Filipinos should remember Lopez-Jaena's heroic deeds
Dr. Juanito M. Acanto,president of the Central
Philippine University and chairman of the Graciano
Lopez-Jaena Foundation emphasizes that there is a
need for a celebration to remember the heroic
deeds of Graciano Lopez-Jaena during a
Conference on the 150th Birth Anniversary of
Dr. Graciano Lopez-Jaena held recently at CPU's
Media Center.
"We should not forget our national heroes who struggled and fought for a higher and more lasting purpose the cause of our country-the freedom and welfare of our people," Dr. Juanito M. Acanto, president of the Central Philippine University (CPU) said.
Acanto who is also the chairman of the Graciano Lopez-Jaena Foundation said during the Conference on the 150th Birth Anniversary of Dr. Graciano Lopez-Jaena, that Lopez-Jaena, Jose Rizal, Marcelo del Pilar, Andres Bonifacio and other heroes dedicated their labors and sacrificed their lives so that our country could win freedom from foreign domination.
He noted that while Graciano was ahead of Rizal and del Pilar in the propaganda movement, yet he was the least remembered hero in the country.
"Graciano was the first Filipino reformer to launch the propaganda movement against the Spanish colonizers, and the acknowledged orator and writer of that movement,founder and first editor of the La Solidaridad, the official organ of the propaganda movement,"Acanto said.
"His ideas, delivered orally or published in several newspapers in Europe, helped prepare the Filipinos to the revolution that won Philippine independence from Spain in 1898," Acanto told the participants of the conference.
The 150th birth anniversary of Lopez-Jaena will be celebrated in a concrete way by building a beautiful shrine on Fajardo street, Jaro, Iloilo City where the house in which the hero was born once stood.
The shrine, Acanto said will serve as a library-museum that will house the memorabilia of Graciano- his literary works and the works about him. It will likewise house the memorabilia and works of other heroes and heroines of the Philippine revolution from Western Visayas.
The groundbreaking of the shrine is scheduled on December 18, 2006 and the CPU head hopes that the construction will begin early next year.
"When the shrine is completed, it will be a concrete and lasting memorial to Lopez-Jaena, and it will be another important historical landmark in Iloilo. It will also be a valuable resource center on the lives and works of our heroes and heroines from Western Visayas," Acanto concluded.
The Conference on the 150th Birth Anniversary of Dr. Graciano Lopez-Jaena had for its theme "The Heroism of Lopez-Jaena and His Socio-Political Contributions."The resource persons with their lectures include: Dr. Regino P. Paular, chief, Historical Institute-Archival Sources in the Research and Teaching of Philippine History and Social Sciences; Dr. Vivencio R. Jose, professor, Department of English and Comparative Literature, University of the Philippines-Diliman- A Perspective on Graciano Lopez-Jaena: His Insight and Foresight on the Filipino Nation, Social Change and Progress; Mr. Demy P. Sonza, former Vice-Governor of Iloilo, author and historian- The Heroism of Graciano Lopez-Jaena; Atty. Leopoldo T. Causing, professor of Political Science, West Visayas State University-Political Ideas of Lopez-Jaena; and Mr. Teddy S. Sumaray, Ilonggo historian and columnist-The Iloilo of Lopez-Jaena.
(T.Villavert/PIA)