Butuan marks 111 years of RP flag-raising in Mindanao

BUTUAN CITY, Philippines – The People of Butuan City with the Butuan Historical, Cultural Foundation Inc. (BHCFI) celebrated on Sunday the 111st anniversary of the first Philippine flag hoisting in Mindanao held at the City’s Rizal Park.

The event was attended by Butuan City officials headed by Butuan City Vice Mayor Dino Moran Sanchez and City Council members, officials of the different government line agencies, local church leaders, the Boy Scouts of the Philippines, AFP and the PNP and local historians.

Highlights of the event was the re-enactment of the first RP flag hoisting with the singing of the Philippine National Anthem at the City’s Rizal Park fronting Butuan City’s St. Joseph Cathedral and near the main Butuan City Police Office.

A program was also held after the flag hoisting re-enactment.

According to BHCFI, the first formal hoisting of the Philippine flag in Minda­nao was on Jan. 17, 1889 here in Butuan

Gov. Wenceslao Gon­zales of the Tercio Distrito of Surigao, Fr. Francisco Nebot, S.J., and the principal head of Butuan formally lowered the Vatican flag and officially raised the Philippine flag accompanied by the playing of the Himno National de Filipinas by the local bands of Butuan, Tubay and Cabadbaran. – Ben Serrano