Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko” Moreno Domagoso tells PressOne.PH that the city of Manila is keen on helping with the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Christianity in the Philippines, saying that “at a certain level, the city government of Manila always owes it to the Catholic Church.” | PressOneInterviews
The nation’s capital will actively participate in celebrations marking the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Christianity in the Philippines in 2021.
This was the vow made my Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso, who said Manila “owes it to the Catholic Church.”
Speaking to PressOne.PH, Moreno said the city government would extend “anything that we can help” to mark the quincentennial.
“It cannot be denied that most of our history happened in Manila,” Moreno said in a chance interview on Tuesday.
“The oldest church is located in Manila – San Agustin,” he added, referring to the stone church built by the Augustininians in Intramuros in 1586.
Moreno said Filipinos were guided by the Christian faith “for so many years, hundreds of years.”
“At a certain level the city government of Manila always owes it to the Catholic Church where the establishment of the government was done in Manila,” he said.
President Rodrigo Duterte, in contrast, has questioned preparations for the quincentennial celebrations, arguing that the Catholic faith was a colonial imposition of Spanish invaders.
Earlier this month in In Cebu, site of the planting of the cross of Ferdinand Magellan in March 1521, President Duterte again lashed out at Catholicism.
“Why would I give something for the celebration?” he said. “When Magellan came here, he brought the cannon and the cross. But because the cross is there, the natives immediately embraced them.” (PressONE.ph)