I previously wrote about our first visit at the Quezon City Memorial Circle here. Though I had been to this place several times, because I was born and raised in Quezon City, it was a first time for my husband and kids.

I wrote in my previous post that we went to The Quezon Heritage House. You may read about it here.

This time, I will share about our visit to another museum inside the Quezon City Memorial Circle. I’m talking about the Museo ni Manuel Quezon. This is housed in the tall monument built in honor of former President Manuel L. Quezon which you can see when you pass by the elliptical road in Quezon City.

 

Museo ni Manuel Quezon

One of the things I liked about the museum is that there is no entrance fee. You are, however, encouraged to donate, to help in the upkeep of the museum. There was a donation box at the entrance, which the guard pointed to us as we were about to enter. My husband has a suggestion, though. He suggests that it would be better to put the donation box at the end of the tour or at the exit so that the visitors would donate based on their experience. I think it’s a good suggestion.

There are several galleries inside the museum. The texts displayed were both in English and Filipino. This is another thing I liked in the museum. Although former President Quezon promoted the use of Tagalog as the national language, it’s good to have an English translation to the displays. Not everyone can read and understand Tagalog or Filipino. I was born and raised in the Philippines but I found some of the Tagalog or Filipino texts difficult for me to understand. I preferred reading the texts in English.

It was huge. There were a lot of memorabilia (photos and things actually used by the former President) in the museum. There was even a recorded speech of the former President. It was not played automatically, however. Good thing, my eldest son took the initiative to ask the guard why we could not hear anything. So the guard turned the sound on. The control was hidden. Thus, there’s no way the visitors would know where it was.

Another area that my kids liked was the podium where they pretended to give a speech. There is a monitor there where you could be seen giving a speech. Our two older boys took turns having their photos taken there.

Another feature that we liked was the timeline of the war. It was quite long and there was a pillar that blocked part of it. I took several photos of its different parts. Sadly, I forgot to use the panorama effect. Anyway, in case you plan to take a field trip here, please remember to do that. It would be useful to save a photo or video of this part of the exhibit or gallery. You can use it to help the kids remember what happened first and where these events took place.

Last but not the least, we also liked the miniature shrines made by kids and displayed there. It gave me and my kids an idea. Thus, when our kids got home, they made their own version of the shrine using their Lego blocks.

The last part of the museum that we visited was the former President’s tomb.

There were many things that were included in the museum. Many of those featured here were related to the development of the Philippine government and the war that affected the Philippines.

All in all, it was a good place to visit. Younger kids would not be expected to focus or read the details written on the posters. But these are good information that older kids and students can benefit from. Adults who like history, like me, would find this place very interesting.

You would need to have at least an hour to get through the galleries quickly. I suggest that you allot half a day to explore the Quezon City Memorial Circle because aside from the museums, there is a huge park that has playgrounds, picnic tables and chairs, a bike area and a number of exercise equipment in the area.

If you want to see a video of the shrine during the daytime, click this link. If you want to see it at nighttime, click here. The color of the lights changes every few seconds.

My kids and I will definitely go back there again and next time, we’d probably have a picnic and I hope they can play on the playground and bike. We were in a bit of a hurry when we went here. Also, the playground was closed at that time, probably due to the rains the day before.

I recommend that you also watch this short video about the former President Manuel L. Quezon and the QC Memorial Circle before you visit. You can read more details about Museo ni Manuel Quezon here. It is open even on Sundays. Actually, we visited on a Sunday during a long weekend.