Talisay City names street after late congressman

A STREET in Barangay Lawaan III, Talisay City that leads to Barangay Pooc has been named after the late third district representative Antonio “Tonying” Bacaltos Sr.

Officials of the Talisay City Government and Rep. Eduardo Gullas (Cebu, 1st district) unveiled a street marker with the name of Bacaltos during a formal ceremony yesterday.

Also present were members of the Bacaltos clan led by former Talisay town mayor Dehlia Bacaltos-Tiu and her mother Miding.

In his speech, Gullas, who was Bacaltos’s rival for the first congressional district seat in 1992, said the latter was a true servant and leader of Talisay and the first district.

He said despite their rivalry, Bacaltos never bore a grudge against him.

He added that a street marker in honor of the late congressman wasn’t enough, considering what he had done for Talisay and the rest of the district.

Family honor

Tiu said her father, a World War II veteran, worked his way from the bottom.

She said he started as a market collector when Talisay was still a municipality. She said it was the late mayor Rafael Rabaya who asked her father to enter politics.

He served as Rabaya’s vice mayor until he became a delegate to the 1971 Constitutional Convention.

She said her father graduated from law and passed the bar in 1953.

Tiu said the Talisay City Government has honored her family for giving her father a place in the city’s history.