Talisay still remembers founding day as a town

CEBU, Philippines - The Talisay City government continues to commemorate its founding day as a town. 

Mayor Socrates Fernandez yesterday led the 176th founding anniversary as a municipality at the Archdiocesan Shrine of Sta. Teresa de Avila. 

The church, located in barangay Poblacion, is considered to be part of Cebu’s heritage.

It is also where the old municipal hall is situated.

The original church was made of finely-cut coral stones but was heavily damaged in 1945 by the United States during aerial bombings.  

It was restored in 1950 under the watch of then Fr. Teofilo Camomot who went on to become the archbishop of Cagayan de Oro before he died in 1988.  

The church has five altars, including the main altar, all of which are gilded.

Unlike in the previous years, Fernandez did not issue an executive order declaring it as non-working holiday for city hall employees. 

The event started with a Holy Mass, which was followed by the opening of photo exhibits which showcase the city’s pride: its heritage and local delicacies.

In an interview with reporters, public information officer Arturo Bas said there used to be a move to stop the celebration of Talisay’s founding day anniversary, considering that it is already a city. 

But there are still people, even officials, who still prefer to celebrate the day, hence, every year, even after it was declared a city in the late 2000, the celebration of its founding day anniversary has continued.

Talisay was converted into a city in late 2000, but had opted to celebrate its charter day anniversary every January 12. 

Talisay, through a bill authored by first district Rep. Eduardo Gullas, which turned into RA 8979, became a city in December 2000.

Gullas was its first city mayor after being elected into office in the May 2001 elections.

From P68 million it used to get as its internal revenue allotment, Talisay now gets more than P300 million as its share of the national income.

This is on top of its income of about P100 million it gets from local revenues.  – THE FREEMAN