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“In a House hearing on Wednesday, July 1, Manila 5th District Rep. Amado Bagatsing offered what he considered a win-win solution to the Torre de Manila controversy: Turn the national hero’s monument by 180 degrees so that its new background would no longer include the DMCI Homes condo project,” reports Gil Cabacungan in Philippine Daily Inquirer.
The report noted that “Bagatsing’s suggestion and rationale drew chuckles from his colleagues in the House committee on Metro Manila development.” However, Bagatsing emphasized that he was serious about his suggestion.
In his dialogue with National Historical Commission of the Philippines chair Ludovico Badoy, Bagatsing asked: “A lot of people are asking why Jose Rizal has his back turned on Manila (and facing west toward Manila Bay). What is the historical basis for this?”
Bagatsing went on to cite his “‘history lessons’ about Rizal’s execution in 1896 in which the patriot turned around at the last moment to face his firing squad.”
The execution site, then known as Bagumbayan, would later become the national park designed around Rizal’s iconic monument.
For her part, National Commission for Culture and the Arts legal counsel Trixie Cruz-Angeles shot down Bagtsing’s suggestion, saying that it was a “foolish” proposal.
Angeles pointed out: “We are complaining about DMCI’s Torre de Manila defacing the skyline, so why should we let our national hero face this eyesore? If we agree to this compromise, then we will have to alter all our historical shrines and heritage sites to bend to the will of greedy and insensitive corporations.”
Photo: Gov.ph
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