Rama: City preparing for 2021

CEBU, Philippines — Even if President Rodrigo Duterte said he is not keen on celebrating the upcoming events in 2021, Cebu City Vice Mayor Michael Rama, who also happens to be acting Cultural and Historical Affairs Commission (CHAC) chairman, said the city is gearing up for the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Christianity in the Philippines.

“The city government will prepare for the 500th-year anniversary of Christianity in 2021,” Rama told reporters during yesterday’s celebration of the 141st birth anniversary of Don Sergio Osmeña.

In his speech in the City of Naga last Friday during the groundbreaking ceremony of the relocation project for landslide survivors, Duterte said he does not want to celebrate the arrival of the Spaniards in the Philippines. He said he considers the Spaniards as imperialists who brought the feudal system of government here and made Filipinos slaves in their own land.

However, Rama said he will do his duty to celebrate the occasion as far as the arrival of Christianity is concerned.

“Celebration is good, it is a must to everybody who contributes a great role in our life even if there was separation between the church and the state, the celebration of the church must be respected, moreover, to celebrate 500 years as Catholics… it’s all about the Vatican and Christianity by all means is important,” he said.

Regarding the CHAC office, Rama also said that he wants it temporarily transferred, as well as the library, but the museum should stay. However, he said he will leave the decision to the National Historical Commission regarding the events in 2021.

“They know better than us,” Rama said.

The arrival of Ferdinand Magellan in the Philippines in 1521 is considered by some sectors as the start of the Christianization of the Philippines. — Dina P. Atip