IN 1998 the Philippines celebrated the centennial of its declaration of Independence from Spain. The whole year was studded with commemmorative events. The first of these was an official visit by King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain. President Fidel Ramos wanted them to make their entry through Cebu.
As honorary consul of Spain I was involved in the preparations. There were many specific instructions regarding protocol that had to be complied. My Ambassador, Don Delfin Colome, reminded Rhett Pelaez, Presidential Assistant for Central Visayas, who was well aware of them, and said we would make a satisfactory plan.
I was asked to produce a car for the royal visitors and so I borrowed one of the Mercedes Benzes of Michel and Amparito Lhuillier. The security men said it wobbled, and so I calmly stated that they ask President Ramos to send us one. He did.
Rhett Pelaez and I discussed the all too short visit of barely two hours, which was greatly historic as it was the first time ever a reigning king and queen of Spain came to Cebu. We did a run through of the two-hour itinerary and the rehearsal came out fine. From the airport we went through Mabolo to the Basilica del Santo Niño where we stayed a while, and then went to Fort San Pedro.
The date chosen for the visit was Feb. 11 at 1:30 p.m. By 9 a.m. Cecilia and I were on our way with our two sons Jimmy and Luis. We went to the Mactan Air Base.
There, Secretary of Foreign Affairs Domingo Siazon thought of having lunch at the Waterfront Airport Hotel.
At the Hydra store of Dr. Julian Divinagracia there was a fabulous display of south sea pearls produced in Cebu. He had instructed his staff to give me a pearl for Queen Sofia.
I was reluctant to received it, not knowing if I would have the chance of approaching the queen for the purpose.
“Accept it, you will have the opportunity,” said Esperanza Aguirre, Spain’s Minister of Education and Culture, in private life the Countess of Murillo.
It was a large lustruous pearl, admired by the countess, the Philippine Ambassador to Spain Isabel Caro Wilson, and Doña Elena de Colome, wife of our ambassador.
We had lingered so much with the pearl that we had to rush back to the Mactan Air Base as the plane was due any moment. I further tarried because I wanted to include a card of Dr. Divinagracia so that Queen Sofia would know from whom the pearl had come.
A line was formed to greet the royal visitors, led by Tourism secretary Mina Gabor, the Department of Tourism’s head here Dawn Roa, Governor Pablo Garcia, Lapu Lapu City Mayor Ernest Wiegel with his wife Paz, and Rhett Pelaez with his wife Paz.
Spain’s royal march was played as King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia descended from the plane. Children in Filipino costumes danced and sang to the tune of guitars playing, and threw petals along the path.
Their Majesties boarded the assigned car with the royal standard and a caravan of motor coaches followed the police escort through Mandaue City, Mabolo, and on to the Basilica del Santo Niño. On the way, Rhett Pelaez asked me to give a running commentary on Cebu and its history.
At the Basilica the royal visitors ascended the carved staircase and entered the grand sala of the convent. They were welcomed by Cardinal Ricardo Vidal, Archbishop of Cebu; the Basilica’s rector Rev. Fr. Bernardino Ricafrente; and the Augustinian congregation’s Provincial Rev. Fr. Melchor Mirador.
King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia gazed at the tiny image of the Santo Niño, dressed in full kingly regalia. He wore the emerald-studded miniature collar of the Golden Fleece Order.
Queen Sofia turned to me and remarked about it. I exlained that it had been sent to the Santo Niño by Spain’s King Carlos III as a gift “from one monarch to another.”
“There is much history here,” said King Juan Carlos as he stepped into the carved choir loft, and observed the church with its chandeliers from the Spanish era, and the Baroque altar.
It was soon time to proceed to Fort San Pedro. I was beside Queen Sofia as we went through the corridor on ground level. An old woman reached out to touch her, and Queen Sofia stopped for a while to embrace her. As she moved away, the old woman told those around her, “Da-an pa ko, dili gayud ma-ot.” (I knew it, she is not haughty.)
