BALER, Aurora (PIA) — Baler town in Aurora was not only the Spanish colonial government’s last stand in the Philippines but also the spring of long lasting friendship.
In his keynote message during the 126th anniversary of the Start of the Siege of Baler and celebration of the 22nd Philippine-Spanish Friendship Day, Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri said that there is no better moment that captured the hard-earned respect and friendship between Philippines and Spain other than the Siege of Baler.
“The siege showed extraordinary courage, loyalty, perseverance, and patriotism on both the part of the Spanish defenders and the Filipino revolutionaries,” Zubiri added.
“Look back on it, not as the fall of Spain, but as a dignified withdrawal. Not as a brutal triumph of the Philippines, but as a graceful victory for allowing 33 Spanish citizens and defenders safe passage back to their homeland,” the lawmaker stressed.
Meanwhile, Spanish Ambassador to the Philippines Miguel Utray Delgado recalled how Spanish soldiers who had holed up in the Baler Church were treated with dignity and given the necessary support before returning to Spain.
“From this concept of friendship, our relationship in the most diverse spheres, derives and capillaries. Our relations at a political level present an admirable degree of harmony with total absence of dispute, which is not the prominent feature in today’s international arena. Both countries understand international relations and the way in which each of us must behave and act in a similar way,” Delgado emphasized.
Republic Act No. 9187 designated June 30 as Philippine-Spanish Friendship Day to commemorate a decree by President Emilio Aguinaldo which mandates that Spanish soldiers under the custody of Filipino forces should be considered friends rather than prisoners of war.
The decree was believed to have been issued in recognition of the Spanish detachment in Baler which survived a siege that lasted for almost a year. (CLJD/MAT, PIA Region 3-Aurora)
