While a map may seem to be a quiet visual representation, it speaks loudly of a lot of things: math, science, history, culture, even the arts.
Even if history, culture and human experience are not written explicitly on its surface, a map has a voice heard through its keys and scales, compass roses and insets, grids and graticules.
“Mapping is one of those things that combines so many different disciplines.”
Margarita Binamira, secretary of the Philippine Map Collectors Society (PHIMCOS), underscored this as she brings with her the enthusiasm of a cartophile during a guided tour for the public opening of National Museum of the Philippines (NMP) Cebu’s latest gallery – “Classics of Philippine Cartography from the 16th to the 20th Centuries.”
“First of all, you have Science. You have to be able to map these things – be able to say what’s the scale. There’s Math, you have Algebra, you have Geometry. You have globes – how to represent the round thing and a flat surface. You have culture, the different languages. You say San Juan, Saint-Jean, San Giovanni, all of those languages are also represented. You have to know History, what is the Galleon Trade about, when did it happen; and then there’s Art. You have to show, or make it interesting, whether you show little boats, or little mermaids. So, there’s many things happening in a map, and for me, it’s an interesting thing to look at,” Binamira said.
MAPS TELL STORIES
“In these maps although they appear to be just a visual representation of a place, of Cebu particularly because we are right now in Cebu, of the Philippines. They actually tell a lot of things, they have a lot of stories, our histories are there, like the history of the San Diego, the wars between the Dutch and the Spanish, the global trade, the galleons going from here to the Americas. These maps, for whatever reasons – inaccurate as they are, accurate as they are – tell of how we develop, the history of a place, the history of why it’s called Carbon, why it’s called Sugbo. It’s all in the maps, and I think when you know your history, you understand yourself better as a culture, as a people, and as what makes us all Filipino,” Binamira underscored during the gallery tour on Friday, July 4, 2025.
The exhibit in Cebu on cartography across five centuries is the first outside of Luzon, Binamira added.
It is located on Gallery 4, at the second floor of NMP Cebu in the old Aduana Building in Cebu City.
Further, Binamira emphasized that a visit to the exhibition is a unique opportunity for everyone:
“You know, honestly, I think, this is going to be a once-in-a-generation show. It’s very hard to assemble all of these original maps, and I think once it’s going to close in January [2026] it would be a long time again before we’re able to do this again, whether in Cebu or anywhere in the country. It’s a unique opportunity for everyone.”
ON THE MAP
Among maps on display is the 1734 Murillo Velarde Map deemed by historians as the “Mother of Philippine Maps.”
Father Pedro Murillo Velarde published the most famous map of the Philippines in Manila in 1734 with the help of two Filipinos – Francisco Suarez drew the map, while Nicolas de la Cruz Bagay engraved it.
Murillo Velarde’s map, titled “Carta Hydrographica y Chorographica de las Yslas Filipinas,” is important for its “size, accuracy, detail, and aesthetics, as well as for the 12 detailed engravings in the two side panels.”
The map is the first to use the name “Panacot” for the reef also known as Bajo de Masinloc [Zambales], or since September 12, 1748 referred to as the Scarborough Shoal.
It shows coasts, towns, and interior topography, and serves as a sea chart with a stylized sun at the center, four compass roses, and intersecting rhumb lines. Two tracks for the Manila Galleon are shown, along with the routes believed to have been taken by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, and for trade with China.
The Murillo Velarde map was used at the international arbitration tribunal to back up the Philippines’ right and ownership to territories in the West Philippine Sea.
Another interesting map is “Plano de la Ciudad de Cebu,” an 1873 map by Domingo de Escondrillas, architect and the Director of Public Works in Cebu City at that era.
The map shows Fort San Pedro, the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral, the Parian District, and what used to be Tinago Lake, and new areas at that time such as the Barrio de Cogon, Ermita, and the market area of Carbon with its coal depot.
The exhibit is opened to the public formally on Saturday, July 5, 2025. Admission is free. NMP Cebu is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesdays to Sundays. Kindly present a valid ID.
PHIMCOS, established in 2007 by a small group of enthusiasts in Manila for collectors of antique maps and prints in the Philippines, arranges exhibitions, lectures, and other events designed to educate the public about the importance of cartography as a way of learning both the geography and the history of the Philippines in partnership with major museums.
Members are interested in collecting, analyzing or appreciating historical maps, charts, prints, paintings, photographs, postcards, and books of the Philippines.
“Classics of Philippine Cartography from the 16th to the 20th Centuries” is mounted with the huge assistance of the following institutions: Archivo Histórico de la Armada – J.S. de Elcano, Biblioteca del Instituto Geografico Nacional, Biblioteca Nacional de España, Bodleian Library, British Library, Embassy of Spain in the Philippines, Malacañang Palace/Office of the President, Ministerio de Defensa, Archivo General Militar; Utrecht University Library, among others.
