ORION, Bataan — Great Filipino poet and orator Francisco Balagtas Baltazar was honored in Bataan on his 230th birthday Monday.
Virgilio Almario, chair of the Komisyon sa Wikang Pilipino, and Bataan Gov. Albert Garcia led the ceremonial rites that started with the parade of the urn of the ashes of the poet that came from the Church of Orion.
The hearse with a horse-drawn carriage carried the urn of Balagtas that was later placed at his tomb below his statue at the Hardin ni Balagtas in Barangay Wawa here.
The statue made by world-renown sculptor Julie Lluch was installed in Wawa in 2014. It shows Balagtas sitting as if writing while looking at the sea.
Almario and his two commissioners, along with Garcia and some other officials offered wreath of flowers on the monument near a library that shows that Balagtas and his wife, Orion-native Juana Timbeng had 11 children.
Balagtas was born in Bigaa, Bulacan on April 2, 1788 but transferred to Orion and started to work as clerk of court in 1840. He married Timbeng in 1842. He died in Orion on February 20, 1862 at age 74.
“Ang pinakamalaking ambag sa ating bayan ni Balagtas ay ang sinulat niyang Florante at Laura. Siya ang unang Pilipino na nakalikha ng orihinal na aklat na gumising sa damdamin ng ating mga kababayan,” Almario said.
“Inspirasyon siya ng ating mga bayani tulad ni Jose Rizal at Andres Bonifacio,” he added.
Almario said Rizal while travelling abroad carried a copy of Florante at Laura and used in his novels some phrases in the book while Bonifacio, he said, copied the way Balagtas delivered poems. He asked the youth to return to history and learn from it.
He asked them to read Florante and Laura “to know that there was one man who greatly loved his country.”
Almario said it was only this year that Malacanang declared April 2 as a special non-working holiday in Bataan.
“Mahalaga ang okasyon na ito upang mamulat ang mga kabataan na dapat mabuhay ang kulturang Pilipino at upang alalahanin ang nagawa ng mga dakilang tao,” Sofia Abaquita, 13, of General Santos City, said.
She was among 150 young girls and boys from diff erent areas in the country who camped in Orion, Bataan and participated in literary activities.
“Napakahalaga ng okasyon kasi for the fi rst time nakita ng Malacanang na ang April 2 ay Araw ni Balagtas na nanirahan at namatay sa Bataan,” Bataan Vice-Gov. Cris Garcia said.
Records showed that the eldest grandson of the poet, Primitivo Baltazar, became the parish priest of Orion while two other grandsons, Luis and Jose Baltazar were the first and 13th mayors of the town.
A great great grandson, Efren Pascual Jr., is a former governor of Bataan and presently mayor of Orani town.
