OUR local heroes deserve better. That has always been the call of our group SOLFED (Save Our Languages through Federalism) for the central government.
Generals Martin Delgado, Aniceto Lacson, Juan Araneta, and Francisco Del Castillo should be amply featured in textbooks, taught in schools, and included in Philippine peso bills, too, just like all other heroes. They achieved military and political successes that should be given wide recognition.
Delgado, Lacson and Araneta, unlike any other, forced the actual surrender of the Spanish military in the Philippines, led by the last Spanish Governor General Diego del Rios.
Del Rios and the Spanish forces never surrendered to General Emilio Aguinaldo or anyone else, as they never lost the war militarily in Luzon. But they did lose in Negros and Panay militarily. Yet the Negros and Panay revolutionaries are embarrassingly not given nationwide recognition.
On the other hand, Del Castillo was a member of the Federal Republic of the Visayas who led the Akeanons in the first battle of Kalibo. He was the first revolutionary general to be killed in action. Yet he’s not been given nationwide recognition.
Iban, his brother and their soldiers were summarily executed by the Spanish authorities after the first battle of Kalibo. They were the first revolutionaries that got executed en masse. Unlike many executed heroes, they remain strangers to most Filipinos.
Relative to this, in December last year, we sent a letter to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) urging them to feature Delgado, Araneta and Lacson should the BSP decide to print or produce next batch of bills or coins.
Likewise, we suggested to feature Del Castillo, Akeanon Colonel Candido Iban and his brother, and their soldiers.
We sent copies of the BSP letter to the local governments of Aklan, Kalibo, Negros Occidental, Bacolod City, Iloilo and Iloilo City. All have acknowledged having received them.
However, only the provincial government of Aklan so far has done a concrete step to support our call for BSP. The Aklan provincial board passed a resolution endorsing our effort and sent a copy of it to BSP.
We urge our local governments to do the same./PN
