Think about it
Princess Urduja is a fictional character
By Jun Velasco
“Any man can make a mistake, but none but a fool will continue it.”—Cicero
THERE’S a controversy hereabouts over a question involving a plan by the provincial government to buy for more than P600,000 an oil painting of a supposedly nude princess by the name of Urduja.
The hubbub is justified not because of a reason advanced by those opposing the plan, which is that, the nude or sexually provocative princess could drive young boys — probably even some adults — to mischief.
Our reason for objecting to the plan is the same as that which sought to pull down the name “Kalantiaw” to one of the buildings on the Capitol grounds. It has no historical basis.
Years back, we had a chat with the great Pangasinan historian, the late Rosario Mendoza Cortes, at the San Carlos City residence of our old pal, Patrick Claudio, whose wife Jane, is the historian’s first degree niece. Ms. Cortes, who has four volumes of Pangasinan history, was emphatic about the so-called Princess Urduja as a fictional character.
When Manong Tito Primicias was still governor of Pangasinan, there was a lively chat about Princess Urduja among local historians including Methodist Pastor Resty Basa which ended in a consensus: she never existed. We also came across an article written by Rachel Sapigao in the Manila Bulletin more than a decade ago that described Urduja as a myth.
In 1992, Ms. Cortes, the historian, read her thesis about Princess Urduja, quoting several historians including Ibn Batuta, Professor Zafra and even our national hero Jose Rizal, before the Women in Development group headed by Virginia Pasalo. Their conclusion: no such woman inhabited the province of Pangasinan.
We suggest the plan be junked so that we won’t be a laughing stock to those who know the facts.
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We missed brod Dante’s speech during the celebration of Dagupan Day on June 20, but we had a lengthy exchange about his message to his Dagupan audience the day before.
In his speech which we heard over Radyo ng Bayan somewhere in Western Pangasinan, he zeroed in on the Dagupenos’ unsinkable spirit which towered during the 1990 holocaust. He was all praises to the city government led by Mayor Benjie Lim and Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez for its proven leadership in preserving its natural resources topped by the proverbial bangus whose taste is making gourmets all over the world crazy.
Due to time constraint, the full text of his speech can only be published in the next issue of the Punch. Ah, yes, he expressed the prayer of every Dagupeno for a genuinely united political leadership to accelerate the city’s progress.
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Someone sent us a text message to describe the “family feud” among the local officials of Bani, Pangasinan. They are “MAD,” he said, “or Mutually Assured Destruction.”
Why so? Because Mayor Marcelo Navarro Jr., and the Sanguniang Bayan led by Vice Mayor Filipinas Rivera have petitioned the townspeople for the recall of each other, in short, their acts were meant to recall all Bani officials. Isn’t that crazy? One for the birds?
You see here that while we have an ideal form of democratic government, it’s not unlikely that it can go awry, when human passions make a mockery of it as its enactment or practice could fail to bring conflicting interests to a head.
We suggest Mayor Navarro, who is familiar with local government, is not a push over in the art of project financing or debate or negotiation accede to the SB’s demand that he submit a detailed program on how to use the proposed P70 million Land Bank loan, which, Councilor Gwen Palafox-Yamamoto says, is “dapat lang, ano? That’s very elementary and very simple, just a feasibility study, di ba, Tito Jun.”
Oo nga simple lang, unless Mayor Navarro has other plans.
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