By JUNE S. BLANCO

BOHOL’s three congressmen are set to file tomorrow or Tuesday a bill seeking to rename the Bohol Circumfential Road into the Pres. Garcia Circumferential Road. The move honors the memory of the lone Boholano who went on to become president of the Philippines. Rep. Erico Aumentado (2 nd District), principal author of the bill, said the document is ready for the signatures of Reps. Rene Relampagos (1 st District) and Arthur Yap (3 rd District). Garcia hails from Talibon town on Bohol’s north coast, 148 kilometers from the capital, Tagbilaran City. The town is along the Tagbilaran North Road (TNR) that goes from Tagbilaran in the southwest tip of the fist-shaped island, to Ubay town on the northeast tip. The other “half” of the circumferential road that goes east from Tagbilaran to Candijay town, then north to Ubay is known as the Tagbilaran East Road (TER). Both are “arterial roads” as identified by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) that also gave the names.

Aumentado had worked for upgrading into concrete roads from gravel or asphalt in the two-phase Bohol Circumferential Road Improvement Project (BCRIP) that he steered into realization during his previous uninterrupted three three-year terms as congressman. He was governor of Bohol for an unprecedented three terms or another nine years before bagging the congressional seat in the 2 nd District again in 2010. In the bill’s explanatory note, Aumentado said Pres. Garcia was an outstanding public servant during his time. The former President started his political career as congressman of the 3 rd District – now the 2 nd District of Bohol. He went on to become governor, then senator and vice president before becoming president. He died while in the service of the country as first president of the 1971 Constitutional Convention. A statesman, diplomat, nationalist and father of the Filipino First Policy, poet laureate and exemplary public servant who had not enriched himself in office, Garcia deserves to be perpetuated in memory by renaming the circumferential road after him, Aumentado explained, hence the bill.