This Week’s Milestones: Feb. 9-15

Feb. 11, 2019

The Museum of Philippine Economic History was inaugurated in Iloilo City.

The century-old building that houses the two-story museum is a historical landmark. It has 13 galleries that showcases hundreds of artifacts of different trades, such as abaca, weaving, pottery, boat-making, blacksmithing, copra and body ornaments.

The first level inside the museum consists mainly of maps and printed tarps with mounted displays, while the second level consists of vivid displays in both tableaux and video formats.

It is the third museum to open in Iloilo in less than a year, after the Iloilo Museum of Contemporary Arts and the National Museum Western Visayas Regional Museum, which is located at the old provincial jail.

Feb. 13, 1901

The first provincial government under the Americans was organized in Bacolor town, Pampanga province, by William H. Taft.

The establishment of the civil government took place in Escuela de Artes y Oficios de Bacolor, now known as the Don Honorio Ventura Technological State University.

The first provincial civil governor was Don Ceferino Joven and the first municipal president of Bacolor was Don Estanislao Santos.

On Jan. 11, 1978, Proclamation No. 1702, was issued declaring Feb. 13, 1978, and every year thereafter as Pampanga Day, in commemoration of the establishment of the first civil form of government in the Philippines in Bacolor.