Our 271st entry in this blog is our trip to Cebu’s very own National Museum. This is actually Sai’s school field trip. Parents are encouraged to be with their elementary kids. As Ate Rei is already in high school, she has a different schedule, and parents are no longer required. So here it is, a fun trip for me and Sai. 🙂

The National Museum of the Philippines – Cebu (also known in Cebuano as Nasudnong Museyo sa Pilipinas – Sugbo) is a museum in Cebu City under the National Museum of the Philippines system. This is actually our first time to visit.

Hosted at the Aduana building, the museum building was known as Malacañang sa Sugbo when it served as the official residence of the president of the Philippines in the Visayas. It was named after Malacañang Palace, the official residence of the president in the capital city of Manila.

Previously known as the Customs building, it was originally built in 1910 to house the Bureau of Customs (BOC) office in the Port of Cebu City. The building would be used as the Customs office until 2004, where it was converted into Malacañang sa Sugbo. This is the zoology collection. It has lots of animals and birds that are mostly found in the Philippines.

In 2019, the building was declared a National Cultural Treasure. Then, the building was converted as the National Museum Central Visayas. The museum was inaugurated on July 28, 2023, and was opened to the public on August 1, 2023.

They also have here the maritime and underwater cultural heritage collection. It shows the famous butanding or whale shark of Oslob. 🙂

The Ethnology collection is one of the interesting ones. The items are very old and delicate. There are also different kinds of cloths and fabrics made from weavers of several mountainous regions in the Philippines.

Jewelry pieces used as personal adornment, as embellishment for clothes, bags, baskets, and scabbards, and sometimes as offering in rituals of the past.

There are lots of clay made relics like the jars used in olden times Cebu.

Sai and his classmates had fun looking at all the fishing boats displayed. They each have one for them and even assigned the other boats to their other classmates.

There is also the Architectural Arts and Build Heritage collection.

Also one of the interesting part is the fine arts collection. This includes paintings, photographs, painted photographs, prints, drawings and studies, installation art, sculptures, documents, and memorabilia of Filipino artists who significantly impacted the nation’s artistic heritage.

And that is our quick tour at Cebu’s National Museum. This was just opened a year ago. I hope this can be properly maintained as this is a really good educational trip for every one. 🙂