ILOILO CITY – The city government formally opened on Tuesday, Dec. 20, the library and museum named after Graciano Lopez Jaena, the Ilonggo hero who played a pivotal role in the reform movement against colonial Spain.
Mayor Jerry Treñas here and the Dr. Graciano Lopez Jaena Foundation Inc. (DGLJFI) opened the library two days after Lopez Jaena’s 166th birth anniversary.
“We hold the launching of the Dr. Graciano Lopez Jaena Learning Resource Center and Museum in honor of his well-lived life anchored on selflessness and heroism,” said Treñas.
The library has been open since last year but the launching was cancelled when typhoon ‘’Odette’’ struck in December 2021.
Atty. Pol Causing, speaking on behalf of DGLJFI President Mia Lopez-Cruz, thanked the city government for completing the project.
DGLJFI had been planning in the past 30 years to build a shrine and library at the 419-square-meter lot in Jaro District where Lopez Jaena, the only Ilonggo hero who has a national significance in Philippine history, was born.
The DGLJFI had initiated fund-raising activities, including dinners for a cause and selling copies of Lopez Jaena’s biography written by chairperson Demy Sonza, a historian and a former vice governor of Iloilo province, over the past years.
In 2016, the DGLJFI started construction of the library. However, it did not anticipate funding to run out and with only the façade standing, it inked a 50-year usufruct agreement with the Iloilo city government in 2018 to finish the construction.
Aside from the library in Jaro, the Treñas administration is also building a library in Arevalo District. It will be named after Chief Justice Ramon Avanceña.
The city government is planning to build libraries in each district here that can cater to residents, especially students.