Tarlac marks 131st founding anniversary today

TARLAC CITY — This province celebrates its 131st founding anniversary today, an event that coincides with National Flag Day.

Provincial administrator Jopeth Villa Agustin said the celebration’s theme, Pagyamanin ang Giting at Galing ng Tarlaqueño, "pays tribute to the renown of our people, past and present."

Tarlac is Central Luzon’s youngest province, created by the Spanish colonial government only in 1873 by way of carving out territories from Pampanga, Pangasinan and Nueva Ecija.

With the province having diverse cultures, nobody could speak of an "original Tarlaqueño."

The provincial folk are made up of Tagalogs, Ilocanos, Kapampangans, Pangasinenses, Chinese-Filipinos, Aetas, Visayans and Muslim-Filipinos from the South.

As part of the National Flag Day commemoration, Tarlac is proud to be represented in one of the eight rays of the sun in the Philippine flag for being one of the eight provinces that first took up arms against colonial Spain in 1896.

In a message, Gov. Jose Yap said the coincidence that Tarlac’s founding anniversary fell on the same day that the nation pays tribute to its flag "brings more privilege to all Tarlaqueños."

He described the National Flag Day as "a day of pride, honor and dignity for the Filipino people."

He urged Tarlaqueños to "pay tribute to our heroes," among them Gen. Francisco Makabulos, who founded the Katipunan in his hometown of La Paz; Gen. Servillano Aquino, who fought the Spaniards at the foot of Mt. Arayat in his hometown of Concepcion; Carlos P. Romulo, the first Filipino to become president of the United Nations General Assembly; and Gen. Aquino’s grandson, martyred Sen. Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. whose death in 1983 ignited nationwide unrest against the Marcos dictatorship.

Another historic event that the province commemorates is the convening of the "Paniqui Assembly" in Anao town, where Filipino priests led by Fr. Gregorio Aglipay demanded the "Filipinization" of the Catholic Church.

Aglipay was the assistant parish priest in Yap’s hometown of Victoria when he became involved in the 1896 Revolution. He later led a schism that resulted in the formation of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (Philippine Independent Church), regarded by historians as one of the "concrete testaments" to the national uprising against Spain.

Also, it was in Tarlac where Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo’s revolutionary government fully functioned with a Cabinet housed at what is now the College of Computer Science and Studies of the Tarlac State University along Romulo Boulevard here, and a Congress that held its regular sessions at the San Sebastian Cathedral on F. Tañedo street.

Tarlac is also best remembered for the infamous Death March of World War II. It was at Camp O’Donnell in Capas town where Filipino and American prisoners of war were miserably treated by the Japanese Imperial Army.

Until today, the provincial government said "Tarlac’s present crop of leaders continues to shape our contemporary history."

It cited Yap for being "instrumental in convincing leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) to negotiate with the government in 1992."

Yap is now a senior consultant of the government peace panel.

The provincial government added that Tarlac’s three congressmen, Reps. Gilbert Teodoro Jr., Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III and Jesli Lapus, "also make waves in Congress."

"Teodoro, a former Bar topnotcher, has demonstrated proficient leadership among young congressmen," it said. "Noynoy carries on the legacy of his father. Lapus, former president of the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP), remains persistent in enacting economically sound laws for the country."