LINGAYEN, Pangasinan -To manifest pride and patriotism on the province’s diverse history and culture, the Pangasinan provincial board unanimously approved in its regular session recently an ordinance adopting the official seal and the official flag of Pangasinan.
Spearheaded by Vice Governor Jose Ferdinand Z. Calimlim Jr., Provincial Ordinance No. 11-2017, which was authored by Board Member Jeremy Agerico B. Rosario, partly stated that “at present the Province of Pangasinan has to revise the old Official Seal by indicating the founding year of Pangasinan which is 1580.”
Further, it was cited in Section 1 of the ordinance entitled “an ordinance adopting the official seal and the official flag of the Province of Pangasinan.”
As such, Section 2 of the ordinance noted that as a declaration of policy “there shall be an official Pangasinan seal and the official flag, the latter of which shall be displayed during the singing of the ‘Luyag ko Tan Yaman ‘ in all public and official functions, specifically every Monday morning during the flag raising ceremonies.”
Section 3, on the other hand, stated that “in lieu of the words ‘OFFICIAL SEAL’ specified in the OLD Official Seal, is ‘1580,’ the founding year of Pangasinan, shall be indicated in the NEW Official Seal.
Meanwhile, BM Rosario proposed that all schools must be provided with the official flag of the province.
As to the placing of the provincial flag in every school, Rosario said that it should not be placed higher that the national flag. “The national flag should always be higher than the provincial flag,” he stressed.
It can be recalled that in order to establish the exact founding day of the province, the previous administration under the stewardship of former governor now 5th district Representative Amado T. Espino, Jr. issued Executive Order No. 24-2009 in 2010, creating the committee composed of historians, researchers, members of the academe and media, representatives of different historical associations and government departments of the province, tasked to dig on solid historical records.
From there, the identification of the founding day or the beginning of existence of every local government unit is an important undertaking in the enrichment of its cultural and historical heritage.
After this, the Pangasinan hymn (Luyag Ko Tan Yaman) was composed and the official seal was conceptualized. (Ruby R. Bernardino with report from Regine B. De Guzman, April Dianne D. Diata Cruz and Toshiyuki Omura).
By Dexter A. See