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Melchora Aquino (Tandang Sora) - Grand Old Lady of the Katipunan
by Susan G. de Leon

The remains of the Grand Old Lady of the Katipunan, Melchora Aquino, were transferred to the Tandang Sora Shrine on Banlat Road Quezon City on Friday after 42 years of being buried at the Himlayang Pilipino.

President Benigno Aquino III led the re-interment rites which was also attended by other government officials and descendants of Tandang Sora.

In his speech, Aquino said Tandang Sora showed that neither age nor gender could stop a person who really wants to render service to the country.

Tandang Sora’s remains were exhumed Thursday from Himlayang Pilipino memorial park, also in Quezon City, where she had been buried for the last 42 years. Prior to this, she was interred at a mausoleum for Filipino revolutionary veterans at Manila North Cemetery.

Bishop Antonio Tobias of Novaliches blessed the crypt at the shrine, while soldiers fired 21-gun salute and a bugler played taps as Tandang Sora’s remains, placed in an urn, was placed inside a granite crypt at the base of brass statue of her at the shrine.

The shrine also features a six-panel mural depicting Tandang Sora’s life and heroism.

The city government purchased a 2,800-square-meter lot in Banlat for the shrine, according to the head of the parks and development office, Zaldy de la Rosa.

The Quezon City government also spent P3.2 million for the design and construction of a 3.5-m high bronze monument depicting Tandang Sora attending to wounded Katipuneros, De la Rosa disclosed.

Tandang Sora was born 200 years ago on Jan. 6, 1812, in Balintawak. She died on March 2, 1919 at the age of 107.

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