A large crowd of people had gathered in front of the Basilica to cheer the visitors with “Viva” and “Mabuhay.” I recognized my secretary Mary Ybas among those close to the royal car. We all headed to Plaza Independencia where the king and queen walked beneath a huge welcome arch.
They went to make a floral offering at the statue of Miguel Lopez de Legaspi. The king was smiling as he sniffed the gold paint that had been doused on the bronce sculpture the day before.
All the way to the fort’s entrance they were surrounded by Val Sandiego and his dancers doing the Sinulog. Val carried his baby boy dressed as the Santo Niño and the king stopped to kiss him. Consolacion Mayor Max Malagar, president of the Cebu Mayor’s League had lined the path with mayors from all over Cebu province.
At the fort’s entrance stood Cebu City Mayor Alvin Garcia with his wife Ninette to present the key of the city, and to lead the way for the unveiling of a commemorative plaque.
As the king and queen signed the guest book Rhett Pelaez asked me to be their guide through the fort. My spiel was short as upon entering the courtyard, everyone tugged at the king to greet him. Queen Sofia waited in the shade with Ninette whose Filipiniana attire the queen admired.
Fr. Jesus Lacarra of the Escolapios requested the king to pose with some of the Spanish community like the Castellote family from Valencia.
Included in the photo was my father Santiago Picornell, healthy at 86, as well as Lourdes Narcise, and Maria Pilar Escaño with daughters Choco and Ana Maria who said the king held her hand tightly as the picture was being taken.
The king moved on and greeted Gema Pido, introduced by Ambassador Colome. Some months later Gema received a photo of her and the king signed by him.
As we went up the ramp of the fort, the king told me he was impressed that he was stepping where centuries ago Spanish soldiers had walked over those
ancient stones. He surmised that they could have been on horseback. He was attracted by some of the Spanish cannon on display.
The crowd in front of the fort, filling up the plaza, cheered for them to wave from the ramparts before they entered the small museum with artifacts from the sunken Spanish ship “San Diego” 300 years ago.
Here was my opportunity to give Queen Sofia the pearl which I had in a box, kept on my suit’s pocket. “Ah, que nonita,” she said, and thanked me, but I told her the card in the box indicated who had given her the pearl. When she showed it to the king, he exclaimed, “Que perlon!”
As they emerged from the museum they waved for a while at the crowd below before I introduced them to some of the prominent people present. Among them were: Paqui Aboitiz, Quina Meledez, Sister Teresa of the Escolapias, Jon and Chary Aboitiz, Roberto and Marian Aboitiz, Michel and Amparito Lhuillier, Marguerite Lhuillier, Ingrid Santamaria, Hans Georg Eulenhhofer, Julina Muertegui, Teresin Mendezona, and Josele de Madrazo whose Hermes necktie was identical to that worn by the king, who commented on it.
It was getting hotter by the minute, the queen told me, and I sighed that it was indeed 38 degrees Celsius and humid. The king, who was also feeling the heat, took refuge in the car while the queen sought out my son Luis.
“I’m sorry I’m perspiring, “ she told him,” but I have to embrace you,” and she proceeded to do just that. Luis reminded me that I had something else, other than the pearl, to give her.
I then gave her a brown envelope with a copy of a photo taken in the summer of 1917 in Santander, at the royal summer palace, Palacio de la Magdalena. In the photo was the Spanish royal family led by King Alfonso XIII and Queen Victoria Eugenia, grandparents of King Juan Carlos.
With them were members of the royal household, among them Cecilia’s great-grandfather Don Francisco Huerta. On his lap was a little blonded boy, HRM the Infante Don Juan, father of King Juan Carlos.
The picture delivered, the caravan sped off to the airport. Members of the king’s entourage asked us if we were boarding the royal plane to Manila, practically inviting us to do so.
I told them I still had plenty to do, but that I’d see them in Manila the next day at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.