IMPORTANT CULTURAL PROPERTY. “Ang Bulawan nga Sadok” (Golden Salakot) painting by national artist Jeremias "Jerry" Elizalde–Navarro from Antique is on display at the New Antique Capitol Building. The Provincial Board is working on an ordinance to declare the painting as an important cultural property, Board Member Errol Santillan said in an interview on Tuesday (June 1, 2021). (Photo courtesy of Jason Alagos)
SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique – The Antique government, through the Provincial Board (PB), is pushing for the passage of an ordinance declaring the oil painting of national artist Jeremias "Jerry" Elizalde-Navarro as an important cultural property (ICP) for it to be protected and to get funding for its preservation.
Navarro's "Ang Bulawan nga Sadok" (Golden Salakot) depicting the barter of Panay and measuring 300 centimeters (cm) in width and stands at 817 cm. including its frame is mounted at the New Capitol Building.
“The artwork by Jerry Elizalde-Navarro depicts the barter of Panay, which is one of the historical legends in the province of Antique and the entire Panay Island,” Board Member Errol Santillan said in an interview Tuesday.
The barter of Panay legend narrates how Ati ancestors of the province of Antique and Panay, as a whole, exchanged their inhabited piece of land with the golden salakot (traditional headgear) brought by the Bornean datus (rulers), who established their first barangay in Barangay Malandog in the Municipality of Hamtic in this province.
The legend is being narrated every year through a reenactment done as part of Antique’s Binirayan Festival.
“By declaring it as an ICP, it will be allocated funding for its conservation,” Santillan said, citing the painting as a cultural property with exceptional cultural, artistic, and historical significance to Antique.
He added that the Provincial Council on History and Cultural Heritage in cooperation with the Provincial Tourism and Cultural Affairs Office will coordinate with the National Museum, National Commission for Culture and Arts, and other cultural agencies for the funding.
“The artwork was painted and given as a gift by Elizalde-Navarro to former Antique Governor Evelio B. Javier and his wife in September 1982 yet,” he said.
The artwork, which had been hanging at the capitol wall for almost 38 years, needs to be conserved for a portion of it had already been eaten by termites, he added.
The ordinance provides that anyone who will be caught vandalizing the property will be fined PHP5,000 or an imprisonment of six months but not more than one year.
Antique Vice Governor Edgar Denosta, in a virtual press conference on Monday, said the proposed ordinance was approved on first reading during their May 27, 2021, regular session.
“We take pride that Antique is able to produce a national artist,” he said, and the recognition is also a way to encourage other potential artists from the province to pursue their talents.
The national artist was born in San Jose de Buenavista, Antique on May 22, 1924, and died in 1999. (PNA)
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