Former governors' portraits being restored: Dabu (Sun.Star, Sunday, December 09, 2007)

Former governors' portraits being restored: Dabu

By Ian Ocampo Flora

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- Provincial Administrator Vivian Dabu has clarified the issue regarding the "missing portraits" of past governors of the province at the capitol, stressing that the said art works are undergoing restoration.

In an interview with Sun.Star Pampanga, Dabu said the portraits are under the safe keeping of the provincial tourism office after they were removed from the second floor lobby of the Capitol.

Dabu clarified the portraits were not "stashed away" -- the common misconception among some capitol observers. "The portraits need cleaning and restoration, when we removed them during the general cleaning of the capitol we discovered that they were not arranged chronologically," Dabu said, adding that there are around 10 governors without portraits from the original batch.

"We are going to place them back but in a much better location. The former location is not a good site," she added.

Dabu said the provincial government would be allotting around P10,000 for each portrait.

Provincial Tourism Officer Ian Paulo Mejia said they have been consulting with the Center for Kapampangan Studies of Holy Angel University to have the portraits of the other ten governors commissioned. Mejia confirmed Dabu's statements saying they would undertake efforts to research on the origin and background information of the portraits.

"We will restore them and include the other remaining portraits in a more dignified position. Though we are still coordinating with the center, we are targeting February 13, which is the founding anniversary of the provincial government, for the unveiling of the portraits," Mejia told Sun.Star Pampanga.

Long-time employees of the provincial capitol saidmost of the portraits have been placed in the second floor lobby since the early seventies.

Though it's still not clear who commissioned the portraits, most of the existing ones are those of the most illustrious governors of the province. The portraits were done through oil on canvass except for the portrait of Governor Lito Lapid, which was commissioned using a different medium.

"It is not true that we have placed them away because we do not value past leaders, in fact the tourism department is also focusing on arts and culture," Dabu added.