LEGAZPI CITY – The village of Padang at the foot of Mayon volcano will soon be declared a historical and repository shrine in memory of at least 500 residents who were killed when mudslides spawned by super typhoon “Reming” buried the community last year.
Legazpi City Mayor Noel Rosal said he has signed an executive order creating the Padang Site Committee which would work for the eventual declaration of Padang as one of the national shrines in Albay, next to the Cagsawa Ruins in adjoining Daraga town where at least 1,200 people were also buried alive when Mayon volcano erupted on Feb. 1, 1814.
“In eternal memory of the typhoon victims, we will declare Barangay Padang a historical and repository shrine,” Rosal told The STAR.
He said he has received pledges of assistance to develop Padang into a national shrine, especially from the delegates of the Bicolano National Association of America (BNAA) who joined local officials in a wreath-laying ceremony at the mudflow-devastated village this week.
Albay Gov. Joey Salceda said he supports the plan to declare Padang a national shrine, but not a tourist destination.
“We must remember Padang as a solemn place so that we would not forget its lessons,” he said.
The BNAA delegates, who held their annual convention outside of the US for the first time, visited Padang and distributed relief goods to the mudslide survivors now resettled in Taysan, an upland barangay overlooking this city’s Old Albay district.
