Guv to grace 491st Magellan Landing

By MEDORA NB QUIRANTE
March 14, 2012

BORONGAN CITY  –  It’s all systems go for the 491st commemoration of Ferdinand Magellan’s landing on Homonhon Island in Guiuan town.

To drumbeat the occasion the local government unit of Eastern Samar sponsored a forum on the province’s history at the Eastern Samar National Comprehensive High School on March 14.

Around 300 students from the third and fourth year classes of the school in Borongan City came to listen to local historian and Guiuan parish priest Msgr. Lope Robredillo.

Robredillo, in his one-hour presentation traced the roots of the province of Eastern Samar from the 1400s to the Spanish era.

“Contrary to popular belief, Magellan did not discover the Philippines,” Robredillo said.

“We already had trade, a political system before Magellan landed but what makes his landing significant is because it was the first time people from our side of the world has an encounter with someone from the west,” he added.

The local historian’s lecture touched the political, economic and social development of the identity of the “Ibabaonon” or Eastern Samareño.

According to Robredillo, before the Spanish arrived, the locals in the province ate their meals on the floor.

“This is why we don’t have a local term for a table – we call it “lamesa” because we didn’t have tables before the Spanish,” Robredillo said when he discussed the Hispanization of the Eastern Samareño culture.

According to Provincial Tourism Officer Crescentia Quitorio, the province’s tourism office has made the forum a part of the activities to make sure that the commemoration is also felt in other parts of Eastern Samar.

“Magellan’s landing is just one of the activities sponsored by the provincial government in its effort to preserve our history and promote appreciation of our culture,” Quitorio said.

This year, just like the years before, Quitorio and her staff will also be in Homonhon Island with the governor of the province for the commemoration rites that include a re-enactment and thanksgiving mass.

“I feel that as the father of this province, it is my duty to make sure people are encouraged to learn and appreciate our roots and our history,” Gov. Conrado B. Nicart Jr said in his message to the students of ESNCHS.