National Museum of the Philippines

From 1973 to 2021, it served as the regulatory and enforcement agency of the government of the Philippines for the restoration and safeguarding of significant cultural properties, sites, and reservations throughout the country. This mandate was then transferred to the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), which now serves as the National Museum's parent agency. For policy and program coordination, the National Museum is also an attached agency of the Department of Education (DepEd).

The National Museum operates the National Museum of Fine Arts, National Museum of Anthropology, and the National Museum of Natural History, all located in the National Museum Complex in Manila. It previously operated the National Planetarium until its closure in 2021.

The National Museum has established and operates museums and cultural sites across the Philippines, including Batanes, Bicol, Bohol, Butuan, Cagayan, Cebu, Cordillera, Davao, Dumaguete, Ilocos, Iloilo, Kabayan, Marinduque, Rizal, Sulu, the Tabon Caves Complex, and Zamboanga. The Ilocos museums include the Padre Burgos House and Ilocos Sur Provincial Library, while the Iloilo museums include the Iloilo Provincial Jail and Old Jaro Municipal Hall.

History

Spanish era

The first predecessor to the current National Museum of the Philippines was the Museo-Biblioteca de Filipinas, which was established by royal decree by the Spanish colonial government in the Philippines on August 12, 1887. Its first museum library opened at the Casa de la Moneda, along Cabildo Street, on October 24, 1891. It later moved to a building along Gunao Street in Quiapo, before becoming defunct sometime around the onset of the American occupation of the Philippines, in 1900.

American era

The American-supervised Philippine Commission established the Insular Museum of Ethnology, Natural History, and Commerce under the Department of Public Instruction on October 29, 1901, through Act No. 284, to replace the museum library. The Insular Museum was founded to complement the Bureau of Non-Christian Tribes, which was later renamed as the Bureau of Ethnological Survey. After the Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904, the Insular Museum was renamed to the Philippine Museum. The Bureau of Ethnological Survey was abolished as a separate bureau and was reorganized as the Division of Ethnology under the Bureau of Education in 1905. It was subsequently moved to the Bureau of Science in 1906.

In 1916, the organization of the Philippine Museum underwent another overhaul. Through Act No. 2572, the Philippine Library and Museum was created through the merger of the Division of Ethnology and the Fine Arts Division of the Philippine Museum. The Philippine Museum's Natural History Division was retained under the Bureau of Science.

The National Museum of the Philippine Islands would be established on December 7, 1928, through Act No. 3477, and placed under the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources. It was abolished in 1933 by Act No. 4007. The Division of Fine Arts was placed under the Philippine Library and Museum (now National Library of the Philippines), while the Division of Ethnology was placed under the Bureau of Science. The National Museum Division was created from the merger of the Division of Ethnology and the Natural History Division. The National Museum Division was renamed as the National History Museum Division, with the Office of the Secretary of Agriculture and Commerce named as its parent agency via Commonwealth Act No. 453, in 1939. The division was later merged to the National Library's Division of Fine Arts to become the National Museum, under the Office of the Executive Secretary.

World War II

The Japanese occupation of the Philippines during World War II brought the Natural History Museum Division and the National Library's Fine Arts Division back under a single organization, but the museum lost a large part of its collection during the Liberation of Manila of 1945, when the Old Legislative Building and the Bureau of Science Building were destroyed. The organization that resulted from the divisions' merger was named the National Museum and placed under the Office of the Executive Secretary.

Contemporary era

The museum's role in cultural growth was recognized as contributing to the government's desire for national development. In 1966, President Ferdinand Marcos signed Republic Act No. 4846, or the Cultural Properties and Protection Act. On September 12, 1991, President Cory Aquino signed Proclamation No. 798, declaring October as "Museum and Galleries Month", a celebration to be led by the National Museum, whose aims were to arouse national consciousness and pride in the Philippines' rich culture and national identity, expressed in all media of art and culture as well as historical and religious artifacts. In 2013, President Noynoy Aquino launched the construction of the National Museum of Natural History, which opened in 2018. Aquino also backed the construction and development of several regional museums, including in Batanes, Vigan, Marinduque, Bohol, and Iloilo, while supporting the heritage preservation projects of the National Museum, including the restoration of churches damaged by natural calamities, such as in Cebu, Bohol, and Eastern Samar.

From 2013 to 2015, entry to museums administered by the National Museum was made free in cooperation with the Aquino government; this policy became permanent in 2016. In 2019, President Rodrigo Duterte changed the agency's name from National Museum to National Museum of the Philippines through Republic Act No. 11333.

In 2025, the museum extended its opening hours to include all seven days of the week, having previously been closed on Mondays.