CEBU, Philippines — The municipal council of Cordova has requested the support of the Provincial Board in their resolution renaming the Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway (CCLEX), the third bridge to span the Mactan Channel, as the Señor Santo Niño Bridge.
The municipal council, in a session last November 5, has referred the resolution, authored by Cordova Councilor Jonathan Gairanod, to the Cultural and Historical Affairs Commission.
The CCLEX is presently undergoing construction and is expected to be completed in 2021. It will connect mainland Cebu to Mactan Island, through Cebu City and the municipality of Cordova.
“Cordova’s participation in the Fiesta Señor celebration would be more visible and dramatic if the bridge that the Cordovanhons will use in going to Cebu City is named ‘Señor Santo Niño Bridge’,” said Gairanod.
In his resolution, Gairanod explained that 2021 is the quincentennial of the arrival of explorer Ferdinand Magellan in Cebu on April 7, 1521. The event made global history, starting with the planting of Magellan’s Cross that eventually resulted in the Christianization of the Philippines.
Magellan would later be killed in the Battle of Mactan on April 27, 1521.
He said despite Magellan’s defeat, the Philippines became a Christian nation. Cebu itself was named by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi upon his arrival on April 27, 1565 as Villa del Santisimo Nombre de Jesus after one of his soldiers discovered the image of the Señor Santo Niño in a box among the debris from houses he bombarded with his cannons.
The specific place where the image was found is now the site of the Basilica Minore del Sto. Niño in Cebu City.
The townspeople of Cordova have been paying homage to Señor Santo Niño and the members of its Knights of Columbus chapter constitute the majority of the honor guard rendering service during the procession in honor of Señor Santo Niño every Fiesta Señor, said Gairanod. BRP (FREEMAN)