In renaming streets, even with the earlier passage of Republic Act (RA) 7160, the Local Government Code of 1991, the authority to formulate policies and guidelines in naming streets, public plazas, etc. belongs to the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP).
Under RA 10086, the NHCP is ‘the primary government agency responsible for history and has the authority to determine all factual matters relating to official Philippine history’ with power to ‘undertake and prescribe the manner of restoration, conservation and protection of the country’s historical movable and immovable objects.’ Under the same statute, it is also instilled the task to ‘determine the manner of identification, maintenance, restoration, conservation and preservation of historical sites, shrines, structures and monuments.’
Under the revised guidelines, the NHCP states in part: (i) no national road, school, hospital and other national property can be named or renamed by a local government; (ii) public roads, schools, bridges, buildings and other structures under the jurisdiction of the local governments may be renamed by the local government concerned; (iii) no public place should be renamed if the present name has attained a degree of historical association and has developed an importance of its own; (iv) names of places, which have been sanctified by long usage by the people, shall be retained and preserved; and (v) no portion of a street or road may be renamed if it would tend to disrupt the continuity of its present name.
Recently, the Sangguniang Panlungsod ng Davao, after going through several NHCP rejections, made a breakthrough when the committee on education, science and technology, arts and culture chaired by city councilor Pilar Cañeda Braga, using history as basis, was able to convince the agency to finally allow the renaming of Jacinto Extension Street, from Elpidio Quirino Avenue up to Juan A. Sarenas Avenue (formerly Circumferential Road), first district of Davao City, to Leopoldo Abellera Street.
Following protocols, the Braga committee chair on education, science and technology, arts and culture, chaired by city councilor Pilar Cañeda Braga wrote the NHCP to apprise the agency of the plan. In two instances, the NHCP formally turned down the proposal, saying the idea to change a street bearing a national hero’s name is contrary to its prevailing guidelines.
Despite the setbacks, the committee presented three historical developments that supported its position, namely: (i) before the war, only two city streets were named after heroes, namely: Andres Bonifacio and Jose P. Rizal. Bonifacio, while Calle Rizal; (ii) in the 1950s, the city came out with a development plan, influenced in part by the demographic rise and the declaration of certain city lands as disposable and alienable; and (iii) the proposed urban plan included the opening of new roads, especially streets connecting the coastline to the center of business and population. The first roads opened in the east were informally assigned names Bonifacio, Apolinario Mabini, and Emilio Jacinto. All these are linked to Quezon Blvd.
The recommended city plan was purely an engineering perspective. The proposed roads did not carry names and there was no street name yet assigned. It was only when the road development was extended west, the opposite of Quezon Blvd. areas, that roads were assigned or temporarily named after heroes, Supreme Court justices, etc. Later, roads proposed as continuations of Mabini and Jacinto carried the term ‘extension,’ but again without a resolution or ordinance.
Historically, this was the first time a road named after a national hero but was ascribed informally the sobriquet as ‘extension’ that the NHCP, at the persistence of the committee, was allowed to be renamed under the revised guidelines in favor of a Davao luminary. (To be continued)
