Wanted: A World War II memorial for Cebu

Last week, I got a text message from my good friend, former defense secretary and presidential contender Gilbert "Gibo" Teodoro, Jr. asking my opinion on whether we should have a single National Heroes Day. Apparently there seems to be a quiet debate as to who was a bigger hero, Dr. Jose Rizal or Gat Andres Bonifacio?

I answered Gibo with this text message, "To answer this question, I look at what the Americans have done, by giving the highest honor to the Unknown Soldier whose body was discovered, recovered, but unidentified. Yet the Americans pointed to that corpse as the Unknown Soldier who died for their country. Hence in the US, there are no holidays for the numerous heroes that they have…but only for the Unknown Soldier."

Gibo, of course, agreed with me. In fact, I added that for us Cebuanos, Lapu-Lapu is a bigger hero in the sense that he was the first to successfully thwart attempts to destroy his village by foreign aggressors, whom we know as Ferdinand Magellan. But then those Manila-centric nationalists insist that Lapu-Lapu could not be a national hero because there was no Philippines at the time. In fact, I was in the forefront in the fight to have the statue of Lapu-Lapu erected at the Agrifina Circle at the Rizal Park.

That statue was given by the South Koreans and through the efforts of then Sen. Richard Gordon who was then the Tourism Secretary he had it erected there. Thankfully, I was already writing columns in the Philippine Star when I entered the fray against those so-called nationalists who insisted that the Rizal Park was sacred ground and was for Dr. Jose Rizal only. When I told them that the Rizal Park had a row of Filipino heroes, the debate ended and the statue of Lapu-Lapu was finally placed at the Agrifina Circle. It was an emotional moment for me to visit that statue in one of my trips to Manila. But we won the day!

Meanwhile, I read and saw the photo of the unveiling of the monument for Andres Bonifacio at the Plaza Independencia led by Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama together with the National Historical Commission. While I do not question the presence of Gat Andres Bonifacio's statue, I'm saddened by the fact that the City of Cebu has yet to honor that Visayan Katipunero leader called Pantaleon Villegas, a.k.a. Leon Kilat, of Bacong, Negros Oriental. Leon Kilat routed the Spanish troops on Apr. 3, 1898 and kept the Spaniards holed out in Ft. San Pedro for four days until the Spanish Cruiser Don Juan Austria arrived with fresh troops.

Leon Kilat and his men were not supported by a Cebuano populace who were under Spanish rule for nearly 400 years. So they all scattered and eventually, his own men got Leon Kilat drunk and they killed him to offer his body to the Spanish troops. But even that failed and all of them were executed by the Guardia Civil. Leon Kilat's exploits was never recorded by Katipunan historians.

Yet his short-lived victory proved to the world that the Spa-niards could be beaten by a small band of brave and noble men. So before the NHC erects another statue at the Plaza Independen-cia, the City of Cebu should first put one for Leon Kilat.

Meanwhile because of the death of my uncle, Col. Manuel F. Segura, there has been some concern that they City of Cebu should be preserving historical sites. I got this from the column of fellow columnist Bong Wenceslao and I fully concur that it is about time that we did this. There is that tunnel on top of Gochan Hill, which was still there when I was young. I just hope that the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. can come up with a project to preserve that historical site as it is the site for the first Battle for the Liberation of Cebu. While the Talisay landings are being observed, the first major battle to regain Cebu was not in Talisay, but in Gochan  Hill.

Finally, since we are talking about statues, until now the City of Cebu has not erected a statue for Col. James Cushing, the American mining engineer who led his band of Cebu Guerillas (including Col. Segura) to fight the Japanese occupation from their headquarters in Tabunan, Cebu City. Cushing was Mayor, Governor, King, and Chieftain of Cebu during World War II and we should never forget his contribution to the freedom we enjoy today!

Meanwhile regarding the funeral arrangements of Col. Ma-nuel Segura, his remains will be brought today to the Cebu City Hall for one night so that officials of the City of Cebu can honor him. Then on Saturday evening (Dec.7th) the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. will hold a program at St. Peter's Funeral Home to re-minisce the wartime exploits of Col. Segura. The program will start right after the 7 p.m. Mass. Burial will be after the high noon Mass on Sunday at the Queen City Gardens.

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