BULAKAN, Bulacan—Marcelo H. Del Pilar’s kin wishes that the life, works and writings of the hero be included in the curriculum of the Filipino students so that his heroism and great contributions to the freedom and democracy of our country will live on until the next generations.
For sixty three year old Maria Rita Marasigan-Aguas, she wants the youth today to remember her great grandfather by giving value to the freedom Filipinos continue to enjoy because of the life, blood and sacrifices he and other national heroes like Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio, Mariano Ponce, etc. have offered for the country more than 100 years ago.
“I want my great grandfather proper place in history to be remembered more seriously until the generations to come that’s why I would highly recommend to proper authorities that courses on the Life and Works of Marcelo H. Del Pilar be included in the school curriculum,” she told Inquirer after she spoke at “Pangungulila at Pangarap of Marcelo H. Del Pilar” lecture conducted on Aug. 26 at Marcelo Del Pilar’s Shrine in Barangay San Nicolas by Kabesera Inc., a history, heritage and cultural group of Bulakan town, where the hero hails from.
“To the Filipino youth, the freedoms we enjoy today did not come free nor obtained easily. Take time to discover, research, study in depth, or even meditate on how for instance or why the great and a most impactful hero like Gat Marcelo H. Del Pilar earned from history writers the following labels to describe him: Father of Philippine Journalism, The Great Propagandist and the Father of Philippine Masonry,” she also said.
Aguas is the fourth of the five children of Marcelo del Pilar Marasigan, the youngest of six children of Anita, the youngest of ten children of Marcelo H. Del Pilar and his wife Marciana. The hero, born in Sitio Cupang, Barangay San Nicolas in this town on August 30, 1850 and his wife have ten children but eight of them died and only Sofia and Anita have lived. Sofia was sickly and did not get married nor have children. Thus, the only direct descendants of Marcelo H. Del Pilar descended from the line of Anita Del Pilar-Marasigan.
Aguas, who earned degrees in law and political science degree in University of the Philippines in Diliman and whose work experience in organizational development and strategic management in healthcare, food distribution/manufacturing, construction, architecture, telecommunications and hospitality industries also encouraged the media to use its power that is aligned with nation building. “Media practitioners have a powerful platform not constantly or easily utilized much less optimized. In some instances the media’s power is exercised in a manner misaligned with the corresponding indispensable core values for and on cross-purposes with nation-building,” she told NEWS CORE.
Bulacan’s celebration this year of the 174th birth anniversary of Del Pilar, also known in his writings as “Plaridel,” the juggled backward spelling of his family name, continues with the annual tradition of a wreath-laying ceremony at his monument in the shrine and a 21-gun salute by the Philippine National Police and a short program.
Bulacan Gov. Daniel Fernando encouraged all fellow leaders to do more and give more of their leadership and services to the people not only of the province but of the great Filipino nation.
“Let us not forget that the brains, the ideals and the initiatives that ignited the revolution that freed our nation was a Bulakenyo. Today, it is our huge obligation and task as leaders of our nation to protect and preserve all that Marcelo del Pilar have fought for for our beloved country. We all continue to become one today because of his teachings, his creations and his dreams. While we are in a different and modern world today, we should not allow abuse, violence and fraud to happen for the sake of what Del Pilar’s life, blood and sacrifices,” he said in his speech.
National Press Freedom Day Celebration
The Central Luzon Media Citizen-Council (CLMCC)joined the nation, particularly the media rank in the celebration of the second National Press Freedom Day on the occasion of the 174th birth anniversary of Marcelo H. Del Pilar, the father of journalism in the Philippines.
CLMCC president Carmela Reyes-Estrope reiterates its role as providers of truth to the public and with a deeper commitment of safeguarding the truth against false news both in the traditional and social media. It also upholds the media self-regulation and accountability mandate of the media-citizen councils in the Philippines which in return will help ensure the protection and security of its members.
President Rodrigo Duterte in 2022 has signed into law Republic Act (RA) 11699 declaring August 30 of every year as National Press Freedom Day in honor of Marcelo H. del Pilar, the father of Philippine Journalism.
Remains brought home in 1984
The shrine also serves as a museum and the Del Pilar’s family mausoleum.
Del Pilar, editor of La Solidaridad, the Filipino nation’s newspaper that served as enlightenment against the Spanish abuses that led to the Philippine-Spanish revolution died of hunger and sickness writing and printing the issues of the paper in Barcelona, Spain on July 4, 1896.
HIs remains was then only brought home to the country when it was exhumed in Barcelona in 1920 and was buried at the North Cemetery. However, during the term of the late former President Fidel V. Ramos, the national government allotted a budget for the construction of a shrine and a museum at the ancestral land of Del Pilar. The hero’s descendants agreed to donate their family’s ancestral lot property in Sitio Cupang, Barangay San Nicolas where Del Pilar’s Shrine and Museum stand today.
In a gloomy and rainy day during the occasion of Del Pillar’s 134th birth anniversary on Aug. 30, 1984, the national government, the provincial government of Bulacan and the municipal government of Bulakan including the National Press Club and the Bulacan Press Club with hundreds of socio civic groups and Bulakenyos welcomed their hero through a grand procession leading his remains to the shrine.
Since then, a grand civic parade participated in by close to 3,000 Bulakenyos from all sectors is annually held in grandiose and jubilant celebration of their hero’s birth anniversary. However, since the COVID-19 pandemic, the municipal government has yet to bring back the same glorious occasion.
