Angara first Southeast Asian to receive Spain’s ‘Casa Asia Award’

By Gloria Jane Baylon

MANILA, July 16 (PNA) -- Sen. Edgardo J. Angara, also a lawyer and former President of the premier state University of the Philippines, was recently named one of two international recipients of the Spanish government-linked 7th “Casa Asia Award,” it was announced recently at the Palacio de Viana in Madrid.

He is the first Southeast Asian to win the foreign policy prize, sharing it with the multi-disciplinary International Dunhuang Project (IDP) of China.

A ceremony honoring the recipients in Madrid within the year is being finalized, according to the Spanish embassy in Manila.

The talented senator is best known in Spain as the Filipino who paved the way for the establishment of June 30 of each year as Philippine-Spanish Friendship Day.

”Senator Angara has been chosen to receive the award for his commitment to strengthen the relations been Spain and the Philippines. He is one of the most distinguished Filipino politicians who have committed themselves to boost relations between the two nations as well as to promote Spanish language and culture. It was the initiative of Senator Angara that paved the way to the establishment of the Philippine-Spanish Friendship Day in 2002,” the embassy said.

The Casa Asia Award is bestowed by the institution of the same name and was set up in November 2001 as an integral part of Spain’s foreign policy, aimed at strengthening Spanish presence in the Asia-Pacific region in the 21st century.

The embassy said the Award is granted yearly to individuals and institutions “that have stood out in the promotion of dialogue, understanding and knowledge between societies of Spain and the Asia-Pacific region.”

IDP was created in 1994 with the objective of making accessible to everyone, including academics and researchers, through the Internet, all information and images of all manuscripts, paintings, textiles and artifacts from Dunhuang, China and archaeological sites of the Eastern Silk Road as well as encouraging their use through educational and research programs.

Previous recipients of the award include Pakistani human rights defender Mukhtar Mai, the Department of Spanish of the University of Beijing, Spanish journalist Rosa María Calaf, the Nagasaki Prefecture Art Museum and Muragame Iría Museum in Japan, the non-governmental organization Chigari Trust and Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe.

According to Wikipedia, Philippine-Spanish Friendship Day remembers the day (late June 1898) when General Emilio Aguinaldo, President of the First Philippine Republic, issued an order requiring that the last Spanish soldiers who had garrisoned for almost a year inside Baler’s church be treated not as enemies, but as friends, and that they receive the necessary permission for their return to Spain.

Baler is in Aurora province, where Angara, the the main promoter of Friendship Day, hails from. He described that event in Philippine history as “a glorious day for both countries because the siege of Baler brought heroes and victory for both parties.”

The Philippine-Spanish Friendship Day was established by Republic Act No. 9187 of July 22, 2002. The first celebration in 2003 in Baler had the theme, "Amistad Duradera" or "Matibay na Pagkakaibigan" in Filipino.

A movie titled “Baler” was made of this incident, which won for Filipino-Australian beauty Anne Curtis a best actress award in local competitions.(PNA)
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