URDANETA CITY–Mayor Amadeo Perez Jr. will leave for Spain on December 1 to sign a sisterhood agreement between Urdaneta City and Ordizia City in Spain on December 5 coinciding with the 500th birthday anniversary of Ordizia’s foremost son, Fr. Andres Urdaneta, after whom the former Spanish pueblo of Urdaneta was named.

Ordizia is a city located in the Basque region in the province of Guipuzcua in Spain, where Fr. Urdaneta, who figured prominently in the colonization of the Philippines, was a revered hero.

Perez said the accord will be signed by him and Ordizia Mayor Sta. Maria Ezia who was in Urdaneta City last week to personally extend the invitation to him to go to Ordizia and who received a resolution of the Ordizia City council manifesting their city’s intention to establish sisterhood relations with Urdaneta City.

He said Urdaneta City was identified for the sisterhood agreement after the people of Ordizia searched in the Internet, in connection with the Fr. Urdaneta’s 5th Centennial celebration, for any place in the Philippines that may have a historical link with the Spanish Augustinian friar.

Fr. Urdaneta, a philosopher, navigator, travel historian and a ship captain, was a member of the expedition headed by Miguel Lopez de Legaspi.

In the expedition that left Spain for the Philippines on November 21, 1564, Fr. Urdaneta was with Legaspi on board the ship “Capitana” that sailed along with the galleons “San Pablo” and “San Pedro” and the tenders “San Juan” and “San Lucas”.

Legaspi ordered Fr. Urdaneta to trace a safer route between the Philippines and Mexico (New Spain) which was then called the “Urdaneta route”.

The 5th centennial of Fr. Andres de Urdaneta, said Perez, is a big day in Ordizia where an International Historical Commission on the Augustinian friar is holding a conference.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is reportedly also going to Spain to also attend the Ordizia celebration, but Mayor Perez will not be part of the President’s official delegation.

Perez said his city is looking forward to cultural as well as student exchanges with Ordizia City under the sisterhood relationship.

He said since Spain has opened up jobs to Filipino workers, he will take the opportunity to seek the employment of nurses and other professionals who graduated from the Urdaneta City University, using Urdaneta’s tie up with Ordizia.—LM

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