Albay celebrates 153rd birth anniversary of Gen. Simeon Ola

Government officials and residents of Albay gathered at the Gen. Simeon Ola’s shrine in Guinobatan town to honor the bravery and heroism of the ‘last Filipino general to surrender to Americans’ during his 153rd birth anniversary on September 2, 2018. PHOTO by Michael Jaucian/Inquirer Southern Luzon

GUINOBATAN, Albay— Hundreds of Albayanos gathered to commemorate the 153rd birth anniversary of Gen. Simeon Arboleda Ola, the last Filipino general to surrender to the Americans during the end of the Philippine-American War, on Sunday.

“Ola deserves to be honored by Bicolanos because he contributed a lot for our liberation and freedom from colonizers,” Guinobatan Mayor Ann Ongjoco said.

The municipal government here led a short program that includes raising the Philippine flag and the revolutionary flags  with a 21 gun salute to honor Ola’s bravery.

Flowers were also offered by government officials and military and police personnel at his shrine at this town’s center.

Ola who was known to be the last Filipino general to surrender to enemies during the American occupation of the Philippines. He surrendered on Sept. 25, 1903 along with 28 of his men and officers, on the condition that they be granted amnesty. Ola faced trial that year and was sentenced to three decades of imprisonment, but he was
pardoned in 1904.

He survived three foreign oppressors— the Spaniards, Americans, and the Japanese — and saw the Philippines liberated three times in 1898, 1945, and 1946. He died on February 14, 1952 and was interred at the Roman Catholic Cemetery of Guinobatan. /ee