Press Release
February 4, 2013

Senate oks bills declaring Mosque as historical landmark

The Senate today approved on third and final reading a bill declaring the Sheikh Karimul Makhdum, considered as the site of one of the oldest existing mosque in the country, as a national historical landmark.

Sen. Edgardo Angara, chairman of the Committee on Education, Culture and Arts and sponsor of House Bill No. 1105, said that as early as 1380 A.D, or even before the precolonial period, a mosque had been built in Tubig Indangan, Simumul, Tawi-Tawi.

The remnants of the mosque, a place of worship for the Muslims, still exist today, according to Angara.

"In the late 1970s, then President Marcos visited the site and installed a historical marker recognizing it as the first mosque, he said.

While several icons and relics of the Christian faith and other religions have been recognized, Angara said the proposed legislation to declare the Sheikh Karimul Makhdum as a historical landmark is the first initiative taken that is a fitting tribute to a place of worship of the Muslims. (PILAR S. MACROHON, PRIB)

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