Manuel L. Quezon Monument at Perez Park
By Lou Anne Villamor
May napapansin ba kayo na mga pakalat-kalat na 5-centavo at 10-centavo coins sa kalsada?
For some of us these days, the 5 and 10-centavo coins don’t matter much, but did you know that centavo coins like these once played a big part in Lucena City’s history? Yes, and you can still see one example up to this day.
The Manuel L. Quezon monument that stands on the fourth block of Perez Park here in Lucena is actually made from twelve sacks of one centavo coins that were manufactured by the US Government and was used during the Commonwealth Period before World War II. These one centavo coins were donated by public elementary students from all over Tayabas Province (the former name of Quezon Province).
Based on interview conducted by Mr. Delfin Mallari Jr. to Mr. Carlos Villariba, a local historian of Lucena City and a photo curator of Quezon’s Gintong Yaman Museum, it was in 1946, during the renaming of Tayabas Province to Quezon Province, when Col. Godofredo Magallanes had promised Quezon’s widow, Aurora, that a monument of Quezon would be built as a tribute to his participation and struggle for the Philippine independence from the United States.
It was on 1950, during the administration of Gov. Gregorio Santayana, when the plan for building the monument was conceived. Then, with the appeal of Gov. Vicente Constantino to all the residents of Quezon province through Christmas cards on 1952, the donated coins were collected and then shipped to Milan, Italy where it was sculpted by an Italian.
The Quezon monument was then erected on 1954 along with the marble wall that contains Pres. Quezon’s message to the people, and was inaugurated on August 19, 1955 by Pres. Ramon Magsaysay during the celebration of the 77th birth anniversary of Pres. Manuel L. Quezon.
Below is a copy of the inscription on the marble wall behind Quezon’s Monument entitled “Message to My People”
Message to My People
Manuel L. Quezon
My fellow citizens: there is one thought which I want you to have in mind, and that is, that you are Filipinos. That the Philippines is your country, and the only country God has given you. That you must keep it for yourselves, for your children, and for your children’s children, until the world is no more and that you must live for it, and die for it, if necessary.
Your country is a great country. It has a great past, a great present, and a great future.
The Philippines of yesterday are consecrated by the sacrifices of lives and pleasure of your patriots, martyrs, and soldiers.
The Philippines of today is honored by the wholehearted devotion to its cause of unselfish and courageous statesmen.
The Philippines of tomorrow will be the country of plenty, of happiness, and of freedom it will be a Philippines with her head raised in the midst of the West Pacific, mistress of her own destiny, holding in her hand the torch of freedom and democracy and pointing the way to the teeming millions of Africa and Asia. now suffering under alien rule; A Philippines, heir in the orient to the teachings of Christianity, and a republic of virtuous and righteous men and women all working together for a better world than the one we have at present.
Source:
Mallari, Delfin Jr. (2011, August 17). A Quezon monument built from prewar coins. Retrieved from http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/43297/a-quezon-monument-built-from-prewar-coins
Filipino Librarian: Talumpati: Manuel L. Quezon. Retrieved from http://filipinolibrarian.blogspot.com/2006/08/talumpati-manuel-l-quezon.html
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