Manila commemorates Plaridel’s 155th birthday

Last Tuesday, we wrote about the fact that National Heroes' Day was declared a non-working holiday but there was no program to honor our national heroes. Today, we are glad to say that thanks to Mayor Atienza, the City of Manila will be commemorating the 155th birth anniversary of one of our 10 greatest heroes — Marcelo H. del Pilar who adopted the anagram "Plaridel" as his pen name. Manila will have two activities. First, Mayor Atienza will unveil a marker at the re-developed Plaza Miranda reputed to be the prime public forum of the country. Second, Mayor Atienza will lay a wreath at the Plaridel Monument at the Paraiso ng Batang Maynila on Adriatico Street in Malate. Del Pilar was the foremost hero of Philippine Journalism during the Spanish times. La Politica de España en Filipinas of 1896 said: "Marcelo del Pilar was the greatest journalist produced by the purely Filipino race." He bought La Solidaridad from Graciano Lopez Jaena and edited it from 1889 to 1895.

A hero is said to be an individual who really stands up for what is right and is counted, ethically, morally and humanly so much so that he becomes larger than himself. What they leave behind is a great name and more important a great example. To believe in the heroic is what makes future heroes.

Del Pilar was aware that the very first freedom is freedom from ignorance. Addressing the women of Bulacan, he said:

"An enlightened intelligence is a sanctuary where the kindness and magnificence of its Creator are better seen.

"The education of the women stimulates and elevates that of the men... because of their influence in the family as daughter, sister, wife or mother... They are not only a balm to the hardship of life but also an element that influences and guides men along the path of virtue, perversity or cowardice.

"Where the women are virtuous, vice is timid, and dignity predominates in the popular custom. But where women are frivolous, men become immoral, vicious and forget or despise their sacred duties...

"An unenlightened intelligence is like a lighthouse without a lamp; instead of guiding a ship, it will cause its loss."

It was said that it was del Pilar who suggested the chapter on Sisa, Basilio and Crispin in Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere. That chapter was something that actually happened in San Rafael, Bulacan. So he had a direct influence on Rizal’s novel.

Again we congratulate Manila Mayor Lito Atienza for commemorating Marcelo H. del Pilar’s 155th birthday. It is good to know that we have elected government officials that are familiar with our national heroes. The irony is that del Pilar was from Bulacan and it is the city of Manila that remembered what he did for our country.