NEWSFLASH

DESECRATION OF QUEZON TOMB BEWAILED

Quezon City, Oct. 9, 2000 The once-serene Quezon Memorial Circle, holding the tomb of President Manuel Luis Quezon, is now a maze of fastfood restaurants, flea markets, organic gardens and other commercial establishments. On top of that, the Lopez conglomerate announced plans to build an Eiffel-type communications tower which would loom over the majestic Quezon monument.

Malaya, in its editorial today, joined the thousands of voices protesting the commercialization of Quezon’s tomb:

Stop the desecration.

The fammily of President Manuel Quezon, the first president of the Commonwealth, has had it. The relatives, led by daughter Zenaida “Nini” Quezon Avancena, are planning to move Quezon’s remains back to the Manila North Cemetery, the original resting place.

Quezon died of tuberculosis in Saranac Lake in New York while his government was in exile during the Japanese occupation. The body was brought home after the war and was entombed at the family plot. The remains were transferred to the Quezon memorial circle in Quezon City on Aug.19, 1978, Quezon's 100th birth anniversary.

The Quezon shrine with its three pillars towering over the city named after him is the country's most prominent structure after the Rizal monument at the Luneta. The presence of the remains at the crypt has sanctified those grounds.

The Quezon family understandably has been upset by the actitivities that have since been allowed to be conducted inside the memorial. The Quezons kept their peace when the circle was opened to restaurants and sundry commercial enterprises (there was even a proposal to build a billiards hall which, fortunately, was foiled by widespread public opposition).

The Quezons, however, drew the line when a promenade beside the tomb was turned into an open-air disco which featured public dancing once a week.

Sublimity has given way to tastelessness simply because the dancing session brought in P1.2 million last year which reportedly went a long way in bankrolling the upkeep of the memorial.

It could be argued that the masses who have no access to hotel ballrooms also deserve a place where they can display their terpsichorean talents. But must this, along with the other commercial outlets, be in a memorial shrine?

The Quezon family, in addition, has received information a conglomerate is planning, with the agreement of park administrators, to build a communications tower right beside the monument. The planned tower will dwarf the Quzon monument. A utilitarian monstrosity will lord it over the monument to the Father of Philippine Independence.

The Quezon family has reportedly told the proponents of the communications tower that since the Quezons do not hold title to the memorial, it does not have the right to make decisions on what to allow or not to allow inside the memorial. An exquisitely phrased rebuff.

But we believe the memorial is the patrimony of the nation, and that the shrine should be a place of honor, unfettered by commerce.

Would the Americans allow what has been at the Quezon Memorial Shrine to be done at say, the Washington Monument? Or would the French allow such a tower to be erected beside the Eiffel Tower?

It's time that the higher levels of government step in.