Pope John Paul II monument proposed

SENIOR citizen official for- a- day ( SCOFAD) Mayor Narciso Padilla on Monday sought the construction of a monument of Pope John Paul II at Burnham Park in honor of His Holiness’ momen tous celebration of the mass at the city’s premiere park in 1981.

Padilla wrote Dept. of Tourism Undersecretary Ramon Jimenez Jr. to allow the construction of the monument beside the present Igorot grandstand at the right side facing the Melvin Jones grandstand.

“We are requesting the DOT and the PTA ( Philippine Tourism Authority) in cooperation with our City Government Officials to kindly designate at least three- by- three square meter are for the proposed project with the National Correspondents Club of Baguio ( NCCB) and the Cordillera Boradcaster Alliance (CBA) as lead project coordinators,” Padilla said.

He said the project is being supported by parish priests from several churches and a community development volunteers.

The monument is one way to “perpetuate and immortalize the historic activities of His Holiness, most particularly for having offered the Holy Eucharist at the city’s main park.”

Baguio was included as one of the late pope’s destinations in his historic evangelical journey to the Philippines from Feb. 17-24, 1981.

“On that very special day ( Feb. 22), thousands of residents from this Cosmopolitan Mountain Resort City and from the neighboring provinces of the Cordillera Administrative Region and from Northern Luzon lined up the streets from the Loakan Airport and the main streets and parks and gave His Holiness the warmest and the most heartfelt welcome Mabuhay wishes and prayers,” Padilla recalled.

“It was amazing and interesting to noted that welcomers came from various religious denominations and stature in life, from the youth to the young adults and se- nior citizens, from the poor and the wealth and even the people with disabilities, led by the city officialdom headed by the later City mayor Ernesto H. Bueno and the late Bishop William Brasseur, Apostolic Vicar of the then Baguio Mountain Province Vicariate,” the SCOFAD Mayor for a day said.

“Significantly, Pope John Paul II celebrated a Holy Mass at Burnham Park to climax his brief sojourn to the City of pines on Feb. 22 with overflowing attendance. The Pope visited again the Philippines in January, 1995 for the 15th World Youth Day celebration.” Padilla added. Aileen Refuerzo