Lorenzo Tañada’s 122nd birthday: Non-working holiday in Quezon town on Aug. 10

LUCENA CITY – Malacañang has declared August 10 as a special non-working holiday in Gumaca town in Quezon province to mark the 122nd birthdate of the late senator Lorenzo “Ka Tanny” Tañada Sr., the country’s longest-serving senator.

“It is but fitting and proper that the people of the Municipality of Gumaca, Quezon be given full opportunity to celebrate and participate in the occasion with appropriate ceremonies subject to community quarantine, social distancing and public health measures,” Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea said in Proclamation 990 signed on July 30, 2020.

A copy of the declaration was posted on the Facebook page of Gumaca Mayor Webster Letargo.

He said the local government would celebrate the occasion with a floral offering at the historical marker of the late senator in Barangay Pipisik, his birthplace.

“It will be simple but a fitting celebration,” Letargo told the Inquirer on Wednesday.

Tañada, born in Gumaca on August 10, 1898, was known as the “grand old man of Philippine politics” and one of the key figures in toppling the Marcos dictatorship.

He was in the Senate for 24 years – the longest-serving senator in Philippine history – and was also known as a fierce nationalist who staunchly opposed the presence of the United States military bases in the country.

He died on May 28, 1992, at the age of 93.

/MUF