President Rodrigo Duterte urged Filipinos to reflect more on history and “honor those who have toiled so that we may become a nation we are today—modern, progressive, and ever thriving.”
At a ceremony in Guiuan, Eastern Samar, unveiling a marker for the quincentennial of Christianity in the Philippines, Mr. Duterte said Filipinos, as “inheritors of this complicated yet glorious past,” should continue the aspirations of their forebears.
“While the events that we celebrate would [subsequently] lead to the beginning of colonization, the Filipino people can find relief in the knowledge that we have gone far in our efforts to correct the mistakes of the past,” the President said.
“I therefore call on all our [countrymen] to appreciate our rich history and learn from the experiences of those that came before us so that we may never again allow any other tribe to compromise our sovereignty—invaders who would come and who would stay here and contribute to the richness of our culture and, of course, in the way how we live,” he said.
Reinvigorate
He said he hoped the commemorations would reinvigorate the historical and socio-civic consciousness of the Filipino, especially among the younger generation.
The celebrations, which is directly related to the 1521 expedition of Ferdinand Magellan under the Spanish crown, would also “fortify” the Philippines’ relations with Spain.
“[That was] a historic event. And, though we may differ in our interpretation, the fact is that we are here and that contributed something that was good for our country,” the President said in the presence of Spanish Ambassador Jorge Moragas Sanchez.
He added that early Filipinos’ first contact with the Spaniards became “an opportunity for our forebears to show their unity, magnanimity and sovereignty to our foreign guests.”