Senator Cynthia Villar distributed cash rewards to the chorale groups which won in the Villar SIPAG’s Inter-Parish Chorale Competition held at the San Ezekiel Moreno Oratory at Villar Sipag in Las Pinas City.
Villar said the contest was in commemoration of the 175th birth of San Ezekiel Moreno, the Patron Saint of Cancer Patients.
The veteran legislator thanked the chorale groups for singing the San Ezekiel Moreno Hymn.
“You have spoken to our hearts in a way that words alone cannot. When you sang here with the harmonization and blending of your voices and music, you have indeed created something magical,” the seasoned lawmaker said.
“It is through your songs and music that we are able to relive the love, compassion, service and message of San Ezekiel Moreno.”
“It is through your songs and music that we are able to relive the love, compassion, service and message of San Ezekiel Moreno,” the lady senator added.
The chorale group from Diocesan Shrine and Parish of Saint Joseph bagged the P20,000 cash reward after it was declared the Grand Champion.
Other winners in the singing competition and their corresponding prizes were as follows: Ist Prize Parish of the Last Supper of Our Lord – P15,000 and Holy Family Parish, 2nd Prize – P10,000.
Special awards were also given to Sto. Cristo Parish, Best in Artistry and Christ the King, Best in Technical Capability which got P5,000 each.
Four parish churches Our Lady of the Pillar, Five Wounds of Our Lord Parish, Mary Queen of the Apostles Parish, and St. Joseph the Worker Parish were also afforded consolation prizes and got P3,000 each.
Villar said the annual competition is being done to remember San Ezekiel who has a special place in the heart of every Las Piñeros.
San Ezekiel Moreno served as parish priest of Las Piñas in 1876.
Born in La Rioja, Spain, Moreno served as parish priest of Las Piñas in 1876 and later in the different churches in the Philippines.
During his stint in Las Piñas, he had shown his industry and love for its people especially when they were devastated with four huge calamities- a drought in 1876 and 1878, chicken pox surge and a big fire in 1879 which gutted down houses and establishments in the city’s Poblacion.
People believed then a “miracle” happened as they witnessed how the ‘raging fire’ stopped in the same place where San Ezekiel stood.
Villar said nine years after he became a bishop, San Ezekiel was diagnosed with cancer of the palate and died August 19, 1906.
He was beatified on November 1, 1975 and he was cited as “a living example of holiness for bishops”. In October 1992, he was canonized as a saint by Pope John Paul II.
Villar and her family have built a church for San Ezekiel where his relic was preserved in the church and church’s museum.
