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Bicol is known for Mt. Mayon and the Cagsawa Church ruins, abaca and pili nuts, and for being a storm “magnet” (I should know, am a half Bicolana). Am proud of my heritage especially since it is also in Bicol, particularly in our province Daet, Camarines Norte, that the first and oldest Rizal monument in the Philippines can be found.
It was said that just ten days after General Emilio Aguinaldo, the first President of the Philippines Republic, issued a decree mandating the Filipino people to observe the second anniversary of Dr. Jose Rizal’s execution at the Luneta, the people of Daet started building a monument to honor our national hero. The construction of the stone marker in Daet was started on Dec. 30, 1898, or barely two years after the hero’s execution while the monument was completed two months later on February 1899.
Bicol’s revolutionary army headed by Colonel Antonio Sanz and Ildefonso Alegre spearheaded the construction of Rizal’s monument in Daet. Located at the Freedom Park, the 20 feet tall work of art is one of the historical landmarks of Daet.
It took the National Historical Commission 63 years (1961) to declare the Rizal monument in Daet, Camarines Norte a historical landmark.
Written on two of its three sides are the titles of Dr. Rizal’s novels ‘El Filibusterismo’ and ‘Noli Me Tangere’. Masonic symbol are very prominent – a star and the word’s ‘A Jose Rizal’ appears on the upper triangle of the monument.
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