Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia is authorized to file appropriate case against officials of the National Museum of the Philippines (NMP) for alleged refusal to have four pulpit panels repatriated to the Archdiocesan Shrine of Patrocinio de Maria Santissima in the southern town of Boljoon that has original provenance of the panels.

The Cebu Provincial Board (PB) has approved a resolution on April 1, 2024 giving Garcia the authority to pursue the case, according to Cebu Vice Governor Hilario "Junjun" Davide III in a post.

Fifth District PB Member Andrei Duterte  and co-author Second District PB Member Stanley Caminero also authorized the governor to include in the filing of the case any person who kept the panels after these were taken down from the church allegedly without permission.

Pulpit panels depicting 19th-century images of Saint Thomas of Villanueva, Saint Ambrose of Milan, Saint Gregory the Great, Saint Augustine of Hippo, and St. Cyril of Alexandria were lost in the 1980s. Only the panel with the image of Saint Leo the Great has remained and is being kept at the church museum.

After about four decades, four lost panels resurfaced as a private display at the NMP.

Art collectors Edwin Riego Bautista and Aileen Beltran Bautista were identified as the couple who donated the Boljoon panels to NMP.

The Sangguniang Bayan of Boljoon has sought the return of the panels to their town church through Resolution 2024-340.  

The Cebu Provincial Board also issued Resolution 436-2024 seeking the return of the panels to Boljoon church.

Garcia sent a letter to NMP on February 26, 2024 requesting for the urgent return of the panels. 

However, NMP has not responded reportedly to the letter.