OF TREES AND FOREST
By MANNY VILLAR JR.
In 2007, when I was Senate president, we passed Republic Act 9492 designed to rationalize “the celebration of National Holidays.” The law fixed the date of the celebration of National Heroes Day on the last Monday of August.
But what makes a person a national hero? I am not aware of a law or a decree that has officially proclaimed certain Filipinos as ‘national hero.’ I remember when I was in college at the University of the Philippines (UP), there was a passionate debate as to who between Jose Rizal and Andres Bonifacio should be considered as the national hero. I can only imagine the debate that would ensue if we have an official declaration of who our national heroes are.
I was surprised to read from the website of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (www.ncca.gov.ph) that there was in fact an attempt to do just that. In 1993, then President Fidel V. Ramos issued Executive Order No. 75 which created a National Heroes Committee tasked to come up with a criteria for identifying our national heroes.
The output of the technical committee was very interesting and intriguing, to say the least.
The National Heroes Committee, composed of eminent historians and scholars, came up with three criteria for National Heroes: (1) those who have a concept of nation and thereafter aspire and struggle for the nation’s freedom; (2) Those who define and contribute to a system or life of freedom and order for a nation; and, (3) those who contribute to the quality of life and destiny of a nation.
On the basis of these ‘measures’, they came up with a list of who should be declared as national heroes:
- Jose Rizal
- Andres Bonifacio
- Emilio Aguinaldo
- Apolinario Mabini
- Marcelo H. del Pilar
- Sultan Dipatuan Kudarat
- Juan Luna
- Melchora Aquino
- Gabriela Silang