With ‘Rizal passport,’ travel across nation
BACKPACKING to retrace Jose P. Rizal’s footprints may be a better—and pleasurable—way of knowing the national hero than simply reading history books.
The Department of Tourism is encouraging Filipinos to travel around the country, with a “Rizal passport” in hand, and explore designated age-old churches, train stations, parks and little-known beaches, among others, seen through Rizal’s eyes.
The department has started giving away brochure passports to both domestic and foreign tourists for its recently launched “Lakbay Jose Rizal @ 150,” a tourism heritage promotional campaign centered on the celebration of Rizal’s 150th birthday on June 19.
The first 100 tourists to visit all 27 designated destinations connected to Rizal’s childhood and journey to martyrdom may present their passports with the appropriate stamps to the National Historical Commission of the Philippines to win an official “Kalakbay ni Gat Jose Rizal” certificate and other tokens.
The campaign gives interested vacationers exactly a year, starting this June 19, to complete their trips to the selected historical Rizal sites across the country to obtain the certificate and win other prizes.
But stamping will continue even after June 19, 2012, according to the tourism department. Prizes range from domestic air tickets to books and shirts.
“Every Filipino should avail of this chance to get to know our national hero better, to learn from his experiences and to appreciate the many significant places in his life,” Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim said at the launch of the program two weeks ago.
The itinerary includes a visit to a farm in Katipunan, Zamboanga del Norte, which Rizal acquired from a grateful blind patient and diligently tended on weekends with his students and to Molo Church in Iloilo City, which the hero was said to have frequented because of its beautiful paintings. (See map on this page.)
The program would also guide travelers to the old site of Ateneo Municipal de Manila in Intramuros, Manila, where Rizal studied; to his prison cell at Fort Santiago; and to the San Fernando train station in Sto. Niño in San Fernando, Pampanga, where he was said to have taken off to visit friends in the province and recruit members for his La Liga Filipina in the 1890s.
The other sites selected for the program include Calamba Church in Laguna, where Rizal was baptized, Rizal Shrines in Calamba and in Dapitan, Zamboanga del Norte, and historic Santa Cruz beach, where Rizal first set foot in Dapitan during his exile.
“Our foreign visitors are welcome to participate and share our pride. With increased tourist traffic to these areas, the project helps spread the economic benefits to the host communities,” Lim added.
The tourism heritage project is a joint collaboration of the tourism department, National Parks Development Committee, Heritage Conservation Society, National Historical Commission of the Philippines, Intramuros Administration and Cebu Pacific Air.
