Batangas revives call to rename highway after Mabini

The Star Tollway links Batangas province to Laguna and Metro Manila. —JOEL MATARO

The Batangas provincial government has urged national government agencies to implement a law renaming the Southern Tagalog Arterial Road (Star) Tollway into Apolinario Mabini Superhighway.

In 2007, then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed into law Republic Act No. 9462 renaming the 41-kilometer highway after Filipino hero Mabini.

Mabini, known as the “sublime paralytic,” was a native of Barangay Talaga in Tanauan City, Batangas.

While the law had yet to be implemented, “it doesn’t lapse unless it is amended,” said Batangas Board Member Alfredo Corona.

Corona, through a board resolution passed recently, reiterated the content of the original bill authored by the late Batangas Rep. Victoria Hernandez Reyes in 2004.

Corona said the move aimed to honor Mabini, who was recognized as the “brains” of the 1896 revolution.

The Batangas board had written the Department of Public Works and Highways, the Toll Regulatory Board, and the National Historical Commission of the Philippines urging the agencies to implement the law. —Maricar Cinco