Learn lessons of the past, says Bago City mayor

BACOLOD CITY – Mayor Nicholas Yulo stressed the importance of learning the lessons of the past as the city of Bago in Negros Occidental marked the 125th anniversary of Al Cinco de Noviembre on Sunday, November 5.

City officials headed by Yulo and Vice Mayor Ramon Torres led the wreathlaying ceremony for the event, also known as Negros Day, which has been declared a non-working holiday in the province thru Republic Act 6709, at the Gen. Juan Araneta Monument in Bago City, along with the descendants of Araneta, followed by a civic-military parade on the city streets.

Yulo said the people of Bago commemorated and celebrated anew the heroism that Araneta and his troops showed for the people of Negros against the tyranny of foreign colonizers who ruled the Philippines for over 300 years.

“May we all remember the history that transpired centuries ago,” the mayor said, underscoring that the lessons of Al Cinco de Noviembre should still be learned today and apply to the modern world.

As part of the celebration with the theme “Honor, Ingenuity, and Service with the Revolution of Progress,” the city government unveiled two bridge markers on Friday, November 3.

Yulo and Torres led the unveiling of the Gen. Juan Araneta Bridge (Old Bago Bridge) marker in Purok Masinadyahon, Barangay Lag-asan.

The Bago Bridge as it is popularly known was built and originally inaugurated as Gen. Juan Araneta Bridge in the late 1920s. It served as the link between northern and southern Negros Occidental.

Towards the end of World War II, a group of Filipino and American soldiers saved the bridge from destruction. In 1991, typhoon “Ruping” battered the province and destroyed the bridge but it was later reconstructed.

The second marker was in honor of American soldier Private First Class Theodore Vinther in Barangay Lag-asan.

On March 29, 1945, a group of American and Filipino soldiers led by Vinther was sent to secure the bridge.

The mission was successful as the Japanese failed to destroy the bridge. In the ensuing battle, however, Vinther was killed.

But their action in securing Bago Bridge led to the hastening of the liberation of Bacolod and Negros Occidental.

The provincial government also celebrated Negros Day to commemorate the revolt of the people of Negros against Spanish colonizers in 1898.

The city government of Silay also honored Gen. Aniceto Lacson from the north who led a bloodless revolt against the Spanish government on the island of Negros.