MANILA – The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) now owns the Manila Metropolitan Theater (Met), made official in a signing ceremony last Thursday, finally starting concrete conservation efforts for the iconic landmark.
The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) released P270 million from the National Endowment Fund for Culture and the Arts (NEFCA) to close the from its previous owner, the GSIS (Government Service Insurance System).
The NCCA plans to restore the Met to become a center for arts and culture, with additional exhibition galleries and its theater and performance halls for use by artists and cultural workers as well as by students and the general public.
The Met was designed by architect Juan Arellano in the Art Deco style and was opened in 1931, accepted as the country’s first “national theatre,” serving all walks of life and creative home for historical and cultural figures such as Juan Arellano, Arcadio Arellano, Amorsolo, Antonio Buenaventura and Nicanor Abelardo.
It was first declared a National Historical Landmark by the then National Historical Institute, presently the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP), in 1973, and a National Cultural Treasure by the National Museum on June 23, 2010.
Heritage conservation experts have said that the Met is culturally significant, being “the only existing art deco building in its scale and integrity in Asia.” Its exterior and interior elements exhibit Filipinized style of ornamentation in the melding of ingenious art deco elements and indigenous motifs interspersed by the opulent works of Italian sculptor Franceso Monti and National Artist for visual arts Fernando Amorsolo and other Filipino masters.
