FPJ, Rogelio De La Rosa and Lapid
Once in a while, the gentleman from Pampanga, Senator Lito Lapid draws the attention of the country’s columnists. If you’re a newspaper reader you’ll remember when he filed a bill prohibiting the use of stapler. Nothing came out of it but elicited laughter from some sectors. This time he filed a bill seeking to rename San Francisco Del Monte Avenue in Quezon City to Fernando Poe Jr. street. The effort of our ‘pangulo’in FPJ Ang Probinsiyano TV series was cut short when the first reaction was aired emphatically by Ambeth Ocampo of The Philippine Daily Inquirer. Ocampo is a noted historian and is one of the most read columnists in that paper. He said the San Francisco Del Monte street has more justifiable stories to it dating back during the Spanish period. He reasoned at great length and graphically explained his objection.
Theother columnists suggested to Lapid to look for another road to honor FPJ, a legendary actor who made several box office movies for decades. From Anak ni Palaris, Lo Waist Gang, Hindi ka na sisikatan ng araw, etc. and hundreds more FPJ starrer. (My own suggestion is to look for a road somewhere in Quezon City or in San Juan to name it Rogelio De La Rosa Avenue. He was from Lubao, Pampanga a cabalen.
He was the king of Philippine movies in the early years. He also served the country as a senator and as ambassador to Cambodia and The Hague in Netherlands.
RETRO:My friend Mariz Mandocdoc, current OIC President of Clark Development Corporation still remember this for sure when I was tapped then by CDC President Romy David
to head a committee to rename all streets inside then Clark Special Economic Zone (Now Clark Freeport). She was a key member of that committee. This came about after I told the retired Air Force General Romeo David who was appointed by President Fidel V. Ramos as CDC president to remove the vestiges of American occupation of the land by way of renaming all the streets. He said it was a good idea. So he ordered the creation of a committee.
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Names of streets carry history. When I was a member of the Angeles City Council I proposed to rename certain streets in Angeles City. But it was shot down even before it took off by a very influential person in the Pamintuan administration.I drafted a resolution and intended to rename some streets like Sto. Entierro to Pantaleon De Miranda street and Sto. Rosario street to Rosalia De Jesus Street. They were the founders of Angeles City. I was thinking that Rizal Extension Street which starts from boundary of Barangay San Nicolas going to Barangay Sto. Rosario and leads up to the boundaries of Angeles City and Porac can be renamed Juanita L. Nepomuceno street. This is to honor Mrs. Nepomuceno the principal sponsor in the passage of Republic Act 3700, or the 'Charter of the City of Angeles'.
A research was needed so I suggested that we invite historians, academicians and whoever is interested in this issue of renaming the Angeles streets. In the case of one subdivision here, all streets were named after cigarette brands.
Reports from the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist said that of the P1.5 million damages, some P229,950 came from Magalang town while San Simon had the most damage at P1,346,560.
Rains and flooding had come just at the end of the current wet cropping season.Reports from other towns in Pampanga have yet to be collated.
According to the latest report of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, some 49 barangays in Pampanga are still in floodwaters.TheseincludetwobarangaysinApalit,;oneinCandaba;20in Macabebe and 26 in Masantol.
Some 22, 579 families or 108, 224 persons are affected by the flooding in Macabebe and Masantol alone.