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Busts of the founder of President Ho Chi Minh and Filipino National Hero Dr. Jose P. Rizal were unveiled at Thai Nguyen University in the northern province of Thai Nguyen on May 2.
The inaugural ceremony was attended by Philippine Ambassador to Vietnam Noel Servigon, representatives from the Vietnam-Philippines Friendship Association and local officials.
The two statues were created by painter and sculptor Nguyen Manh Duc from the Vietnam Central Fine Art Company under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. They are positioned at the campus of the International School of Thai Nguyen University.
Addressing the ceremony, Ambassador Noel Servigon thanked the VPFA, the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations and the Thai Nguyen provincial People’s Committee for supporting the idea to create the busts.
Vietnam and the Philippines set up diplomatic ties on July 12, 1976. Since then, bilateral ties have been growing in a stronger and more profound manner concerning various spheres of politics, economy, defence, security, educational cooperation, culture, social and science-technology.
In the Philippines, the stone busts of the two heroes installed at the façade of each of the Laguna State Polytechnic University’s four campuses for everyone to remember them and pay them perennial homage. That illustrated the two countries’ strategic partnership and intensive educational cooperation, he noted.
VPFA Chairman Vu Van Tam said that although newly established in 2014, the Association has organised many diverse and practical activities such as: regular exchanges on the occasion of the great holidays of the two countries, contributing to the development of economic and cultural relations ... to enhance mutual understanding between the two peoples.
According to Tam, the initiative to install a bust of the national hero of the Philippines Dr.Jose Rizal side by side with President Ho Chi Minh at Thai Nguyen University in order to educate the young generations about outstanding wisdom, the strong will and love for the country and its people of President Ho Chi Minh and Dr. Jose Rizal, two past heroes and leaders of Vietnam and the Philippines.
The VPFA tried to coordinate with the relevant sides to complete and inaugurate two busts before the anniversary of President Ho Chi Minh's birthday (May 19, 1890) and the 121st anniversary of the National Day of the Philippines (June 12, 1898).
Educated in France, Spain and Germany, Dr.Jose Protacio Rizal had lived and traveled extensively in Europe and Asia.
Rizal became a prominent figure of political and social reform movements during the Spanish colonial era. His prolific political writings and his appeals to the public triggered the Philippines Revolution in August 1896.
On December 26, 1896, after a trial, Rizal was sentenced to die, he was convicted of rebellion, sedition, and of forming illegal association. On the eve of his execution while confined in Fort Santiago, Rizal wrote a poem Mi Ultimo Adios (My Last Farewell) and hid it inside the gas burner and gave the gas burner to his sister Trinidad and his wife Josephine.
He was executed on December 30, 1896 at the age of 35 by a firing squad at Bagumbayan, now known as Luneta Park in Manila.
Jose Rizal was a man of many accomplishments - a linguist, a novelist, a poet, a scientist, a doctor, a painter, an educator, a reformer and a visionary, he left his people his greatest patriotic poem, Mi Ultimo Adios to serve as an inspiration for the next generations.
Revered as a national hero, the anniversary of Jose Rizal’s death has been designated a public holiday in the Philippines, named ‘Rizal Day’.
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