Wealth and memory
By Ramon N. Villegas
Guevara Foundation
FINALLY, a fitting and lasting home has been found for the D. M. Guevara Collection, originally housed at the Museo ng Buhay Filipino.
The Guevara Foundation turned over hundreds of religious art objects, furniture and decorative pieces, jewelry and costumes, table and kitchenware, folk devices and implements to the Museo De La Salle in Dasmariñas, Cavite.
The foundation was formed in the 1970s by Domingo M. Guevara. The self-made Bicolano delegate to the 1972 Constitutional Convention founded his fortune on Radiowealth, the first Filipino manufacturer of radios, and, later, television sets.
The Guevent (Guevara Enterprise) Group of Companies also assembled and distributed Volkswagen, Audi, Jeep and Menschel in the Philippines, as well as Sakbayan and Trakbayan. They were also into appliances, computers, Avis rentals, helicopter service, manpower development, handicraft export, aquaculture, consumer financing and other enterprises.
The foundation, composed of board members from the different Guevent companies, was headed by Carmen S. Guevara, the spouse of the tycoon. A teacher by training, she was into ikebana and civic work. She enjoyed cultural activities and avidly collected Asian jars found in the Philippines.
In 1975, she met with David Baradas, an anthropologist and a fellow Bicolano, to explore ideas for a museum. He was with the Nayong Pilipino's ethnographic museum, run by the Presidential Assistance for National Minorities (Panamin).
At that time, Philippine museums were collecting Western-influenced art, pre-Hispanic archeological material and artifacts from ethnic minorities. Baradas proposed a museum that would instead reflect the lifestyle of the lowland Christians--the Ilokano, Pangasinense, Kapampangan, Tagalog, Cebuano, Samar-Leyteño, Ilonggo and Bicolano--who constituted the majority of the Philippine population.
Museum
Baradas proposed restoring an old house and turning it into a museum, similar to Bangkok's Jim Thompson home, or others restored by the Thai royalty.
The foundation hired Baradas, who had become unhappy with his old job after seeing how martial law was exploiting the ethnic minorities.
Scouting for a location, they decided to lease a house in Parañaque built at the end of the 19th century by a British engineer named McDonough. Around 1915, Francis Burton Harrison, the American governor-general, used it as a summer residence.
Lifestyle museum
It was not a grand house, but it was airy and spacious, with a splendid view of the Manila Bay sunset (now blocked by the reclamation). The owner, a Colonel Fusilero, was not interested in selling the property, but he was willing to rent it out and have it turned into a museum. It was perfect for a lifestyle museum, so it became known as the Museo ng Buhay Filipino.
Baradas gathered the commonplace and typical things that lolas used to use. The museum also acquired some very decent furniture, subsequently featured in the book "Turn of the Century," as well as the more recent Filipino style.
He had an open budget and was free to issue checks for any amount at any time. Yet he remembers spending not more than 300,000 pesos for the contents and around 40,000 pesos for the renovation of the house (this was in the mid-1970s).
Today, all that would cover only half the cost of a single piece, like the bone-inlaid Sheraton-style sideboard from Bulacan.
The Museo ng Buhay Filipino opened on February 1977. It reaped publicity and goodwill for the conglomerate.
But the Guevara group of companies soon fell victim to the dictatorship. Government agencies squeezed their operations and banks called in loans.
The Guevaras lost their flagship companies, Radiowealth and DMG (Volkswagen). Crestfallen, they turned over their remaining businesses to their children and went to live abroad.
The foundation closed the museum. Yet, wanting to make the collection accessible to the public, the Guevaras entrusted the pieces to the Central Bank of the Philippines (now the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas), then headed by Jaime C. Laya. The bank had acquired parts of old houses and had plans to build a museum on a lot in the government center.
Meanwhile, the Guevara pieces were displayed, together with some of the bank's holdings, at the CB Complex in Quezon City.
However, Laya left the bank before the project could be completed.
In 1992, six years after the 1986 Edsa Revolution, the collection was turned over to the Nayong Filipino, which had even smaller galleries. Most of the pieces remained in storage during their 10 years at the theme park.
In 2001, the Guevaras lent some of the pieces to the Museo De La Salle, on the condition that those needing restoration be restored on the lendee's account.
Museo De La Salle
Opened to the public in June 2000, the Museo De La Salle, located on the Dasmariñas, Cavite, campus, was built upon the initiative of then De La Salle University System president Bro. Andrew Gonzalez, FSC, and administered by the DLSU-D Cultural Heritage Foundation.
Artifacts that demonstrate the traditional lifestyle of the lowland Christian majority are displayed within and outside a 19th century-style structure inspired by the Constantino house in Balagtas, Bulacan; the Arnedo-Gonzalez house in Apalit, Pampanga; and the Santos-Joven-Panlilio house in Bacolor, Pampanga.
The Museo's fine art, furniture and other decorative objects were donated by, or on long-term loan from, Gonzales, Laya, Jose Ma. Ricardo A. Panlilio, Maria Theresa Lammoglia-Virata, Victorina Vizcarra Amalingan.
When the Nayong Filipino had to give way to the expansion of the airport, the Guevara Collection again lost its home. In memory of their parents who had both passed away, the Guevara children-Carmen Guevara Monfort, Celia Guevara Lazaro and their brothers, Petronilo, Reynaldo, Domingo Jr., Roberto, Benjamin and Ricardo (all ironically from Ateneo de Manila)-decided in late 2002 to donate the D. M. Guevara Collection to the Museo De La Salle.
Today, the expanded holdings of the Museo De La Salle more than ever engages the imagination.
The founders of the Philippine nation-state grew up in cradles surrounded by such santos and mesas altar. They had wooed in such wood and cane seats, and loved under such four-poster bowers. They had worn such relicarios and clothes of nipis pressed with brass braziers. They had posed for silvery photographs in studied Revival and exuberant Art Nouveau frames.
They had lived out their lives seeing to the beginnings of industrialization and building up inner and material weal. They made it possible for us to become what we came to be in the late 20th century by charting the roadmap for our future.
By entrusting their Collection to De La Salle, the D.M. Guevara Foundation recognizes the endeavors and extensive research that went into the development of the Museo. And with the addition of the Guevara Collection, the Museo De La Salle can now be considered a cultural institution of national importance.
The DM Guevara Collection will have an inaugural opening at the Museo De La Salle on Sept. 6 at 11 a.m. It may be viewed at the Guevara Wing, Zaguan area of Museo, located at the De La Salle University-Dasmariñas campus in Cavite. It is open Tuesday-Saturday, 9 a.m.-3:30p.m. For reservation and inquiries, please call (02)8447832/8449116 local 3151 or (046)416 4397. Look for Victor or Jop.