Abandoned Marcos house in Baguio eyed as museum

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines—One of the decayed houses abandoned by the family of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos may yet become the new home for an interactive museum devoted to the history of mining in the Philippines.

The Baguio Historical and Mining Museum Foundation is eyeing one such house, one of three sequestered Marcos assets that the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) is auctioning off, said the foundation chair, Delia Albert.

“But we won’t buy it [as] there are other ways of acquiring the property,” Albert said.

The foundation thought of the abandoned Marcos property after it failed in its attempts to acquire the use of the old Diplomat Hotel compound on Dominican Hill in 2008.

The Diplomat Hotel property was relinquished to the Baguio City government in 2002 by the Presidential Management Staff during the term of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

One of the conditions for the turnover was that a place for the Baguio mining museum would be provided. However, the city council could not decide how best to divide the property among various stakeholders.

After years of the city government’s indecision, the foundation decided to approach the PCGG this year to secure one of the three sequestered Marcos properties, Albert said.

Albert, who grew up in the summer capital, said the proposed new home for the Baguio mining museum would be bigger and would require more donors.

Baguio’s mine museum

The museum is envisioned to contain the first Philippine Center of Minerals, a center for jewelry design that will tell the story of the parallel growth of art and metals unearthed by the Philippine mining industry, as well as a memorabilia room showcasing photographs of old Baguio and the mines.

The museum could be up and running by 2012, Albert said in a speech at the 58th Annual National Mine Safety and Environment Conference at Camp John Hay here on Thursday.

She showed clips from a black-and-white film that she had found in the archives of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

Albert said she made a copy of the film to show critics what the proposed mine museum would display. She said the film would be played in full when the Baguio museum opens.

The film is a compilation of Baguio and Benguet montages made by Kate Bigelow from 1933 to 1935. The clips show old Baguio landscapes and feature shots of the Mines View Park and Camp John Hay.

According to Albert, the foundation intends to make the museum a repository of old Baguio memorabilia which old Baguio families may have kept.

“We become the home of their stories, and their stories will become the whole story of Baguio,” she said.

Baguio’s economic and social history is intertwined with the growth of corporate mining beginning with Benguet Corp. at the turn of the 20th century, she said.