A bust for Wenceslao Vinzons

A war-time hero who remains a hero today, is the late Wenceslao Q. Vinzons. This guy neither collaborated with the enemy nor turned political-social butterfly to achieve his political ambitions. For his heroism and loyalty to country, Sen. Richard “Dick” Gordon led rites honoring him, with the unveiling of his bust in front of Vinzons Hall at the University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City.

Dick had been an admirer of Vinzons since he was in the elementary grades at the Ateneo de Manila, and his interest in his “icon” did not diminish when he was taking up law at the UP. In fact he joined Upsilon Sigma Phi because Vinzons had been an Upsilonian. But he wondered why, if a building had been named after Vinzons, how come there was no bust of him? The building houses the university student council and the Philippine Collegian.

And so, yesterday, Dick, with the assistance of UP vice-chancellor for student affairs Elizabeth l. Enriquez, unveiled a bust which he donated — a work executed by renowned sculptor Juan Sajid Imao, a 2001 Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Philippines awardee and a 2006 Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World. A UP alumnus himself, Sajid sculpted a young Vinzons to enable students and young people to relate to it easily. The Vinzons bust is part of the Vinzons Upgrade, a project organized by the 2008 Centennial University Student Council headed by its chair, Herminio C. Bagro III, with the support of UP President Dr. Emerlinda R. Roman.

A second part of the day’s program was the acceptance of a donation to the Vinzons project by Wesley Caballa, USC, UPAA Hongkong; Joseph Gutierrez, USC councilor, and the outgoing and incoming USC presidents, Third Bagro and Titus Tan, respectively. The turnover rites to the new Collegian staff were also held.

Vinzons was born Sept. 28, 1910, in Indan, Camarines Norte. He finished high school in a local school as valedictorian, took up law at the UP in Padre Faura, and placed third in the bar exams of 1933. He was president of the student council and editor-in-chief of the Philippine Collegian. Records show that he was known for delivering an oratorical address entitled, “Malaysia Irredenta,” in which he advocated the unification of Southeast Asian nations with a common Malay origin. This piece won him the Manuel L. Quezon gold medal for excellence. After graduation, Vinzons, along with future Vice President Arturo Tolentino, founded the Young Philippines Party, which advocated the grant of Philippine independence from America. After the passage in 1934 of the Tydings-McDuffie Act, he won a seat as delegate of Camarines Norte, to the 1935 Constitutional Convention. At 24, he was the youngest delegate to the Convention. He was instrumental in prescribing Tagalog as the official language of the Philippines.

During the 1935 presidential elections, Vinzons actively campaigned for the presidential bid of former President Emilio Aguinaldo, the main challenger to then Senate President Manual Quezon. His efforts helped Aguinaldo carry Camarines even though Quezon won the presidency. Following Aguinaldo’s defeat, Vinzons went into private practice, and became the president of a mining corporation based in his home province. He was elected governor of Camarines Norte in 1940, then his province’s representative to the National Assembly.

Vinzons’ service as legislator was interrupted by the Japanese invasion of the Philippines in December 1941. Vinzons began to organize armed resistance in the Bicol region against the invading army. He commandeered all the rice warehouses in his province, and ordered the confiscation of explosives used in the province’s gold mines for use against the Japanese army.

By Dec. 18, 1941, he led a raid against a troop of Japanese soldiers in Basud, in his province. His guerilla forces soon grew to around 2,800 strong, and in May 1942, he would lead these forces to successfully liberate the provincial capital of Daet. It is said that between December 1941 and May 1942, Vinzons’ troops, armed with poisoned arrows and other ammunition, were able to kill around 3,000 Japanese soldiers. As a result, his capture became the Japanese army’s prime objective.

With the collaboration of a former guerilla-turned-informant, Vinzons was seized by the Japanese military together with his father on July 8, 1942. He refused to pledge allegiance to his captors, and was brought to a garrison in Daet. On July 15, 1942, he was bayoneted to death after refusing one final entreaty to cooperate with the Japanese forces. Shortly thereafter, his father, wife, sister and two of his children were also executed by the Japanese.

To honor Vinzons’ memory, his hometown of Indan was renamed Vinzons, as was an elementary school in Manila. The student activity center of the UP campus in Diliman was named Vinzons Hall in 1959.

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Dr. Lily Rosqueta-Rosales was recently honored by the American Counseling Association as winner of the Gilbert and Kathleen Wren Award for a humanitarian and caring person. The award was presented at ACA’s annual conference in Charlotte, NC.

Lily was appointed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to the Professional Regulation Board on Jan. 26, 2007. She is currently OIC/chair of the PRC regulatory board of guidance and counseling, and chair of the council of continuing professional education of licensed guidance counselors, and of the technical committee on guidance and counseling of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).

She has received three international awards and 17 national awards for excellence in leadership, counselor education, counseling, research and community service.

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