EDITORIAL - Alcover can do better than renaming Manunggal

An ad partylist Rep. Pastor Alcover has apologized to all Cebu congressmen, as well as to all Cebuanos, for his failure to consult them before he filed his bill seeking to rename Mount Manunggal, the place where President Magsaysay died in a plane crash, into Mount Magsaysay.

Alcover deserves a salute for such a rare display of humility. But he can boost his stock even more if he listens to well-meaning advice, which is for him to withdraw his proposal and replace it with something more practical and ultimately more beneficial.

His desire to honor Magsaysay is admirable. But Magsaysay is not wanting in honor. Next only to national hero Jose Rizal, Magsaysay has perhaps the most number of monuments dedicated in his honor all over the country, and the most towns named after him than any other president.

But if Alcover still wants to honor Magsaysay, there are other ways of doing so without having to change the name of Mount Manunggal into Mount Magsaysay. He can perhaps push for the renaming of the Transcentral Highway, which passes near Mount Manunggal, into Magsaysay Highway.

The name Transcentral Highway is but a descriptive one, meaning it is a highway that cuts through central Cebu. The name continues to be used because no one has bothered to give a name to the highway.

Or Alcover can do even better. He can push for the naming of the central watershed area which in fact encompasses the whole of Mount Manunggal into something like the Magsaysay National Park. That way, he can lump historical landmarks and environmental protection into one.

On the other hand, insisting on renaming Mount Manunggal into Mount Magsaysay will result in some confusion, at the very least, among schoolchildren studying history as it will take a little explaining as to why Magsaysay died in a place that is also called Magsaysay.

More importantly, Manunggal has assumed as much historical significance as the person who died on its slopes. Manunggal has earned its place in history, albeit tragically, and it would be a great injustice to its legacy, no matter how dark, to just simply erase it from memory.

Other countries with a great sense of history are not as quick to change the names of historical places. The US never renamed Ford Theatre where Abraham Lincoln was shot into Lincoln Theatre. Japan did not rename Hiroshima into Little Boy, the atomic bomb that destroyed it.