CITY OF MALOLOS— Bulacan Gov. Wilhelmino Sy-Alvarado paid homage to the First Philippine Republic on Saturday, saying its inauguration 117 years ago in this city let the world know that the Philippines was an independent nation at the turn of the 20th century.
Alvarado led the rites commemorating the January 23, 1899 inauguration of the First Republic. Senatorial candidate Joel Villanueva, former secretary of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda), was the program’s guest speaker.
Villanueva also joined Alvarado, Vice Gov. Daniel Fernando, Mayor Christian Natividad of Malolos City, and National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) Director Leodovico Badoy in the wreath-laying ceremony at the monument of Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo outside the Barasoain Church.
Aguinaldo was president of the short-lived First Republic.
The governor said the establishment of the First Republic was as important as the proclamation of Philippine Independence in Kawit, Cavite on June 12, 1898.
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“We should always look back at the significance of January 23 and be proud that our forebears established a government of their own in the middle of a war against two of the most powerful empires in the world [of the period] – Spain and the United States of America,” Alvarado said.
Presidential Proclamation No. 533, issued by President Benigno Aquino III in 2013, declared January 23 as “Araw ng Republikang Filipino, 1899 (Philippine Republic Day, 1899),” but only Bulacan celebrates the occasion as a non-working holiday.
The Proclamation officially recognizes Jan. 21, 1899 as the day the Malolos Constitution was promulgated, and Jan. 23 as the day the Philippines became Asia’s first independent republic with the inauguration of the First Philippine Republic inside the Barasoain Church.
Alex Balagtas, head of the NHCP Bulacan and Zambales Chapter, said, “The whole nation should commemorate the First Republic. Now that the event had passed a century, government should act to make people understand from where our nation emerged.” CDG