Talisay’s Liberation Park statues getting a facelift

Cebu, Philippines - A major restoration of the disfigured seven full-scale statues of American soldiers the city had erected at the Liberation Park in barangay Poblacion is underway. 

City budget officer Edgar Mabunay said the city has appropriated P1.5 million for the work. 

Mabunay said work is expected to be finished by March 18, just days before the commemoration of the March 26 liberation landing.

The Liberation Park has been declared a national historical shrine as it marks the spot where American forces made the landing on March 26, 1945.

The life-sized human figures, which cost about P150,000 each, were installed in honor of Filipino and American soldiers who shed blood to liberate Cebu from the Japanese Army.

The fiber glass-made monuments are part of the P5-million expansion project of the Liberation Park in Talisay City.

In 2009, the statues were mutilated and the city spent some amount to have the statues’ hands restored and the stolen firearms replaced.

Prior to this incident, the first set of statues had to be removed because of their sub-standard quality, and which became the butt of jokes what with their unusually slender bodies, long necks, and large eyes. (FREEMAN)