THE Bacolod City Council has approved on first reading an ordinance naming Simplico A. Palanca Avenue the whole stretch of road between SM City Mall and the Pope John Paul II Tower at the Reclamation Area in Barangay 35, Bacolod City.
City Councilor Renecito Novero, who authored the ordinance, said Palanca, fondly called “Sammy Palanca,” was the lawyer and businessman who envisioned and assiduously worked to reclaim hundreds of hectares of foreshore land in Bacolod City and construct a seaport there.
“As a result of his tireless efforts, a domestic seaport of international quality was erected and at least 250 hectares of Bacolod City foreshore lands were reclaimed on which now stand the SM multi-billion worth of business establishments and other multi-million peso worth of enterprises,” he said.
Novero added that Palanca deserves to be honored and remembered well and long for such phenomenal accomplishments which have accorded the city economic opportunities in quantum leap proportion.
The councilor noted that it was also through the magnanimous act of Palanca that the seven-storey Pope John Paul II Tower with a 12-foot lighted cross was constructed on a piece of land across SM City Bacolod at his own expense and that of Bacolod Real Estate Development Corporation (Bredco) of which he was the president when he was yet alive.
“There is a long stretch of road at the Reclamation Area between SM and the Pope John Paul II Tower which starts from the northernmost part of the reclaimed area traversing through portions of Barangays 13, 14, and 16 and stretches to a pint somewhere at Barangay 35 of this city,” Novero said.
He said it will do well to his honor and memory that this subject road be named after lawyer Simplico A. Palanca.