The National Commission for Culture and the Arts extends its most heartfelt condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Dr. Serafin D. Quiason, Jr., scholar, cultural administrator and historian, who passed on August 13, 2016.
Dr. Quiason was the first Commissioner for Cultural Heritage under the Presidential Commission for Culture and the Arts (PCCA) established in 1987. He was instrumental in organizing the National Committee on Monuments and Sites (NCMS) in 1987 and was also among the many who lobbied for the creation of the National Committee on Historical Research (NCHR) in 1992 as the sixth national committee under the Subcommission on Cultural Heritage. During the1992 transition of PCCA into what is now the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), Quiason was named acting chairman.
Dr. Quiason’s engagement in the cultural sector can be traced back to 1966 when he served as director of The National Library (TNL), now the National Library of the Philippines (NLP), until 1986.
In 1981, concurrent to his directorship of NLP, he was named Acting Chairman of the National Historical Institute (NHI), now National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP). He continued his service as Chairman to the institution from 1986 until 1996 where he took to strengthening NHI programs on the study of history through the popular quiz show dubbed Paligsahan sa Kasaysayan.
Dr. Quiason is also a key persona in the drafting and passing of RA 8491 or the Flag and Heraldic Code of the Philippines in 1998. His contribution to the academe and the culture and arts sector are alive in his significant body of published works on history, economics and the social sciences, in both local and international journals and periodicals – his personal legacy to the future scholars of history and the study f the Philippines.
