The Antique provincial board will seek the approval of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) to declare the 116-year-old statue of Dr. Jose P. Rizal as a historical landmark and cultural heritage.

Board Member Egidio Elio, chair of the Committee on History and Cultural Heritage, said on Thursday that the board passed on first reading on Feb. 26 his proposal declaring the monument of Rizal at the town plaza of Sibalom town as a historical landmark and cultural heritage of the province.

Once it is approved on its final reading, Elio said they would immediately seek the NHCP’s approval to have it declared as a national landmark.

“The statue of Rizal at the center of the town plaza of Sibalom is one of the earliest statues of the national hero in the country that it needed to be preserved and conserved,” Elio told the Philippine News Agency.

He said that it is important that the NHCP, aside from the provincial declaration, proclaim the monument as a historical or cultural site to ensure its preservation.

The Rizal statue was erected in 1908 at the center of the two-hectare town plaza during the time of Municipal President Nemesio Naranjo, who had served Sibalom from 1908 to 1909.

It was personally brought and donated to the province by lawyer Ramon Occeña Maza, who had served as a representative of Antique from 1916 to 1922.

In 2021, the local government unit of Sibalom under Mayor Gian Carlo Occeña ordered a renovation and illumination of the statue and the beautification of the entire plaza.

Also, at the same session, the provincial board approved on first reading to declare another statue of Rizal in Barangay Egaña, Sibalom town, as a historical landmark and cultural heritage of the province.

The statue, being considered the second oldest in the province, was erected in 1922 by then-Sibalom Mayor Sabas Tordesillas and the Society of the Poor of Barangay Egaña.

Two other ordinances were also passed on first reading, declaring the Lady of Justice at the Hall of Justice Compound in San Jose de Buenavista and the Statue of Progress at the University of Antique (UA) Main Campus in Sibalom as historical landmarks and cultural heritage of the province.

The two statues were among the outstanding artworks of Donato Ramiro Sermeno Jr., who was born in Sibalom on Feb. 1, 1935, and earned his Bachelor of Science in Fine Arts degree (cum laude) from the University of the Philippines-Diliman in 1956. (PNA)