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Sunday, December 18, 2016
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ILOILO City – Historical markers and monuments deserve respect but those of Ilonggo hero Dr. Graciano Lopez at Jaro Plaza aren’t. Various sectors lament that his monument and shrine are being desecrated.
Ukay-ukay kiosks and perhayan surrounding the Lopez Jaena monument at Jaro Plaza have appalled people through the years but the city government has not taken any action.
Today is the 160th birth anniversary of Lopez Jaena. The center of activities this morning is the Graciano Lopez Jaena Park – the Jaro Plaza renamed after the hero.
Lopez Jaena, born on Dec. 18, 1856 in Jaro district, is the only Ilonggo “national hero.” He was considered the “first Filipino propagandist” in the struggle for freedom from the oppressive Spanish colonizers.
What is now known as Jardin Elena on Fajardo Street, Jaro district was the hero’s birthplace.
A program at the Lopez Jaena monument will be held this morning. The Graciano Lopez Jaena Foundation is spearheading the activity.
The Graciano Lopez Jaena Foundation has been asking the city government not to allow stalls around the shrine but has not received any favorable response.
The Foundation was instrumental in the construction of the memorial shrine.
The Jaro Plaza is managed by the Association of Barangay Councils of Jaro.
The kiosks and perhayan were set up as part of Jaro district’s so-called annual “December affair” that actually lasts until February (the fiesta month of Jaro)
Lopez Jaena wrote the satirical story Fray Botod which depicted a fat and lecherous priest.
Botod’s false piety “always had the Virgin and God on his lips no matter how unjust and underhanded his acts are.”
Lopez Jaena reaped the friars’ fury and eventually went to Spain in 1879 when threats were made on his life. There, he founded and edited La Solidaridad newspaper that aimed to galvanize Filipinos to into demanding independence from Spain.
In Lopez Jaena’s honor, Dec. 18 is a special holiday in the whole island of Panay.
Lopez Jaena died of tuberculosis at age 39 on Jan. 20, 1896 in Barcelona, Spain. He was buried by the Sisters of Charity in an unmarked grave at the Cementerio Sud-Oeste. His remains have not been brought back to the Philippines.
Historians regard Lopez Jaena, along with Marcelo H. del Pilar and Jose Rizal, as the triumvirate of Filipino propagandists.
Of these three, Lopez Jaena was the first to arrive in Spain and may have founded the genesis of the Propaganda Movement./PN
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