KIKO URGES GOV'T OFFICIALS, PUBLIC TO DRAW INSPIRATION FROM PHIL-AM WAR HEROES AS SENATE HONORS MACARIO SAKAY

In light of the brewing controversies in government, Senate Majority Leader and Independent senator Kiko Pangilinan today urged all government officials and the public to draw inspiration from the example of Philippine hero Macario Sakay, whose death anniversary is on September 13, 1907.

Kiko filed a resolution in the Senate honoring the sacrifice of the said martyr and all other Filipinos who gave up their lives in the Philippine-American War of 1902.

"With all these controversies of bribery and vested personal interests in government involving the very leaders of this nation, it is so easy to be disillusioned and be hopeless about ever finding genuine leadership in this country. Pero hindi natin dapat kalimutan na mayroon tayong dugong bayani," Kiko said.

Sakay was a Filipino general who continued to battle against the United States following the official declaration of the end of the Philippine-American War. In November 12, 1902, the Philippine Commission passed the Bandolerism Act which proclaimed all captured resistance insurgents to be tried and certified bandits, ladrones and robbers. In April 1904, Sakay issued a manifesto declaring Filipinos' right to self determination at a time when calling for independence was considered a crime.

"Now more than ever is there a need for us to look back in our history and draw inspiration from the many men and women who put the nation first before themselves and made the ultimate sacrifice. We need to use this example to turn this country around, so that their deaths will not be in vain," Kiko added.

The National Historical Institute and the University of the Philippines erected a marker to commemorate the late hero at the foot of Mt. Banahaw where Sakay and his troops gathered and performed their functions as freedom fighters.