Barangay protests its renaming after cigarette firm

MANILA, Philippines–What’s in a name?

A lot, says retired Caloocan Judge Adoracion Angeles, who is leading a crusade against the Bulacan provincial government for renaming Barangay (village) Tikay in Malolos, Bulacan, as Mighty Road, in honor of Mighty Corp., the country’s oldest cigarette manufacturer.

“This is very insulting, very humiliating,” Angeles said in an interview.

“There is no reason for it to be renamed. We are being used to promote the cigarette company and the tobacco industry. Have they lost their sense of decency?” she said.

Seeking consideration

Angeles has written to Bulacan Gov. Wilhelmino Sy Alvarado seeking reconsideration of the questionable ordinance, “Panlalawigang Kautusan Blg. 10-2014,” that was approved by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan and signed by the governor, changing the name of the barangay to Mighty Road.

The letter, dated Nov. 10, 2014, was accompanied by eight pages of signatures of Barangay Tikay residents who are protesting the ordinance. The Office of the Ombudsman has been furnished a copy of the letter.

Angeles said the new name of the barangay was an embarrassment and an insult, especially to the revolutionary hero Andres Bonifacio, after whom a major road that traverses Barangay Tikay, is named.

Not on agenda

Alvarado and Vice Gov. Daniel Fernando have neither acted on her letter nor included it on the agenda of the weekly sangguniang sessions, despite her repeated follow-ups, Angeles said.

She said she approached Fernando during one sanggunian session after waiting for two hours. She asked why her letter was not included in the council’s agenda, and said that she was there to argue the case of the name change. But the vice governor only told her that he would talk to her later, she said.

Angeles, 74, was born and grew up in Barangay Tikay, named after a bird called “tika” during the Spanish colonial era when a Spaniard asked a resident about its name. The Spaniard had mispronounced the name as “Tikay.”

Incorruptible judge

Angeles was the “incorruptible judge” who convicted 26 members of the influential Ateneo law fraternity Aquila Legis in 1993 for the February 1991 death of Lenny Villa and sentenced them to a minimum of 10 years and a maximum of 14 years’ imprisonment.

Villa was a neophyte of Aquila Legis, a fraternity at the Ateneo de Manila Law School, who died after three days of bloody hazing rites. In January 2002, the Court of Appeals acquitted 19 of the 26 Aquila Legis members convicted by Angeles. Three of them were meted out the death penalty. The Supreme Court, in a Feb. 1, 2012, ruling, found only five fraternity members guilty.

“I am fighting for truth, honesty and integrity. People in the barangay are asking me to lead them in the fight against the renaming of our barangay,” Angeles said.

She said the sanggunian violated due process as guaranteed in the Constitution and Republic Act No. 3019, or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits “giving any private party unwarranted benefits, advantage or preference in the discharge of official duties through manifest partiality or evident bad faith.”

No public hearing

“What is really appalling is that there was no public hearing conducted, no due notice and no plebiscite held,” she said.

There was only one meeting on Sept. 16 of Barangay Chair Captain Celso Hernandez and his council members, witnessed by two other chairs of neighboring barangays.

Angeles said the meeting was called after the executive vice president of Mighty Corp. wrote Hernandez asking to rename the barangay in conjunction with the company’s 70th founding anniversary.

Unashamedly declared

She said Hernandez “unashamedly declared during the meeting that Mighty Corp. had helped and promised to continuously help the barangay.”

Hernandez even said that “they could readily get or obtain anything they ask from Mighty Corp.,” she said.

Angeles said that Hernandez and his council had compromised the interest and the good name of the barangay in making the move to rename it.

“Just because [this company] is helping and creating jobs you are going to give its name to the barangay? There are McDonald’s and Shakey’s there, should we also call it Barangay McDo or Barangay Shakeys?” she asked.

In her letter, Angeles reminded the governor that the barangay has produced “good men and women who excelled in different fields of endeavor and they are exceedingly proud to be sons and daughters of Barangay Tikay, but definitely not of the Mighty Road Corp.”

Systematic, endemic

The Bureau of Internal Revenue has accused the Mighty Corp. of engaging in “systematic and endemic” tax fraud that has resulted in huge revenue losses for the government.

Angeles said the residents of Barangay Tikay are not happy to be identified with a company with such a questionable business background.

“We give our love and respect to our barangay as we remember the memories of our departed ancestors,” she said, adding that the local officials apparently do not share the same sentiments.