National City Bank Building, it was built in 1922), another important edifice, and the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank Building on its rear.

Check out “Pacific Commercial Company Building” and “Old HSBC Building”

The four-storey building, by the Pasig River, was built as a wedding present of Don Antonio Melian y Pavia, a Spanish businessman who was titled as the third Conde de Peracamps, to his bride Doña Margarita Zóbel y de Ayala, who was a sister of  patriarch Don Enrique Zóbel de Ayala.

Don Antonio was born on May 21, 1879 in Las Palmas in the Canary Islands in Spain. From Spain, he sailed to Peru in 1903 where he held posts in the insurance company La Previsora and in the Casino Español de Lima. In 1907, he first set foot in Manila and, on June that same year, married Don Enrique Zóbel de Ayala‘s sister Doña Margarita Zóbel y de Ayala at San Agustin Church.  In 1910, he sailed from Peru back to the Philippines and established the El Hogar Filipino and the Filipinas Compañía de Seguros together with his brothers-in-law Enrique and Fernando Zóbel y de Ayala.

The El Hogar housed the Melián business empire, such as the Filipinas Compañía de Seguros (the first local-owned fire insurance company), Tondo de Beneficiencia, Casa de España, Casa de Pensiones, and Sociedad El Hogar Filipino, a financing cooperative and lending company. Other tenants of the El Hogar include Ayala y Compañía, Sociedad Lizárraga Hermanos, and Smith, Bell and Company (a shipping company). In the 1920s, after the completion of its own building at the foot of the Jones Bridge in Plaza Moraga, a short walk from the El Hogar, the Filipinas Compañía de Seguros moved out of the El Hogar.

Check out “The Revitalized Jones Bridge”

It survived World War II (it only suffered minor damages during the Battle of Manila in 1945) and a number of earthquakes and is one of two remaining American-era structures in the area facing the Pasig River. In the post-war years, Sociedad El Hogar Filipino closed down, along with other Melián businesses, leaving only the Filipinas Compañía de Seguros. Because of this, the Meliáns sold the El Hogar to the Fernandez family, and the El Hogar was rented out to other companies, mostly customs brokerage firms with few residential tenants. It also became the shooting location of movies, TV shows and fashion and advertising shoots.  Some decades ago, the building was finally abandoned as an office building and fell into neglect and decay.

On February 2014, news involving the El Hogar sparked when it was reported that it was sold to The Ritz Premiere Corporation, a Chinese-Filipino real estate developers, which reported that it will demolish the El Hogar because of the building’s stability, and be turned into a condominium. By November, G.I. sheets fenced up the El Hogar Building, seemingly being prepared for demolition.

The news spread like a wildfire throughout heritage conservationists (who wrote to both the city government of Manila and the National Historical Commission of the Philippines, or NHCP, to stop the demolition of the El Hogar), cultural advocates, and ordinary citizens alike. Because of this, a petition to stop the demolition was created. The Ritz Premiere Corporation said that they do not have plans of demolishing the El Hogar but will, instead, use it as a warehouse.   The NHCP issued a cease and desist order and attempted to purchase the iconic building.  However, negotiations were halted when NHCP and The Ritz could not agree with the price.  The building’s status is still uncertain.

Some of the building’s interesting features are its two garden courtyards and its unique mirador (balcony) where one can see the Pasig River and the southern part of Manila which includes the walled city of Intramuros, Ermita, and Malate.  El Hogar’s magnificently ornate grand staircase, considered as one of the most ornate in the city, has a sculpted mythical griffin as its base and bears Antonio’s and Margarita’s initials. However, on July 6, 2014, the magnificent and intricate grille work of the building’s grand staircase were seen being loaded to a truck belonging to a building contractor.

The value of the El Hogar Filipino Building is its architecture.  A representation of American period design, materials and construction methods, the building is a representation of the architecture of business establishments of that era. It also has a collective value as one of the significant structures within the historic Binondo district and Escolta Street, along the cultural landscape of the Pasig River.

El Hogar Filipino Building: cor. Juan Luna St. and Calle Muelle dela Industría, Binondo, Manila.

Escolta Museum (Manila)

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Escolta Museum

One of the highlights of our Binondo Heritage Walk was our visit to the reopened (after the easing of COVID-19 guidelines) Escolta Museum at the mezzanine of the Calvo Building.

Check out “Calvo Building”

Calvo Building

The place to be if you are a history buff and a fan of Old Manila, this quaint museum, established in 1994, showcases the bygone era of the most elegant district of old Manila through its permanent exhibit entitled “Bote’t, Diyaryo, Extraordinaryo.”

