When in Quezon City – Go Museum Hopping!

The month of February was declared by former Philippine president Corazon Aquino as the National Arts Month. To celebrate the month and because I missed visiting museums with my kids, we went on a two-day museum hop in Quezon City. The first stop was Vargas Museum – a building along UP Diliman campus’ along the academic oval, just across the lagoon. It’s just a walking distance from Oblation so you can’t miss it.

We were able to get our slots for a guided tour around Vargas Museum last February 18. It was very educational for me because we got to learn about the exploitation of women in Yugoslavia in the early 90’s which were all expressed in visual arts, rock carvings, and clay by a famous Russian artist. We also saw displays of paintings by famous artists such as Juan Luna and Manansala; sculptures by Guerrero; 16th century pieces collected by the family of former president Marcos acquired by PCGG; as well as modern art pieces from Russia, just to name a few. I’m posting the video here to encourage fellow homeschooling families to visit the museum as they are currently in need of funds for the restoration of some of the art pieces. I noticed that one painting of Manansala in particular has chipped off in places. Most of the artworks are well-preserved but some obviously need to be restored.

The next day, I attended an urban sketching workshop sponsored by the Quezon City local government unit as part of the Arts Month celebration in the QC Circle. After that we had lunch Bacolod Chicken Inasal restaurant. If you ever like to try well-prepared Filipino food, I suggest you eat at Bacolod Chicken Inasal. The place has seen better days but it’s one of my favorite places to eat in Quezon Memorial Circle simply because they serve authentic Filipino food that I like such as “ginataang bilo-bilo”, “puto”, “dinuguan”, chicken inasal, and champorado. But there are plenty of other places to eat in the park. As a matter of fact, if you’re a tourist and want to try all types of food, fusion, or local, the park is the place to go in Quezon City as there are simply so many food vendors there also.

It was raining a bit which was fortunate because there were less people in the park. On a normal sunny day, the park is usually packed specially on weekends because families go there to go on picnics, food trip, and play in the playgrounds. There’s also a spot there where you can rent bikes and ones with side cars for small children. Inside the food hub, just outside of Bacolod Chicken Inasal displays artworks that are for sale, basing on the price tags I saw on each of them. Had I brought cash with me, I would have probably bought one or two of the paintings.

Quezon's Heritage House — The first museum visited was Quezon Heritage House .

Our first stop at the Quezon Memorial Circle museum hop was Quezon Heritage House. According to the museum tour guide, former president Manuel L. Quezon and his family lived in Gilmore Street, New Manila. Their house was dismantled in 2013 and was reassembled and restored at the Quezon Memorial Circle. The Heritage House contains some of his family’s original furniture and collections. The museum showcases his personal life as man of the house and as president of the Philippines. Our family posed for picture before exiting the Heritage House.

vintage cars in Presidential Car Museum Quezon City — Ian posing in front of former President Roxas’ presidential car.

Our second stop was Museo ng Pangpangulong Sasakyan (Presidential Car Museum). Featured in the museum are all the cars that the Philippine Republic’s presidents have used during their stint as leaders of the country. The state cars were restored and conserved by the National Historical Commission. If you’re into vintage cars, do visit this place! Outside this museum is former Miss Universe Catriona Gray’s national costume (photo below):

Catriona Gray's national costume during Miss Universe pageant — Catriona Gray’s national costume on display by the door of the Presidential Car Museum.

The video below is my son watching the digital interactive display where one can learn facts about the cars on display. Needless to day, my son had fun interacting this one. 🙂

Our third and final stop before we called it a day is a visit to the memorial museum of former president Manuel Quezon (photo below). As you can see, the sky was overcast and it rained intermittently during our museum hop.

The Quezon Memorial Museum houses artefacts from World War 2 as well as personal belongings and collections of the former president. There’s a small chapel inside, photos and written posters about his life, as well as recreation of the former first wife’s room, madam Aurora. It was during this visit that we also found the dresses that the former president’s family members were supposed to wear in an event prior to their tragic deaths. They never go to wore those dresses because of their untimely demise. I won’t go into details about this because it’s one story you need to hear from local guides when you visit the museum. All I want to say at this point is knowing what happened in the past helps us understand the current events and how we can progress moving forward.