Quezon remembered nationwide today, 126th Birthday Options

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The nation will commemorate the 126th birth anniversary of the first President of the Commonwealth, Manuel Luis Molina Quezon, today (Aug. 19), a special working holiday throughout the country and a special non-working public holiday in the provinces of Quezon and Aurora and in Quezon City under Republic Act No. 6741.


In the city named after Quezon, the National Historical Institute (NHI) and the city government will lead commemorative rites and program at 8 a.m. at the Quezon Memorial Shrine.

Nacionalista Party president Sen. Manuel Villar will be the guest of honor and speaker and will be joined in the wreath-laying and flag-raising rites by NHI Executive Director Ludovico D. Badoy, Quezon City Mayor Feliciano R. Belmonte Jr. and Vice Mayor Herbert M. Bautista, Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Elisea Gozun;

Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairman Rolando R. Dizon, the family of the late President Quezon headed by his daughter Mrs. Zenaida "Nini" Quezon-Avanceña, Department of Education Division of Quezon City Schools, the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the Philippines, the Kaanak ng mga Bayaning Pilipino, the Knights of Columbus, the Rotary Club, Lions Club International, the Quezon City Parks Development Foundation, and the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of the Philippines-Quezon City Council.

A short commemorative program follows immediately. Dr. Regino P. Paular chief of the NHI’s Historical Education Division will give the welcome remarks. NHI Executive Director Ludovico D. Badoy will give an inspirational talk while Belmonte will give a message and introduce the guest of honor and speaker.

A member of the Quezon family will give the response. The program’s master of ceremonies is Mario P. Mabini of DepEd-Quezon City.

Quezon was born on Aug. 19, 1878 in Baler, Aurora (formerly Tayabas) to Lucio Quezon of Paco, Manila and Maria Dolores Molina, a Spanish mestiza. He learned his first language, which was Spanish, Arithmetic, and Catechism from his mother. His father taught him lessons in honesty.

A Franciscan friar, Fr. Teodoro Fernandez, gave Quezon his initial education at the age of seven. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts in 1894, summa cum laude.

He was passive during the first stage of the Philippine Revolution, but actively participated during the Philippine-American War that started on Feb. 4, 1899. From 2nd lieutenant, he was promoted to 1st lieutenant, and later, captain, under General Tomas Mascardo’s forces in the battle of Porac in Pampanga. He surrendered in April, 1901, at the Mariveles mountain slopes in Bataan.

Adjusting to the new era, he stayed with the Alberts in Sta. Cruz district. He worked as a clerk at the Monte de Piedad until he finished his studies. He passed the bar examinations in 1903. He worked with the law firm of lawyer Francisco Ortigas before establishing his own.

He became the fiscal of his home province and later elected governor. In 1907, he ran for the Philippine Assembly under the Nacionalista Party and won by a large majority. He became the majority floor leader in the Philippine Assembly.

In 1909, he was elected resident commissioner to Washington, D.C., a post he held until 1916 where his most significant achievement was the passage of the Jones Act that provided for the United States recognition of Philippine independence as soon as a stable government was established in the country.

He was elected senator in 1918 and eventually became the Senate president. He headed the first Independence Mission that submitted to the US Congress the position of the Filipino people. When he returned from the US in 1934, he brought home the Tydings-McDuffie Independence Law.

On Sept. 17, 1935, he was elected first president of the Philippine Commonwealth. He championed social justice. He pioneered the land reform concept. He gave full support to woman suffrage and made Tagalog the basis for a national language.

He was reelected in 1941 and took his oath of office for the second term before Chief Justice Jose Abad Santos in Corregidor, due to the Japanese invasion. The worsening situation obliged him, his family, and the War Cabinet to escape from Corregidor to San Francisco on May 8. He set up the Commonwealth government-in-exile in Washington D.C.

In his address to both Houses of the US Congress, he urged the liberation of the Philippines. When his health worsened, he was moved to a sanitarium in Saranac Lake, New York, where he died of tuberculosis on Aug. 1, 1944.

On July 27, 1946, his remains arrived in Manila and were interred in the North Cemetery on Aug. 1, 1946. These were exhumed 32 years later and finally laid to rest on Aug. 19, 1978, his 100th birth anniversary, in the granite mausoleum in Quezon City, the central point of the Quezon Memorial Shrine.

Angara on Quezon

Sen. Edgardo J. Angara pays homage today to the late great Philippine President Manuel L. Quezon, the first president of the Philippine Commonwealth, the father of the Filipino national language, and a true Filipino statesman, and called on all Filipino leaders to follow his leadership and dedication to the country.

In a privilege speech to be delivered on Quezon’s 126th birth anniversary, Angara said that "our country today yearns for bold, flesh and blood leadership in governance and in deeds, qualities that the late President Quezon embodied in all his years of public service."

"With class division at its breaking point and the credibility of the governing leaders low, fragile and vulnerable, no other past Filipino leader looms more timely and current than Manuel L. Quezon," said Angara, a native son of Baler, the birthplace of Quezon.

Angara said that Quezon’s frontier initiatives on social justice, which could have mended much of the ruptures and the social ills today, can be lifted from the archives and applied with minimal revisions.

"From Quezon came a grand blueprint to give hope, decent lives and equity for those living on the margin: land for the landless, legal recourse for those who have less in life, jobs for the jobless," he said.

Angara, a former Senate President just like Quezon, also said that the late president’s deep sense of country and his weight in the international stage could have made the Philippines a respected player, not a pushover in international relations.

Angara called on today’s leaders to follow the classic example of Quezon’s truthful and honest encounters with people driven to desperation by hopelessness and poverty, such as one with a Malacañang cook suspected to harbor communist leanings, and another with a farmer driven to crude bomb-making by poverty.

"When was the last time a president personally and patiently listened to those tragic and complex stories of desperate or struggling Filipinos meted out injustice? When was the last time there were such truly human encounters without the benefit of photo-op sessions?," he said

"To give every man a chance in life- a fighting chance- is truly Quezon’s greatest legacy to the nation," Angara said, adding that "this is what every Filipino leader — this generation and the next one — should take to heart and put in practice."

Villar in QC

Sen. Manuel Villar Jr. will be the guest of honor and speaker at the 126th birth anniversary celebration of former President Manuel L. Quezon at the Quezon Memorial Shrine in Quezon City at 8 a.m. today.

Villar, president of the Nacionalista Party, said government officials should emulate the patriotism of Quezon, the founder of the Nacionalista Party who always thought of the welfare of the country, in formulating national policies that would serve the interest of the Filipino people.

He said public officials should be reminded of Quezon’s legacy and his famous line that moved the country, "My loyalty to my party ends where my loyalty to my country begins."

He vowed to revitalize the Nacionalista Party and breed a new generation of statesmen who will espouse the ideals, values, and patriotism of former President Quezon.

He said the party’s officials and members shall be guided by the party’s philosophy, "Ang Bayan Higit sa Lahat," in formulating national policies that would have a great impact on the Filipino people.

Joining Villar in the ceremonies are Zenaida Quezon Avanceña representing the Quezon family, Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr., Ludovico Badoy, Dr. Regino Paular, the city’s local officials, and various civic groups.

Villar also said the government should also formulate programs that would encourage consumers to support and buy locally-made products.

"No country has progressed without its own people believing in themselves," he said. "A nation can win the war against poverty if its people will espouse the values of hard work and determination".

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Happy Quezon City Day!