There will be few people as deserving as Mauricio Ferrero to find their names in a city street map. He wasn’t born in the Philippines but in Spain, in the Rioja town of Arnedo, in 1844. He made his profession as an Augustinian Recollect in Monteagudo (Navarra) in 1863 and went to the Philippines 5 years later.
In the nearly fifty years he spent in the Philippines, he spent about 30 in Bacolod, during three different periods. The first lasted 23 years. The second lasted only one year, being interrupted by the Philippine Revolution. In 1898 he was imprisoned till February 1900. He would die in Manila in 1916.
We can’t really say that, till now, Ferrero was an unknown, for his statue strides the main entrance to the cathedral that he built.
Inauguration
In the naming of the street, on one hand we had the Mayor, Evelio Leonardia. Beside him we had the Bishop of Bacolod, Vicente Navarra, who has his residence in the very same building, near the Cathedral, that Ferrero built as the parish house, completely of wood without one nail. The third participant was Lauro Larlar, prior Provincial of the Augustinian Recollects. In the capital of Negros, the Order owns one of the most prestigious education centres, The University of Negros Occidental (UNO-R). It was in this university that a new Hall was inaugurated two years ago on the 5th December 2007, dedicated to Fr. Mauricio and called “Fr. Mauricio Ferrero Hall”. This is where everything to do with the Programme for Hotel and Restaurant management has been installed.
The solemn act had two venues. First, in the named street. After the National anthem there was the reading of the municipal act that assigned the illustrious Recollect’s name to the street. After that Bishop Navarra blessed the commemorative plaque that was unveiled by the City Mayor. The second act was academic and cultural. This took place in the Congess Hall. The historians, Enmanuel Luis Romanillos and Modesto Sa-onoy took part.