L-R: Mr. Diego Gabriel Torres (Renacimiento Manila president) and our guide Mr. Stephen John A. Pamorada of The Heritage Collective

Immediately upon climbing a narrow stairway from the lobby, you will find a small room displaying historic news clippings from old newspaper publications (El Renacimiento, Filipinas,  Republica Filipina, etc.), journals and magazines dating back to the twilight of Spanish rule and the nascent years of America’s occupation.

Newspaper Clippings

It includes an 1899 newspaper showing that even then, Rizal was already regarded as a hero and martyr.

The author

Jandy

On display at the long hallway are memorable, fascinating and nostalgic artifacts and pieces such as old photographs of socialites and personalities; artifacts, manuscripts, ticket receipts from boutiques (Syvel’s, Heacocks’s, Hamilton Brown, etc.); Filipino music posters; and postcards of Carnaval de Manila beauty queens.

Manila Carnival Postcards of Beauty Quuens

There are also old labels; memos and newspaper advertisements (imported cars, sporting equipment, shoes, shoes, empty bottles, silver spoons, phonographs, radio sets, etc.) mostly from businesses that used to hold address in Escolta.

Print advertisements of stores in Escolta from 1910s to 1950s

Print advertisement of Calvo Building tenants during the Japanese Occupation (194-44, right) and during the post war era (1950s  to 1960s, left)

Enclosed glass shelves display late nineteenth century to pre-World War II bottles (milk, soda, medicine, and alcoholic beverage) of all shapes and sizes, partly a result of conscientious bottle recycling prompted by the lack of local bottle makers (Philippine glassmaking only began in 937 with the bottling plant of San Miguel Brewery, the first in the country, initially producing tall, slim, moss green beer bottles).

From 1917 to 1933, empty bottles and jars made up one-third of the imported glassware (including tableware, mirrors , windows and plate glass, eyeglasses and lamp chimneys) reaching the Philippines. When purchasing cooking oil, fish sauce, vinegar, carabao milk , kerosene or locally distilled liquor, housewives had to present containers.

Milk bottles

Dark green bottles usually held gin or the popular anise wine (with one version stamped La Tondena) while cobalt blue bottles ( meant strictly for external use) held poisons, acids, essences and light-sensitive compounds.

Eventually, the latter became containers for laxatives, salts and Blue Waltz, an archaic fragrance bottled along the Pasig River. One of the best known pieces in this display is the 1920s Ginebra bottle, whose label art was designed by no other than National Artist Fernando Amorsolo.

Manila druggists, like their European counterparts, displayed apothecaries with colored water in their windows and sold patent medicines in cheaply made amber aquamarine, green or clear bottles stamped with their brands and cities of origin.

Ginger beer clay bottles

In the early 1900s, Tansan, a Japanese drink brand company, introduced their capped, bomb-shaped beverage of charged and soda water embossed with their brand name (now the local word for bottle cap).

Soft drink bottles

Not all bottles were made of glass. Thick, cream-colored ceramic containers, sometimes sporting broad, golden brown hands across the rim and shoulders, were used for beer well into the late 1800s by Scottish and English breweries while previous beverages such as rum, whiskey and ginger beer were stored in clay bottles (a practice that continued till the 20th century).

Apothecary bottles

On the walls are mounted well-preserved, hand-drawn (now a forgotten art form) movie posters from the box office of yesteryears.

Movie posters

Movie posters

Kept behind glass cases are music sheets of songs (“Sa Dakong Silangan,” “Ang Maya,” “Awit ng Pag-Ibig,” etc.) complete with their excellent cover art.

Music sheets

Piled up at one corner of the museum are three large pieces of wooden tranvia tracks excavated during a road repair in 1998.

Wooden tranvia tracks

Before moving to its present location in Diliman, Quezon City), the GMA Kapuso Network had its beginnings at a makeshift studio at the fourth floor of the building on March 1, 1950 as radio station DZBB-AM before expanding into television, and which would later be renamed GMA.   The museum also houses some of GMA memorabilia. 

At right is the advertisement announcing the opening of DZBB on March 1, 1950

The coffee table book “Kapuso – The GMA Story”

In the past, scaled models of still existing and non-existing Escolta buildings (Capitol Theater, Crystal Arcade, Lyric Theater, Monte de Piedad, etc.), from a collaborative thesis by University of Santo Tomas students in 1996, were also on display.

Old Manila photos

Battle of Manila photos

Escolta Museum: Mezzanine, Calvo Bldg., Escolta, 1006 Manila.  Tel: (02) 241-4762 and (02) 241-4578. Open Mondays to Fridays, 9 AM to 5 PM, and Saturdays, 9 AM to12 noon.  Admission (for a group of at least 4): PhP50 (regular) and PhP20 (students).