BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya—The Brotherhood of Free and Accepted Masons coming from different lodges in Southern Region 02 offered flowers, prayers and poetry to the Philippine flag at the hero’s park here to commemorate the 119th Independence Day on Monday.
“The history of masonry is closely woven with the fight for Philippine Independence,” said Gerald Mart Gamboa, the District Deputy Grand Master of the masonic district Region II-A Nueva Vizcaya South.
The brotherhood honored the long list of Filipino Masons who fought the Spanish and American colonizers. Among the heroes mentioned were Jose Rizal, Graciano Lopez Jaena, Marcelo H. del Pilar, Emilio Aguinaldo, and Apolinario Mabini, among others.
They also prayed for those in the battlefield in Marawi City, as many able-bodied men in the Army and other branches of the Armed Forces of the Philippines are Masons, Gamboa noted.
In his opening prayer, Brother Edmar D. Suguitan of the Magat Lodge No. 68 invoked the “Supreme Grand Master, the creator of heavens and the earth, to grant wisdom to President Rodrigo R. Duterte that he may always discharge his duties according to the needs of the times.”
A poem filled with verses inspiring loyalty to the Philippine flag and love of country was recited by Zaldy Magno, a brother representing the Guillermo E. Bongolan Memorial Lodge here.
Other allied organizations present during the Independence Day rites were the Sierra Madre Court No. 43 of the Order of the Amaranth, Job’s Daughter Bethel No. 9 and the Order of Demolay-Villaverde chapter.