Mountaineers find history in bottles

THE NATIONAL Museum has certified these old bottles as cultural properties, strengthening historical claims that Rizal town in Laguna was once a “drop point” of military supplies for Filipino soldiers during World War II. PHOTO COURTESY OF RIZAL VICE MAYOR FERDINAND SUMAGUE

Those old beer bottles and jars are for keeps. The National Museum of the Philippines has certified as cultural properties the five vintage beer bottles and jars, believed to be provisions during World War II, that mountaineers recovered from a cliff in Rizal town, Laguna province.

Municipal officials received the National Museum certification only on Aug. 1 although it was issued on July 7.

According to the document, the items belonged to Batang Rizal Organization (BRO), a local civic group, whose two members discovered the bottles while on a hike on Mt. San Cristobal in May.

The National Museum said the two beer bottles, both colored amber, were manufactured between 1929 and 1960, while the Pepsi bottle was made between 1933 and 1980. The glass pickle jar and the medicine bottle could have been manufactured in the 1940s.

The five items were inspected by museum researchers and the certification was signed by National Museum director Jeremy Robert Barns.

Cultural properties “refer to products of human creativity by which people and a nation reveal their identity,” said Rizal Vice Mayor Ferdinand Sumague, quoting Republic Act No. 10066 or the implementing rules of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.

“This justifies our historical claim,” said Sumague, also the founder of BRO, in a phone interview on Sunday.

The municipality of Rizal claims that Tayak Hill, a 560-meter plateau now being developed into an outdoor recreational site in Barangay (village) Tala, once served as a war command post of the Filipino-American Irregular Troops.

It based its claim on a book titled “Guerilla Interview” and authored by an American Vietnam War veteran, David Dwiggins, who mentioned that Rizal town used to be a “drop point” of war supplies for the Filipino soldiers.

About 2.5 kilometers from  Tayak Hill is an unknown ravine, 70 feet deep, where the mountaineers stumbled upon the artifacts during an exploration hike.

With the certification from the National Museum, Sumague said the local government would formalize, through a resolution, the naming of that ravine as the “Antik Bote” (antique bottle) cliff.

Sumague said while it was BRO, a nongovernment group, that would keep the artifacts, the bottles would be available for public viewing in an exhibit.

“It’s not only a historical claim for (BRO) but for the whole town,” he said. Maricar Cinco