Friday, July 04, 2008
Speak out: Paying homage to Urdaneta
By Gavin Sanson Bagares
Kaguikan sa Parian Foundation Inc.
THE Philippines is celebrating 500 years of Augustinian friar Urdaneta's birth.
Rightfully, the celebration was kicked-off in Cebu recently, mainly at the Basilica del Sto. Niño.
A lecture on his life, times, and legacy is also being held in Cebu today, the 4th of July, at the University of San Carlos.
However, the secular sector needs a more civilian display of this commemoration.
Urdaneta was, after all, in the opinion of the American historian on Cebu, Dr. Michael Cullinane, as much responsible for the formation of Cebu City as Legaspi.
Why not unveil a plaque at the old city street named in Urdaneta's honor?
Or hold a simple ceremony of offering a crown of flowers at the foot of the obelisk at Plaza Hamabar, reportedly Plaza de Urdaneta in the old days?
Or, for a sense of gentle irony, do the same at Urdaneta's sculptured image at the Cebu Heritage Monument in Parian whose parish the Augustinians suppressed?
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (July 4, 2008 issue)
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