A Girl’s Notebook :)

         Today, August 19 we celebrate the birthday of the first Commonwealth president of the Philippines, Manuel Luis Quezon y Molina. For those who don’t know, President Quezon’s middle name is Molina. I know many of us thought that Luis is his middle name, but in fact it is his name as well. Manuel Quezon was born on August 19, 1878 in Baler, Tayabas, now it is part of Aurora. Subsequently, Tayabas is now part of the province named after him, Quezon. His parents were Lucio Quezon and Maria Dolores Molina.
         Aside from being the first Commonwealth president, he is also considered as the Second president of the Philippines. He was distinct to be the first Senate President elected to the presidency, the first president elected through a national election, and was also the first incumbent to secure re-election (for a partial second term, later extended, due to amendments to the 1935 Constitution). He is known as the “Father of the National Language”.
           So every August, we celebrate “Linggo ng Wika” to remember his birthday and to commemorate our national language, Filipino.

President Manuel Quezon

As we celebrate the birthday of the Father of the Filipino Language, Manuel Quezon, there is one place in Quezon City where you can paid respect to him and witnessed how his life had become.

There is this popular place in Quezon City where children can play and people can relax on its grounds. It is the Quezon City Memorial Circle. The site where it is erected is originally for the National Capitol to be built in Quezon City. But by the Presidential decree issued by Quezon’s successor, President Sergio Osmeña, a monument has built in memory of president Quezon.

The design was done by a Filipino architect Federico Ilustre. “The monument would consist of three vertical pylons (representing the three main geographic divisions of the country: Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao), 66 meters (217 ft) tall (Quezon’s age when he died), surmounted by three mourning angels holding sampaguita (the national flower) wreaths sculpted by the Italian sculptor Monti. The three pylons would in turn circumscribe a drum-like two-story structure containing a gallery from which visitors could look down at Quezon’s(linked agirlsnotebook) catafalque, modeled after Napoleon Bonaparte’s in the Invalides. The gallery and the catafalque below are lit by an oculus, in turn reminiscent of Grant’s Tomb. Construction of the Quezon Memorial was begun in the late 1950s but proceeded slowly, in part due to the cost of importing Carrara marble, brought in blocks and then carved and shaped on-site. There were also problems associated with the theft of the marble blocks and the management of memorial funds. It was finally completed in 1978, the centennial of Quezon’s birth. His remains were reinterred in the memorial on August 19, 1979. It was during that time that by virtue of a presidential decree, President Ferdinand E. Marcos mandated the site as a National Shrine. The National Historical Institute manages, and has authority, over the monument itself, while the Quezon City government administers the park.

On April 28, 2005, the remains of Mrs. Aurora A. Quezon, widow of the president, were solemnly reentered in the memorial as well.”

(Source: wikipedia.org)

Quezon City Circle