Keeping it simple
It’s a design principle but it can be used by policy makers as well, or government officials divided over how to rename the Mactan Cebu International Airport: KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid). The principle, which became popular in 1970, is founded on the belief that most systems work best if kept simple rather than complicated.
The idea of renaming the airport, which is in Lapu-Lapu City in Mactan, an island where the town of Cordova is also located and which is part of Cebu in the Philippines, which is located in Southeast Asia, originated from President Duterte, who simply wanted to honor the local hero, Lapu-Lapu. The President apparently was also nudged by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines, who obviously found the Mactan name too bland.
If that was the sole purpose of the renaming thrust, the airport could have simply been named Lapu-Lapu International Airport. But Lapu-Lapu is also the name of the city, thus the mix-up. Some sectors thought the name honors the city instead of the hero, thus the suggestions that complicated the simple task of naming the airport after Lapu-Lapu, the chieftain (and not lapulapu, the fish).
When Rep. Raul del Mar filed the renaming bill in the House of Representatives, he retained “Cebu” in the new name that he proposed, thus Lapu-Lapu-Cebu International Airport (LCIA). That got the goat of former Cordova mayor Adelino Sitoy, who felt that if Lapu-Lapu (the city) is honored, Cordova should be honored too. He wants the “Mactan” word retained as well, which would mean a name like this one: Lapu-Lapu Mactan-Cebu International Airport.
Sitoy, who is within whispering distance of President Duterte as Presidential Adviser on Legislative Affairs, already said he would ask the President to veto the del Mar-initiated legislation, complicating matters further.
So why not KISS? Why not go back to the original purpose of the renaming, which is simply to honor Lapu-Lapu, the chieftain? Why not simply Lapu-Lapu International Airport?
By the way, here’s a thought from Antoine de Saint Exupery: “It seems that perfection is reached not when there is nothing left to add but when there is nothing left to take away.”