Callao Cave in Peñablanca, Cagayan, where the scientific discovery of the Homo Luzonensis was made, has been declared an Important Cultural Property (ICP) that merits national preservation efforts.
The National Museum of the Philippines formally declared Callao Cave as an ICP on February 6, 2020, in ceremonies held at the discovery site attended by national and local officials and stakeholders.
Dr. Mary Jane Louise Bolunia, Officer-in-Charge of the Archaeology Division at the National Museum of the Philippines, presented Museum Resolution no. 18-2015 that declared Callao Cave Complex in Peñablanca, Cagayan as an Important Cultural Property and requiring the government to preserve and protect the site as one of the Important Cultural Properties and National Cultural Treasures of the Philippines.
The resolution also honors Dr. Armand Salvador Mijares of the University of the Philippines Archaeological Studies Program and the team that brought forward to the public in 2019 the historical discovery of a new hominin species, Homo Luzonensis nicknamed “Ubag”, a new human species contemporaneous with Homo Sapiens.
Homo Luzonensis is an assemblage of fossil bones and teeth that are said to belong to at least three different individuals discovered in Callao Cave excavations in the years 2007, 2011, and 2015.
Callao Cave was proclaimed a national park on July 16, 1935. It spans 192 hectares of land also known as the Peñablanca Protected Landscape and Seascape.
READ ABOUT the Callao Cave Discovery here.
The University of the Philippines recently opened its portal on Taal Volcano data, the first in Asia to conduct an open data policy. The state university also developed the Lab-in-a-Mug, a cheaper, faster Dengue Test Kit that has also been developed to test the 2019 novel coronavirus.
SEND CHEERS in the comments below to the people of Cagayan, the National Museum, and the UP community for this historic milestone of the Callao Cave!
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