Dizon named new NHCP Commissioner
Dr. Lino L. Dizon, Head of TSU Center for Tarlaqueño Studies, was appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte as one of the three new commissioners of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) in an official communication from the Malacañan Palace on June 10, 2020.
As commissioner and local historian, Dizon plans to pursue and focus on enriching the history of Tarlac province starting with the celebration of Gen. Francisco Macabulos’ sesquicentennial (150th) birth anniversary in 2021 to enliven and highlight his heroic deeds.
Macabulos is the first Filipino governor of Tarlac and was also branded as the “Liberator of Tarlac” being a local revolutionary general of the Katipunan.
Dizon said he would like to raise public consciousness about the rich history of the province such as recognizing Tarlac as the last capital of the Aguinaldo Republic along with the Casa Real de Tarlac, presently the TSU College of Engineering and Technology building, where President Emilio Aguinaldo signed significant decrees and served as the seat of revolutionary government in 1899.
Sixty-year-old Dizon is one of the pioneering local historians to have a local study center, the Tarlaqueño Center of Studies, in 1987. He also authored histories of Pampanga, Pangasinan, Cavite, and some provinces in Mindanao.
“Dizon is one of the pioneers in professionalization of the local history. Because of his local studies in the province, other local study centers were then established following his lead,” said Xiao Chua, a public historian who idolizes Dizon since his college years.
“Isa siya [Dizon] sa mga tinitingala sa Kasaysayang Pampook sa Pilipinas, yun yung kanyang distinction. Lino Dizon actually placed Tarlac province on the map because this is his national position of great historical significance,” Chua added.
Dizon also wrote for the local study center of Pampanga (Center for Kapampangan Studies), where he is currently a history consultant, and Cavite (Cavite Studies Center). He has written over 20 books on history especially on Tarlac and Pampanga’s stories, roots, and traces, as well as the politics.
Dizon said he fell in love with writing history way back first year college where he started writing about a church history.
He finished AB History in Jose Rizal College in 1981 where he graduated as cum laude. He pursued his master’s degree in social studies at the University of the Philippines in Diliman. Dizon is also a doctoral degree holder in Philippine Studies also from UP Diliman.
In May 2000, he was awarded as an Outstanding Tarlaqueño for Culture, Arts, and Letters during the 127th founding anniversary of the Tarlac province. [Maria Adelaida Calayag]
