Dagupan eyes sisterhood with Xiamen City
INSPIRED by President Rodrigo Duterte’s vision, seeking friendlier relations between the Philippines and China, the Dagupan City council passed a resolution requesting Mayor Belen Fernandez to take steps that could lead to the establishment of sisterhood relations between cities of Dagupan and Xiamen, China.
The resolution, authored by Councilor Jose Netu Tamayo, asked Fernandez to create a committee that will prepare the needed spadework to fast track the establishment of sisterhood relationship between the two cities.
Dagupan is the only second city in the Philippines seeking sisterhood relationship with a city in China after the state visit there of President Duterte last month. The first is Mr. Duterte’s own city of Davao, which is linking up with Shanghai.
Tamayo said Xiamen is a prosperous city in Southern China where most Chinese-Filipinos presently living in Dagupan originated. The ancestors of Mayor Fernandez and Vice Mayor Brian Lim, both of Chinese descent, were from Xiamen City.
“We believe that there is nothing more emphatic that could be done today than to concretize the sisterhood agreement between Dagupan and Xiamen cities,” Tamayo said, noting that despite their differing positions over the Spratleys and the Scarborough Shoal, the Philippines and China are much closer now than before.
He asked newsmen: “Why Xiamen?”
Xiamen is a port city where some Chinese families boarded boats that would take them to the Philippines to flee from the communists led by Chairman Mao Tze Tung that swept their country in a bloody civil war.
The Chinese families, he said, who settled in Dagupan persevered hard, using the traits they imbibed from their forefathers back home, like hard work, self-reliance and sacrifice, and in no time became prosperous and successful.
Tamayo also learned that some of the city officials of Xiamen City are related to some of Dagupan residents, who can be tapped to further cement the relationship between the peoples of Dagupan and Xiamen. (Leonardo Micua)
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