After passing a bill that will mark September 11 of each year as “President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos Day in Ilocos Norte, the House of Representatives is set to pass another special non-working day in neighboring Ilocos Sur to honor heroine Gabriela Silang.
Unlike the Marcos Day bill that was authored by Ilocos Norte solons, approval of House Bill 7653 that will declare March 19 of each year a special non-working day to commemorate the birth anniversary of the “Joan of Arc of Ilocandia” is expected to breeze through both House and Senate scrutiny.
While the Marcos Day measure swiftly passed the Lower House, Senate has yet to act on its version of the measure.
Opposition against the bill has been strong in various parts of the country but not in Ilocos Norte where the Marcos Day will be exclusively commemorated.
Authored by Deputy Speaker and Ilocos Sur Rep. Deogracias Victor Savellano, HB 7653, or the Gabriela Silang Day, won the strong endorsement of the House Committee on Local Government .
Committee officials are confident of immediate bicameral approval of the bill.
Savellano said a reserved day for the martyred Gabriela Silang in Ilocos Sur is important to Ilocanos who will commemorate the heroism of “one of their own to be the embodiment of courage, patriotism and Filipino nationalism.”
The House official said Silang, a native of Santa town, was the wife of Diego Silang who led the Ilocano uprising during the Spanish occupation of the Philippines.
Following Diego’s assassination in 1763, Gabriela took over the helm of the rebel movement and portrayed a “popular image as the bolo-wielding La Generala on horseback.”
On September 10, 1763, Gabriela attacked the well-entrenched Spanish fortress in Vigan but a counterattack by well-armed Spaniards proved to be too strong for the bolo-wielding nationalists.
Gabriela and her force retreated to Abra but was later captured.
Ilocos Sur will commemorate her martyrdom on September 20, the day she was hanged by her Spanish captors at Vigan’s central plaza.