The local government of Basista, Pangasinan led a wreath-laying ceremony on November 13, 2025 to commemorate the 129th birth anniversary of former House Speaker Eugenio Padlan Perez, the first Pangasinense to serve as Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Perez, born in 1896 in Barangay Obong, Basista (then part of San Carlos City), served as Speaker of the House from 1946 to 1953.

He was known as a respected lawmaker and was instrumental in the passage of Republic Act No. 170, which turned Dagupan into a city in 1947, earning him the title “Father of Dagupan.”

The ancestral house where Perez was born still stands in Barangay Obong. The local government plans to seek permission from his family to restore the house and convert it into a memorabilia site in honor of the late Speaker’s legacy.