Marcos: Cebu museum inauguration about promoting tourism, nurturing identity

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. said Friday that the inauguration of a national museum in Cebu was part of the government's effort to promote tourism and nurture Filipino identity.

Marcos attended the launch of The National Museum of the Philippines-Cebu or The Central Visayas Regional Museum located at the Old Customs House in Plaza Independencia.

"This is in line with our national agenda to promote tourism and just as importantly, to nurture our national identity," Marcos said in his speech.

"It is a milestone not only for the Queen City of the South and the whole province of Cebu but the entire country as the opening of this museum brings to the fore our rich, natural, cultural, and artistic treasures," the President added.

Marcos said museums are valuable as they help to showcase cultural assets, document history, inspire creativity, and promote tourism.

The said museum houses five galleries which highlights Cebu’s unique geological features and publicly unfamiliar plant and animal species endemic to the place; significant archaeological finds about the Cebuanos and Filipinos’ history and prehistory; and ethnographic traditions inculcated in maritime history and industry.

The Palace said Gallery 4 was a special part of the inaugural exhibitions as it brings the Philippine Center in New York collection to Cebu to share the artworks of leading Filipino artists in the early 1970s.

Gallery 5, meanwhile, features a selection of Martino "Tinong" Abellana’s sketches, portraits, abstract paintings and landscapes. Abellana is recognized as the "Dean of Cebuano Painters." — DVM, GMA Integrated News