VINZONS, Camarines Norte --- Keynoting here the 99th birth anniversary of Wenceslao Q. Vinzons, Sr., Naga City Mayor Jesse M. Robredo last Monday called on fellow Bicolanos to always keep Vinzons’ name in their hearts even as his spirit is already enshrined in the pantheon of the country’s greatest patriots and heroes.

        “By sustaining and nurturing that freedom that his life and death gave us, we should all make ourselves heroes in our own way, by becoming good citizens and responsive leaders, so that Vinzons’ death may not be in vain,” the mayor stressed during the festive celebration hosted by the local government of this town and the provincial government of

        Camarines Norte.

        Parades, academic contests, cultural shows, floral offerings and other activities that kicked off since Sept. 24 and participated in by all schools and government offices in the province preceded the culminating program and keynote address last Sept. 28, Vinzons’ birthday.

        Present during the celebration were CamNorte Gov. Jesus Typoco, Congressman Liwayway Vinzons-Chato and other provincial and municipal officials led by Municipal Mayor Oliver Ferrer. Also present were leading local education officials headed by Division Supt. Elizabeth Palo.

        Former Provincial Board Member and surviving daughter of the war hero, Ranavalona Vinzons-Gaite, delivered the family response after the keynote speech and anniversary messages of the province’s top officials.

        Before ending his speech, Mayor Robredo announced that in celebration of Vinzons’ birth centennial next year, he would ask the Naga City Sanggunian to pass a resolution naming a street in the city in honor of the war hero from Camarines Norte.

        Camarines Norte used to be part of Ambos Camarines, the unified province of Camarines Sur and Camarines Norte with Nueva Caceres or Naga City as the provincial capital.

        The first prominent hero from Camarines Norte to be given such honor by Nagueños was Jose Ma. Panganiban, a brilliant and distinguished alumnus of the Holy Rosary Seminary, then known as the Conciliar Seminario de Nueva Caceres. Dr. Jose Rizal hailed him as the great propagandist when they were in Spain, along with other Filipinos, calling for reforms and exposing Spanish abuses being committed in the islands. His name and deeds are immortalized by a street name, better known as Panganiban Avenue, a main artery that leads to the city’s two business districts from the main highway from Legazpi City.

        Vinzons was an outstanding UP student, an orator and first editor-in-chief of the university’s “Philippine Collegian” which is now housed in a building christened as Vinzons Hall as early as 1959. As a visionary, Vinzons founded the Pan-Malayan Association of Students that was the germ of an idea that became the Maphilindo (Malaysia-Philippines-Indonesia) that later on composed the core of the more expanded Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN.

        War hero

        Within days following the arrival of the Japanese troops in the Philippines, Vinzons, then a congressman after cutting short his term as governor, immediately organized an armed resistance. On December 18, 1941, Vinzons’ men met with force the advancing Japanese soldiers in Basud, Camarines Norte, near the Camarines Sur boundary. With his force grown to 2,800 guerillas and Negrito arrowmen, Vinzons was able to liberate Daet in May 1942, or five months after the Japanese invasion.

        Vinzons was eventually captured on July 8, 1942. Refusing to pledge allegiance to his captors, Vinzons, along with his father, was killed 7 days later. Shortly thereafter, his wife, sister, and two of his children were also seized and were never seen alive again. His death henceforth fanned the flame of Filipino fierce resistance and gallantry against the superior force of the Japanese imperial forces in the region.