A FEW MONTHS AFTER Anna Maria “Bambi” Harper assumed office at the Intramuros Administration in Palacio del Gobernador at Aduana and Gen. Luna St. in Intramuros, Manila, a city councilor came a-visiting.

Looking around at the objects on walls, nooks and crannies, the councilor asked her: “Nagbebenta ba kayo ng antique (Do you sell antiques)?” Stunned silence. Forcing a smile, Harper answered with an embarrassed “No.”

That just goes to show that these people do not know what is happening in the IA, she says. Most people are not aware that IA holds a collection of over 6,000 Philippine antiques ranging from furniture to statuary, from altar frontals to religious paintings, acquired by former Central Bank governor Jaime Laya when he was IA action officer.

The collection is now estimated to be worth half a billion pesos. Most of the pieces are kept in vaults, others displayed or used in offices, corridors and lobbies of the building, while some 200 items are out on loan.

Museum researcher Armando Arionday, who has been with IA since 1983, has been protecting and clinging to this collection through the years, and for this Harper considers him a hero—an intrepid guardian of national heritage.

Still intact

Harper, former Heritage Conservation Society president and Inquirer culture columnist, was installed as IA administrator on March 24 while having a protracted court battle over the defacement of the Walled City with the previous administrator, Dominador Ferrer.

As soon as she took over IA, she started tackling “an urgent inventory done on all the antique treasures... diligently documented by Laya in the books when he left.” She has itemized every piece lent to the National Museum, Casa Manila, the National Historical Institute, San Agustin Church—even two or three she says the wife of a former official borrowed for a touring exhibit and never returned.

“I want to be sure that the collection Laya so carefully put together is still intact and all accounted for,” she says.

And what goodly treasures there are here! Eyes pop out at the numerous santos and altarpieces; the innumerable Kristos from the Niño to the Santo Entierro; a life-size Inmaculada Concepcion; a pair of Damian Domingo paintings; a Fabian de la Rosa oil on canvas, “El Transito del Glorioso Patriarca Señor San José”; a primitivist rendition of the Pietà just above a harmonium; cabinets, chairs, and a bone-inlaid commode now worth millions; reredos and retablos of ornately carved Philippine hardwoods.
Precarious state

For lack of space, some of the furniture pieces are piled up in a corridor while many of the smaller icons have been laid on the floor and tabletops. Their deteriorating condition is quite evident, such as the paintings mostly fading, and one monochromatic piece on silk lace now burrowed into by insects.

The precarious state these treasures are in is further aggravated by the fact that IA is sharing a floor with the Commission on Elections. And with those perennial troubles the Comelec is having, an accidental or mysterious fire would readily reduce the highly flammable, brittle-with-age pieces to cinders.

“The fire department is just across the street,” Harper says with a wry smile.

That’s why she sees a need for the establishment of a museum to house these fragile treasures. Since over 2,000 items in the collection are ecclesiastical pieces, an ecclesiastical museum is in the works, right where the Clamshell used to be.

An inspired move was to pattern the design of the museum after a Spanish-colonial church. Thus, IA is now undertaking a grand project, no less than the reconstruction of San Ignacio Church and Convent, based on extant photographs taken before it was bombed during the war.

As soon as the papers are finalized, the cornerstone will be laid this year. Construction is projected to be finished in two years. And soon we will be seeing these pieces in a house of worship where they belong.