CAPIZ – The people of Capiz are commemorating today the 75th death anniversary of President Manuel A. Roxas.
Today is a special non-working holiday in the entire province and Roxas City.
Republic Act No. 9217 made April 15 of every year as President Manuel A. Roxas Memorial Day, and assigning the nearest Friday to it as a Special Non-Working Holiday.
The Act was authored by then Capiz 1st District congressman Rodriquez Dadivas.
Roxas was the last president of the Commonwealth of the Philippines and the first president of the independent Republic of the Philippines (1946-1948).
Roxas also served as the province’s first congressional district representative and senator.
On April 15, 1948, he died of a heart attack while speaking during a visit to the then-Clark Air Base in Pampanga. He was 56.
It was in honor of President Roxas that the then-capital town of Capiz province was renamed Roxas City (Republic Act No. 603) on April 11, 1951.
Roxas, born in Capiz on Jan. 1, 1892, took his oath as president on July 4, 1946.
A legacy exhibit will also open on April 15 at the “Ang Panublion Museum”.
The opening of the exhibit will follow wreath-laying rites at the Pres. Manuel A. Roxas monument, a few meters away from the museum./PN
