ANGELES CITY — “May we always remember what we suffered. May we always celebrate that we triumphed.”
Thus, read the last couplet of the dedication inscribed in granite marker at the first Pinatubo memorial in Pampanga unveiled by the Center for Kapampangan Studies at the campus of the Holy Angel University on the occasion of the 32nd anniversary of the June 15 eruption of the volcano.
Beside the marker stands a 3,000-year-old tree trunk buried along the Abacan river during one of Pinatubo’s prehistoric eruptions unearthed in the lahar flows following the 1991 eruptions.
City Vice Mayor Vicky-Vega Kabigting, Pampanga 1st District board member Cherry Manalo, Pampanga provincial tourism officer Randy del Rosario, city mayor executive assistant Rafael Angeles, and Barangay Pampang chair Luis de Luna, who donated the petrified tree trunk led the unveiling ceremonies.
Administrators of the university also participated in the event, led by VP for organization development Edna Santos who read the message of HAU acting president Leopoldo Jaime Valdes; VP Dr. Al Biag who laid the university’s wreath; and university registrar Dr. Jesus Panlilio who assisted Vice Mayor Vega in the marker’s unveiling. CKS administrator Myra Lopez hosted the program.
Kapampangan poet-laureate Francisco Guinto who performed his winning entry in a CKS-sponsored Pinatubo poetry competition which gave him the laurel crown. HAU chaplain Fr. Mark Anthony Torrcarion led the program’s opening prayer while the HAU Chorale performed the Himnu ning Kapampangan. The HAU Rondalla and the HAU String Ensemble also performed.
Also lending their presence in the unveiling were former Mabalacat tourism officer and pioneer in Pinatubo explorations Guy Indra Hilbero, poet laureate Sergio Calayag and young poet Alvin Ignacio a.k.a. Bertung Isponga, and social media influencer Justine Cayetano.
In a statement, CKS director and VP for student services and affairs Robby Tantingco, who missed the event due Covid infection, said the memorial is HAU’s “latest initiative to ensure that future generations will never forget what happened during the eruption of June 15, 1991 and the lahars of 1991-1995.”
Other university initiatives promoting the remembrance of the Pinatubo eruption are the publication of Tantingco’s book “Pinatubo: The Volcano in our Backyard,” which won the 2011 National Book Award (science category) and the opening of the Pinatubo Museum, the only museum in the country dedicated to the history of a volcano. Punto News Team/Contributed photos
