QC urges students to visit shrines, monuments to freedom

MANILA, Philippines - The Quezon City government is urging the public, especially the students, to mark Independence Day by visiting different shrines and monuments that highlight significant events during the country’s struggle for freedom.

“We need to revisit our past to enrich our cultural heritage,” cultural and tourism affairs office head Rosario Yara told The STAR. “One way to do this is by visiting the different historic monuments and shrines in the city.”

Yara said that people often think of Rizal Park in Manila or the Bonifacio Monument in Caloocan City whenever they talk about historic shrines and monuments concerning the Philippine revolution.

“But there are also a number of shrines in Quezon City that mark significant events in our history,” she said.

Yara noted the presence of various markers about the revolution that started with the historic “Cry of Pugad Lawin” in August 1896. Most accounts said the event occurred in what was then a part of the Greater Caloocan area.

The actual location has become a point of contention among experts, but a number of the supposed locations of the Cry – including the widely accepted location in Barangay Bahay Toro – are within the boundaries of modern-day Quezon City.

Cry of Pugad Lawin

Located along Seminary Road in Barangay Bahay Toro, the Cry of Pugad Lawin shrine was developed following the creation of the Pugad Lawin historical committee, which sought to identify exactly where the Cry happened.

The shrine features monuments of several Katipuneros, including Andres Bonifacio and Emilio Jacinto, in the act of tearing their cedulas to signify their rebellion against Spanish rule.

It was believed to be the site where Bonifacio uttered his “Kalayaan o Kamatayan” statement when he asked his men if they are willing to fight for their freedom.

Tandang Sora

In article on the website of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts in 2003, three historians looked into the different locations of the Cry based on various claims and accounts.

The article – co-authored by Milagros Guerrero, Emmanuel Encarnacion and Ramon Villegas – claimed that the Cry might have actually happened “at the site of the barn and house of Tandang Sora in Gulod” in Banlat and not in the house of Tandang Sora’s son in Pugad Lawin.

The location in Banlat is currently the site of the Tandang Sora shrine, which was established in time for the commemoration of the bicentennial birth anniversary of the “Grand Old Lady of the Katipunan” last year.

Himlayang Pilipino earlier allowed the transfer of Melchora Aquino’s remains to the shrine, which has since been declared a national shrine by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines.

The shrine also has a museum, which features different works that are “anchored on the heroine’s virtues and were designed to encourage emulation by present and future generations.”

Bonifacio Memorial Park

Another historic monument in Quezon City is the one located at the intersection of EDSA and the North Diversion Road.

Erected in 1911, the original monument features a lone Katipunero – widely believed to be that Andres Bonifacio, but was officially called the El Grito De La Revolucion Monument.

Guerrero, Encarnacion and Villegas said in the article that it was not clear why the “monument to the Heroes of 1896” was erected in the said site.

They noted that it could not have been placed there to mark some of the significant events during the 1896 revolution as the events were believed to have happened in other places.

The monument was transferred in front of Vinzon’s Hall in the Diliman campus of the University of the Philippines in 1968.

A monument depicting Bonifacio was later erected at the Balintawak site, which was later referred to as the Bonifacio Memorial Park.

The site was the Quezon City government’s venue for the commemoration of Bonifacio’s 149th birth anniversary on Nov. 30 last year.

Mayor Herbert Bautista and Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte led local officials during the wreath laying ceremony and the subsequent unveiling of the Gat Andres Bonifacio sesquicentennial logo.

The event marked the start of the year-long celebration of the sesquicentennial or the 150th birth anniversary of the “Father of the Katipunan.”