CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—This Pampanga capital has a Heroes Park, occupying 25 percent of a 1.7-hectare extension of the City Hall. With statues of eight national and local heroes, the park is what greets students of the City College of San Fernando behind the Heroes Hall.
The park’s central figure is a statue of Dr. Jose Rizal made by artist Rene Robles in 2009.
The first image put up in the park in 2005, as commissioned to artist Toym Imao, was that of Tiburcio Hilario, Pampanga’s revolutionary governor who the Spanish colonial government exiled to Mindanao after Rizal visited his home in 1896 and who supposedly delivered P1 million silver coins to Gen. Antonio Luna to sustain the revolution against the United States.
A memorial marker for World War II veterans in San Fernando and the life-size figure of Socialist Party of the Philippines founder Pedro Abad Santos were made by artist Jun Fabian, also in 2009.
Fabian also created the figures of Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. and his wife, President Corazon “Cory” Aquino, in 2010.
The statue of Chief Justice Jose Abad Santos was made by Fabian while that of Katipunan supremo Andres Bonifacio’s image was created by Juan Sajid Imao in 2012.
The Abad Santos brothers were far apart in ideology and their remains still not located to this day.
A bust of Nicolasa Dayrit-Panlilio, which is a replica of the original installed at the Henson-Hizon house in the city proper, was done by Toym Imao and unveiled in 2012.
Panlilio led a group of Kapampangan women who prevented a violent confrontation in Guagua town between Generals Antonio Luna and Tomas Mascardo in March 1899 after the latter’s defeat in Bulacan province.
THE CITY government of San Fernando in Pampanga province maintains in its City Hall extension the Heroes Park. Featuring eight national and local heroes, the park greets students and people going to the City Hall. TONETTE OREJAS/INQUIRER CENTRAL LUZON
Pampanga Rep. Oscar Rodriguez, a former mayor of San Fernando, said the park was built to remind Filipinos of the contribution of the country’s heroes to nation building.
“[We established this park] to help bring back in the minds and hearts of our fellow Filipinos the greatness, sacrifice and heroism of our martyrs,” he said.
Rodriguez said the park also aims to stir among San Fernando residents “love for country and pride of race, to help strengthen the democratic order.”
In Guagua town, the relocated statue and tomb of poet, playwright and revolutionary Aurelio Tolentino is expected to get no notice from local officials again, not even a wreath. The statue used to be in the middle of a commercial street but transferred to the facade of the town hall.
Tolentino was buried in 1915 at the Manila North Cemetery and his remains were transferred by the group Kapampangan Mipanampun to his hometown of Guagua. He organized for the revolutions against Spain in 1896 and the United States in 1899.
With Artemio Ricarte, Tolentino reorganized the revolutionary army in 1901, shifting to propaganda by editing the anti-US newspapers, “La Patria” and “El Liberal,” and published a third one, “Filipinas.”
In theater, his stage play, “Kahapon, Ngayon at Bukas,” caused a riot during its premiere at Teatro Libertad in 1903 when Tolentino trampled on the American flag.
The statue of Gen. Maximino Hizon, who served in the Philippine revolutionary army and who represented the province of Sorsogon in the Malolos Congress, is featured at the Pampanga provincial capitol’s grounds.
A close friend of Gen. Antonio Luna, Hizon persisted with guerrilla warfare against the United States. Captured and refusing allegiance to the Americans, he died in exile in Guam on Sept. 1, 1901.