THIS WEEK’S MILESTONES: Dec. 16-22, 2018

Dec. 17, 1941

Wenceslao Q. Vinzons, a University of the Philippines (UP) law graduate, organized a citizen’s army and fought Japanese forces at Barangay Laniton in Basud town, Camarines Norte province, during World War II.

A month later, in January 1942, his troops fought Japanese soldiers at Barangay Tigbinan in the municipality of Labo.

Vinzons, together with his father, was captured after months of manhunt in July 1942.

He was killed together with his wife, father, sister and two children.

Their remains were never found.

Vinzons was UP student council president, editor in chief of the student newspaper Philippine Collegian, a member of the 1934 constitutional convention at the age of 23 and governor of Camarines Norte.

The student center at UP Diliman is named after him.

Dec. 18, 1999

The conversion of the municipality of Tuguegarao into a city was ratified via a landslide victory in a plebiscite.

Official election results showed the “yes” votes had 15,597, while the “no” votes got 3,380.

This made Tuguegarao the first town in Cagayan province to become a city.

Tuguegarao’s poblacion, which has a land area of 144.8 square kilometers, boasts of the Cagayan Provincial Museum and Historical Research Center and St. Peter’s Cathedral, the seat of the Diocese of Tuguegarao.

The city’s population in 2015 was 153,502.

Compiled by Kathleen de Villa, Inquirer Research