Bacolod City – A museum for Negrense sugar heritage and indigenous flora and fauna is soon to rise in Victorias City, Negros Occidental.
The Deed of Usufruct Agreement was signed between Victorias City Mayor Javier Miguel Benitez, Third District Rep. Jose Francisco Benitez, National Museum of the Philippines (NMP) Director-General Jeremy Barns, and NMP Visayas National Museums Director II Atty. Ma. Cecilia Tirol.
A statement issued by the Victorias City Public Information Office said the signing marked history, as the first component museum in Negros Occidental will rise in Victorias City, featuring the sugar heritage and indigenous flora and fauna of the province.
“We’re very excited about this partnership, we know that the National Museum of the Philippines and the partnership with the Department of Tourism, hopefully, will bring not only awareness but also education, honor, and tourists to Victorias City, which will help people rise from economic hardships,” Mayor Benitez said.
The museum will be housed at the Victorias City Hall, considered a significant heritage building, once it is vacated by the local government unit, when its seat of power transfers to the New Government Center located at Sidlak Victorias Global City, the date of which has yet to be finalized.
It will be known as the NMP-Victorias, Negros Occidental.
Under the agreement, which grants the NMP the right to use the city’s structure for 50 years, a permanent regional museum and a satellite office of the NMP will be established in Victorias.
Rep. Benitez said the mayor thinks that the idea of such a museum in the city, which will be the first NMP component museum in Negros Occidental, would complete his vision of both a new and reinvigorated Victorias.
“One that is nonetheless tied and conscious to its long heritage and history,” the lawmaker added.
Barns said the NMP is committed to make the young mayor’s vision a reality.
“This museum that we will be putting together, conceptualizing in consultation with you and the stakeholders, this will be our best yet, for sure,” he said. (Gilbert Bayoran via The Visayan Daily Star (TVDS), photo courtesy of TVDS with reports from Philippine News Agency)