Malacañang recently named writer-art curator Lisa Guerrero Nakpil member of the board of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP), representing the private sector.
Nakpil is one of three women to be named to the NHCP board as a regular member, in the last two decades. Her own mother, Carmen Guerrero Nakpil, was NHCP chair from 1967 to 1971.
Nakpil’s strengths lie in utilizing media, traditional and new, as well as innovative approaches to various disciplines. Nakpil is a public history writer for a nationally circulated broadsheet. She is also an independent curator and has engaged in the research, writing and the production of art and history books and exhibits.
With a background as a financial analyst and investment banker, Nakpil wrote the first Philippine book that popularized consumer economics. She was an influential member of the Filipino music community, harnessing its reach to raise awareness of various historical causes throughout the region.
Rene Escalante, chair of the NHCP, expressed a “hearty welcome (for Nakpil) to the NHCP family.” He added he looked forward to Nakpil’s “introduction of new genres to get in touch with the masses and the millennials.”
She responded by saying, “I am committed to utilizing our great heritage to establish our national identity—and to use 21st-century communication methods to reach out to both young Filipinos, students and workers, across the globe. Moreover, I am also interested in spotlighting the Filipina woman’s role in shaping our history.”
Year 2021 will be the locus of several landmark quincentennial events including the Victory at Mactan, or the first Filipino repulsion by Lapu-Lapu of a foreign invasion.
Witnessing Nakpil’s oathtaking, as administered by Escalante at the NHCP offices, were National Library Director Gilbert Adriano and OIC Executive Director Carminda Arevalo; NHCP Executive Director Alvin Alcid; Reynaldo Lita, National Quincentennial Committee Secretariat head; and Ian Christopher Alfonso, NHCP senior history researcher. —Lito B. Zulueta INQ