The Plaza- 150th Birth Anniversary of the Philippine National Hero

Calamba City 150^th Birth Anniversary of Dr. Jose P. Rizal

Calamba City- The place where someone was born will never be forgotten especially if the place is where Dr. Jose P.Rizal was born and spent his childhood. The 150^th Birth Anniversary of Dr. Jose P. Rizal was celebrated with the unveiling of the tallest statue in the world. The Plaza which is comprise of 7.5 hectares of land has been developed partially and is where the new monument of Dr. Jose P. Rizal is located. In front of one of the biggest City Hall in Laguna or might be the grandest, “The Plaza” will soon have a shopping center and amusement park that will be the surroundings of the tallest statue which have a 22 ft long with 15 tall platform from the ground.

Attended by no less than the President of the Philippines Benigno “NoyNoy” Aquino, Governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Amando Tetangco Jr, Chairman of National Historical Commission, Congressman Justine “Timmy” Chipeco of the 2^nd District of Laguna, Ambassador of Germany, former DILG Secretary Jose D. Lina,  Secretary Manuel Quezon III, Board Members Andrew Neil Nocon of 2^nd district of Laguna and Angelica Alarva Jones of 3^rd district of Laguna, Mayors in Laguna like Arlene Nazareno of Sta Rosa City, Baby Berris of Calauan, Maita Ejercito of Pagsanjan, Joe Padrid of Bay among others together the descendants of Dr. Jose Rizal like Mia Faustman, Atty. Ramonsita Reyes (great grand daughter of Dr. Jose Rizal eldest sister Saturnina), Atty Teresita Herbosa (Chair of Security and Exchange Commission)  with more than 5000 Filipinos from all over the country wearing their best in Filipiniana and barong Tagalog which is the motif of the event.

The President arrived via chopper in Colegio De San Juan De Letran then went straight to the Rizal Shrine (House) together with Dr. Jose P. Rizal descendants and Local City officials headed by Mayor Joaquin Chipeco Jr. while people and attendees at the new Rizal monument were watching from the big screen.

Some Dr. Jose P. Rizal descendants attended in the Rizal Shrine but not in The Plaza (monument) like Panjee Tapales (daughter of Tweetums Gonzales). After the unveiling of the tallest monument, everyone was invited for a buffet lunch at the City Hall of Calamba.

PRESS STATEMENT

Laguna launches innovation in public high schools with eRizal

June 19, 2011- Laguna Governor Jeorge “ER” Ejercito Estregan announced today the formal launching of a capacity enhancement program that will benefit students and teachers in public high schools in the province of Laguna. The program, dubbed eRizal, was introduced during the ceremonies marking the 150^th birth anniversary of the Philippine National Hero, Dr. Jose Rizal.

The eRizal program consists of supplementary teaching-learning modules on math, science and social studies that are loaded in the tablets. A portable personal computer, the tablet will have multiple functions as well as memory space to store volumes of references and textbook materials for high school education. With this tool, the students and teachers can “virtually” carry on with classroom interaction and exercises. The virtual classroom environment allows limitless possibilities for developing the critical, analytical and creative skills of students, thereby exponentially improving their competency to pass norms and standards in scholastic achievements.

The eRizal will be implemented in phases. Phase 1 will be piloted-tested in selected public high schools in Laguna, specifically from those distant communities in the periphery of the province. For this phase, there are activities lined up, as recommended by the participants who took part in the eRizal conference and workshop held in Calamba City in April. The conference/workshop assembled a group of experts in IT (Information Technology) education, principals and administrators from various high schools, such as the UP rural high school and the Laguna Science High School.

The deployment of eRizal tablet PCs o all selected public high schools will follow immediately after the eRizal teachers’ training course to be held in August this year. The course will touch on the system and methodology of teaching math, science, language and social studies, including the life and works of dr. Jose Rizal, as well as the functional capabilities of the eRizal tablet PCs and interoperability with existing IT infrastructure in Laguna.

The province of Laguna envisions the eRizal as an innovation in teaching high school students with the view to sharply improving their skills and competency in math, science, language and social studies.

The succeeding phases of eRizal implementation will have an enlarged base of coverage of public high schools as well as administrative and technical infrastructure to integrate the total system. In the pilot phase, the implementation will be in clusters to ensure control and quality supervision of teachers over students and generate important observations and results that could be the basis for upgrading and upscaling of eRizal program at a later stage.