05/09/2026
🙏🏽
The National Historical Commission of the Philippines joins the nation in mourning the passing of National Artist for Literature and esteemed historian Dr. Resil B. Mojares earlier today, 5 September 2026.
He is a pioneer in Philippine Local Studies who served as the founding director of the University of San Carlos Cebuano Studies Center in 1975, one of the first regional studies centers in the country. His expansive academic work includes six titles that won the National Book Award such as The War Against the Americans: Resistance and Collaboration in Cebu Province, House of Memory: Essays, and Vicente Sotto, The Maverick Senator. He also wrote extensively on Philippine cultural history and literature. As a leading local historian, he contributed to the Cebu Town History Project where he wrote the history of the Province of Cebu.
In 2018, he was bestowed with the Order of the National Artist of the Philippines for Literature in recognition of his immense contributions to scholarly and literary development. From 2018 to 2021, Dr. Mojares served as the Chair of a Panel of Experts convened by the NHCP to assess claims on the site of the First Easter Sunday Mass in the Philippines which was colloquially referred to as the Mojares Panel. They submitted their report and recommendation that reaffirms Limasawa as the site of the First Easter Sunday Mass in 1521. The NHCP has also had the honor of working with Dr. Mojares as a resource speaker and author of articles and books published by the Commission.
We extend our deepest condolences to his family, loved ones, colleagues, and the whole Filipino people in his passing. A true titan of local history has left us.
