Quezon City is joining the nationwide celebration of the sesquicentennial or 150th birth anniversary of the Philippines’ national hero Dr. Jose Rizal on Sunday, June 19.
The city’s commemorative program will be held near the Rizal monument at the QC Hall grounds.
It will start with a flag-raising ceremony at 7:30 a.m., followed by a floral offering at the Rizal monument to be led by Mayor Herbert M. Bautista and Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte.
Other participants in the floral offering ceremony are National Historical Commission chairperson Dr. Ma. Serena I. Diokno, QC Ligal ng mga Barangay president Councilor Ranulfo Z. Ludovica, QC Police District director P/C Supt. George T. Regis, QC Division of City Schools superintendent Dr. Corazon C. Rubio, and Knights of Columbus – QC Assembly Faithful Navigator Sir Knight Rodolfo Dauz.
Filipinos consider the Rizal Sesquicentennial as a very special and most appropriate occasion, similar to the Rizal Centennial in 1961, for rare commemorative activities like launching of books, releasing special postal stamps, presentation of cultural shows and exhibits, holding of lectures and forums, and promotion of tours to historic spots and shrines throughout the country.
Rizal is best remembered for his advocacy of education and enlightenment as the road to real independence and empowerment of the Filipinos.
He rejected divisive, mediocre, and pseudo-nationalist advocacies which, he said, would make Filipinos “a nation without a soul” and a people whose leaders are “the slaves of yesterday who will be the tyrants of tomorrow.”
He observed that Filipinos during the Spanish colonial era were “mere individuals, not a people constituting a nation.” Mencio, Maureen Quinones, PAISO
