The newly improved Benguet museum is ready for a relaunch next month.
Heather Gate-Dizon of the Benguet Provincial Tourism Office said the physical renovation of the building is already done, but they are still upgrading the presentation of the various artifacts in the museum to give visitors and guests a better experience.
Dizon said the Provincial Tourism Office is planning on changing exhibits every six months beginning with an exhibit of Benguet’s history in April.
The Provincial Tourism Office will also tap the expertise of University of Philippines Baguio, who are running their own Museo Kordilyera – an ethnographic museum.
She said they will soon forge a memorandum of agreement with UP to boost the provincial museum.
Dizon said they are accepting suggestions from various experts on how to run the museum.
“We cannot establish yet the identity of this museum so they told us to (make it) an ethnographic museum so it could cover everything,” she said.
She said the museum needs further improvement such as areas where the numerous artifacts it has gathered through the years could be arranged and provision of air condition to the museum to better preserve the artifacts, among others.
Last month, CCTVs were installed at the museum as there are previous cases of theft of artifacts.
Dizon said the oldest artifact in the museum is a Philippine coin, which is 120 years old.
She said the improvement of the museum partly came from the P350,000 earlier provided by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts as well as the P1 million appropriation from the office of the late Rep. Nestor Fongwan, Sr. for the revamp of the building.
The Benguet Museum is located at the second floor of the micro, small, and medium enterprise building of the province.
Dizon said their office is requesting that the museum be transferred to an area that is friendly to persons with disability and senior citizens to accommodate these individuals who want to visit the facility.
Since its inception in the 1970s, the Benguet Museum has been collecting artifacts from various individuals that want to contribute to the efforts to make the public understand the people of Benguet. – Ofelia C. Empian
April 24, 2024
