Duterte signs FPJ Avenue law

MANILA, Philippines — President Duterte has signed into law a measure renaming Roosevelt Avenue in Quezon City after the late actor and politician Fernando Poe Jr.

Roosevelt Avenue, which is named after US president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, will be renamed Fernando Poe Jr. Avenue under Republic Act 11608 signed on Dec. 10, 2021.

The public works department is expected to issue the necessary rules, orders and circulars to implement the provisions of the law within 60 days from its effectivity.

Known for his action films, Poe ran for president in 2004 against then president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Congress proclaimed Arroyo as the winner, with the incumbent president beating Poe, her closest opponent, by more than one million votes. However, Poe’s camp accused Arroyo of cheating and filed an electoral protest.

The actor died on Dec. 14, 2004, but his widow, Susan Roces, pursued the poll protest. In 2005, the Presidential Electoral Tribunal dismissed the protest, saying Roces could not substitute for Poe because only registered candidates who obtained the second and third highest votes for the presidency may contest the election of the president.

Some sectors still doubt the 2004 poll results because of the surfacing of a wiretapped conversation between a woman believed to be Arroyo and a man presumed to be former elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano. Arroyo apologized for talking to a poll official but claimed that the conversation was not about manipulating the election results. Garcillano also denied that he cheated to ensure Arroyo’s electoral victory.