October 31, 2019 — The UP Manila Historical Buildings Committee, headed by Dr. Jose Florencio F. Lapeña, Jr., was created early this year by Chancellor Carmencita Padilla with the primary goal of paying homage to the rich cultural and material heritage of UP Manila.

Together with representatives from the colleges and units, it gathers photos, paintings, tools, and equipment — items of historical value that were left behind by generations of UP students — with the hope of shedding light on what was previously unknown, bringing to life the buildings and spaces that have borne witness to each chapter of UP Manila’s life. 

One of the committee’s projects is the establishment of pocket museums in the different units, the soft launch of which was held last October 28, 2019 as part of the celebration of UP Manila’s autonomy and renaming. 

At the College of Medicine, artifacts that had long been kept in storage rooms were displayed to provide glimpses of how things were done in the college before and how samples and instruments have advanced the education of hundreds of UP Med students in the past.

The College of Arts and Sciences showcased important pictures from the time Rizal Hall was inaugurated in 1921 to the destruction it withstood during the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines from 1942 to 1945. Each of its departments also provided a timeline of the development of its offices and programs embellished with class photos, trophies, and other mementos from their respective disciplines.

Not only buildings and artifacts were highlighted in the exhibit of the College of Allied Medical Professions, but also the individuals for which some of the streets in the campus were named. Photos of the previous sites of the college were exhibited, showing glimpses of the time when it was still a branch of the College of Medicine until it became an independent school unit, and finally, a college with its own home in Pedro Gil.

The Philippine General Hospital photo wall located beside the Office of the Director was a series of photographs of PGH since its construction in 1908, showing the many changes it had experienced from being a small wooden structure to becoming one of the most iconic buildings in the city of Manila, even withstanding World War II. From having a single building, PGH became an entire complex with the construction of the dispensary, the Nurse’s Home, and other surrounding wings in the hospital.

Installed in the College of Pharmacy were two pocket museums displaying old reagent bottles, distillation and extraction apparatus, manuscripts, preserved plant samples, molecular models from landmark discoveries by alumni of the college, and other artifacts – actual mementos left behind from the years of the pioneer Filipino deans of the college.

QR codes were provided at the pocket museums for instant access to more information in the college’s website.

The College of Dentistry’s three-part exhibit include panels relating the history of the college through photos and narratives, old radiographic equipment, black-and-white photos juxtaposed with a recently recorded interview with Dean Leonor Lago, and a “Dental Cube” made of glass displaying old tools, equipment, and documents for the enjoyment of
curious patients. 

During the course of their research for this project, some members found information that, up until now, have been missing in their documented histories. The National Institutes of Health, however, being one of UP Manila’s youngest units, is in fact located in the building of what was once the Bureau of Science and Insular Laboratories of the second Philippine Commission.

It was completed in 1904 (therefore being older than PGH), and until World War II was a scientific hub in the Philippines and in Asia. It had by then expanded towards Taft Avenue with an East Wing, where Sotejo Hall of the College of Nursing is now located. 

The College of Public Health, now on its way to celebrating its 93rd foundation anniversary, had just recently encountered information on the UP Graduate School of Public Health. This unit was in fact created years before the School of Sanitation and Public Health. 

All of these information were featured in exhibits at their respective buildings.

The UP Manila Historical Buildings Committee continues to do exhaustive research in the pursuit of enriching student life in the campus with consciousness as well as enthusiasm for UP Manila’s history. 

More exhibits will be permanently installed in the different buildings this December and early in the next year. A book on UP Manila History will also be written, it being the cradle of UP’s intellectual history and the major institution of higher learning in the health sciences. 

Hazel Juris Domingo | Published in UP Manila Healthscape September – October 2019