Monumental mistake

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WHEN the bigger-than-life-size statue of a national hero is removed from its home, it’s not a small matter except to small minds.

Two councilors of the City of Manila initiated and signed the resolution evicting Marcelo H. Del Pilar, journalist and propagandist of the Revolution, from the park that’s a stone’s throw from the residence of his heirs, including his blind, 98year- old great-granddaughter, Atty. Nenita Marasigan Santos of Malvar street, Malate.

The resolution was passed “after recent discussion as to the relevance of the present location of the said monument” – in other words, the site was irrelevant. So not relevant that from a park as befits a hero, it was unceremoniously transferred to an obscure corner between M.H. del Pilar and Quirino Ave. True, that street was named after the hero, which does not make it any more relevant that Del Pilar’s descendants should live only on Del Pilar street and not Malvar, or Mabini.

Without a park, a monument is reduced to “konting bato, konting semento,” as that childhood rhyme goes. A monument is erected to honor great personages from history to keep alive their memory and legacies, not as an afterthought, not as a throwaway gesture.

Buhay party-list Rep Lito Atienza was mayor of Manila in 2004 when Samahang Plaridel journalists raised funds to forge the sculpture by Julie Lluch and erect it on a children’s park, eventually named Plaridel Park. In 2009, then mayor Fred Lim heeded the journalists’ call to move the monument to Remedios Circle after it was vandalized serially by unpleasant persons.

If the descendants and spiritual heirs of Del Pilar were dismayed by the disrespect committed in the name of the great City of Manila, Rep. Lito was not surprised. “The council is a syndicated gang. They have empowered themselves to be the sole power to grant building permits,” he fumed at Monday’s Kapihan at Manila Hotel. He did not sound shocked, only looked flush with exasperation.

Exasperated? “When you can do away with agriculture, you can do away with culture,” he quipped in Filipino. “Looking back,” he added, “only Imelda (Marcos) showed any sense of preserving art and promoting culture.”

Two other statues are missing, those of Benigno Aquino Jr. and Evelio Javier, from Roxas Blvd. as part of the APEC beautification.