THE City of Bago will commemorate the 90th birth anniversary of Rafael Montinola Salas, former executive secretary to the late president Ferdinand Marcos and the first head of the United Nations Population Fund, on August 7.
The program will start with a wreath-laying ceremony at the bust of Rafael Salas in front of the Bago Community Center at 9 a.m.
Bago City Youth leaders, Department of Education officials, Rafael M. Salas (RMS) Library Society, family of RMS, city officials, and Commission on Population executive director Juan Antonio Perez III are expected to attend and offer flowers.
It will be followed by the opening of a photo exhibit about his life since his childhood in Bago, his journey as a student leader in the University of the Philippines until he became executive secretary to Marcos, and his decision to leave the cabinet and began a new work at the United Nations.
The exhibit will also showcase the love of Salas for Haiku, a short Japanese poem with 17 syllables and three verses.
Testimonials of various individuals about Salas and why they considered him as the best president the country never had will also be on display.
The exhibit will run until August 10 at the second floor of Bago City Hall.
After the opening of the exhibit, a lecture series on Rafael M. Salas will be held at the Community Center.
Invited to speak are Perez, who will talk about the life and works of Salas as a development worker in the Philippines and at the UNFPA; Dr. Arnel Genzola who will discuss the youth and development as exemplified by Salas; and lawyer Raymundo Pandan, Jr. who will focus on Salas as a literary man including his writings, books, and haikus.
At 2 p.m., the new City Population Office and the City Mayor's Office-Information Center for Environment will be inaugurated. (PR)