Pampanga remembers Pinatubo eruption today
By Charlene Cayabyab and Ian Ocampo Flora
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — Pampanga province will commemorate Wednesday the 20-year anniversary of the 1991 Mt. Pinatubo eruption, the second largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century.
Mt. Pinatubo, located 90 kilometers northwest of Manila, erupted in June 15, 1991 leaving at least 800 people dead and 100,000 homeless.
Wednesday’s celebration in San Fernando City will be marked with an interfaith service and to be followed by a thanksgiving banquet to be attended by local leaders, Mt. Pinatubo memorial executive committee chair Levy Laus said.
He said the thanksgiving banquet will feature a cultural presentation that depicts events from the time the volcano erupted in June 1991 up to the point where Kapampangans were able to rise up from the catastrophe.
Meantime, the half-buried San Guillermo Church in the town of Bacolor shall serve as the main venue of the activities of the Provincial Government.
Local residents of Bacolor will join Gov. Lilia Pineda and other officials for a thanksgiving and solidarity mass to be officiated by San Fernando Archbishop Paciano Aniceto.
Bacolor Mayor Jose Maria Hizon said the mass will be held inside San Guillermo Church at 9 a.m. Simultaneous thanksgiving masses will also be celebrated in all major parishes of the province at 6 a.m.
“It is a mass to be thankful for having survived the calamity and having risen from the many hardships that faced our town and the whole province when it was hit by lahar some 20 years ago,” Hizon said.
He said that security and traffic plans for the area have been set in place to accommodate the people who will troop to the area.
A commemorative walk will signal the start of the official ceremonies in Bacolor town.
It will be followed with the opening of the trade and food fair, photo and painting exhibit, furniture show and film viewing on Mt. Pinatubo at 10 a.m.
The east lateral portion of the Mega dike right under the Gugu Bridge here on the banks of the Gugu River will serve as venue for the giant lantern and the fireworks exhibit at 6 p.m.
The commemoration in Angeles City, on the other hand, will revolve on the theme “Turning Tragedy into Triumph”.
Among the activities lined up for Wednesday’s celebration include the groundbreaking ceremony for the “Angeleño” monument; book launching; cultural shows; Lahar, L’Heart, L’Art-Art Competition; and a job fair.
City Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan said the city will “painfully remember the devastation and at the same time give tribute to our joint efforts by celebrating how we got back on our feet from the throes of the calamity.”
He likened the city with the phoenix bird that victoriously rose from the ashes of destruction.
Regarded as the second largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century, Mount Pinatubo’s climactic explosion happened on June 15, 1991.
Its ash falls reached as far as the Indian Ocean. Timely forecasts of the eruption by scientists from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology and US Geological Survey enabled people living near the volcano to evacuate to safer distances, thus saving at least 5,000 lives. (Sun.Star Pampanga/Sunnex)
TRAILER 11
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Aside from products and services, news releases and product announcements can also be posted free of charge on ClarkPhilippines.com web site.
This web site contains articles and information that will be helpful to visitors, residents and tourists traveling out of town from Manila on a short getaway to Subic, Angeles City, Pampanga and Clark Philippines. There are several web sites that contain information that might also be pertinent to what is happening in North Luzon, Subic, Tarlac, Pampanga, Clark Freeport Philippines.
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