33. GODOFREDO P. RAMOS, CATICLAN & BORA, MALAY

GODOFREDO P. RAMOS, CATICLAN & BORA, MALAY

Dr. Troy Alexander G. Miano

19 May 2017

Together with my hometown’s local chief executive, mayora and some of the other municipal officials, we arrived at Godofredo P. Ramos Airport (officially named through Proclamation No.500 by President Benigno S. Aquino III in 2012), formerly known as Caticlan Airport and recently christened as Boracay Airport by its developer Transaire Development Holdings Corporation. The airport serves the general area of the Municipality of Malay, Aklan. It is one of the two gateways to Boracay, one of the Philippines' best-known tourist destinations. The airport is classified as a Class 2 Principal airport by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines. The airport is the seventh busiest airport in the Philippines.

The former name Caticlan Airport derived its name from the name of the barangay where it is situated in the north western tip of Panay Island. Many tourists are unaware that Caticlan is not a town but merely a barangay of the Municipality of Malay in the Province of Aklan. Boracay Island, then again, is also mistaken as an independent town but is actually composed of three barangays, namely: Balabag, Manoc-Manoc, and Yapak, all part of Malay town. These places became more popular that their mother-town because of its geographical locations, local economy and population.

Atty. Godofredo Peralta Ramos, on the other hand, may be a household name in Aklan province, but to tourists visiting Bora, almost all are ignorant why the airport in Caticlan was named after Ramos. He was elected Representative of the defunct 3^rd District of Capiz (2^nd Congress, 1949-1953 & 3^rd Congress, 1954-1957) and the 1^st elected Governor of Aklan (1960-1962), Representative of the Lone District of Aklan (5^th Congress, 1962-1965). He was a Justice of the Court of Appeals (1971-1976), Delegate to the 1971 Constitutional Convention, and Delegate to various international conferences such as the United Nations to pursue the Philippine claim to Sabah, North Borneo, the Colombo Plan, and the International Inter-Parliamentary Union.

In Congress, from 1950 to 1953, Ramos was a member of the Commission of Appointments, the Commission on Revision and Codification of Laws and the Committee on Government Enterprise. From 1962 to 1965, Ramos chaired the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Vice Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, Member of the Joint Legislative Executive Tax Commission and the Committee on Economic Affairs and the Committee on Judiciary. Ramos was consistently voted as one of the “Ten Outstanding Congressmen” together with Congressman Diosdado P. Macapagal of Pampanga who would later become president of the Philippines.

Ramos authored House Bill No. 334 creating the Province of Aklan and was signed by President Ramon Magsaysay on April 25, 1956 as Republic Act No. 1414. Extracted from the mother town of Capiz were the 17 towns of Altavas, Balete, Batan, Banga, Buruanga, Ibajay, Kalibo, Lezo, Libacao, Madalag, Malay, Makato, Malinao, Nabas, New Washington, Numancia, and Tangalan with the capital at Kalibo.

Ramos, or Tay Goding, was born on November 8, 1911 in Malay, Aklan and died on July 17, 1977. Aside from the official name of Caticlan Airport, monument and park in front of the Provincial Capitol, and the naming of the Court of First Instance Building (now Hall of Justice) in Estancia, Kalibo (by virtue of BP Blg. 117), Ramos was also honored through Proclamation No. 194 signed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on April 25, 2002 declaring November 8 of every year as a special (non-working) day in the Province of Aklan in commemoration of the birth anniversary of Godofredo P. Ramos, the “Father of Aklan”.

The Municipality of Malay was created by virtue of Republic Act No. 381 signed by President Elpidio Quirino on June 15, 1949. Officially inaugurated on January 2, 1950, seventeen barrios were taken out from the mother town of Buruanga, Capiz which includes: Malay (poblasyon, seat of government), Dumlog, Cabulihan, Balusbos, Nabaoy, Cubay Norte, Cubay Sur, Cogon, Argao, Sambiray, Caticlan, Manoc-Manoc, Balabag, Yapak, Motag, Napaan, and Naasog. On April 25, 1956, Malay became part of the newly created province of Aklan. The name “Malay” came from the word “maeay”, referring to the school of exotic fishes that abound the river adjacent to the first settlement area.

Boracay was originally home to the Ati people before the Spaniards arrived and recorded in their annals the name of the place as “Buracay”. The name Boracay is attributed to different origins. One story says that it is derived from the local word "borac" which means white cotton with characteristics close to the color and texture of Boracay's white sugary and powdery sand. Another credits the name to local words "bora," meaning bubbles, and "bocay," meaning white. Yet another version dating back to the Spanish era says the name is derived from "sagay," the word for a shell, and "boray," the word for seed.

According to Wikipedia, around 1900, a certain Sofía Gonzáles Tirol and her husband Lamberto Hontiveros Tirol, a town judge in Panay mainland, took ownership of substantial properties on the island, and planted coconuts, fruit trees, and greenery. Others followed the Tirols, and cultivation and development of the island gradually spread. Tourism came to the island beginning sometime in the 1970s.  The movie “Too Late the Hero” was filmed in 1970 on locations in Boracay and Caticlan. In the 1980s, the island became popular as a budget destination for backpackers. By the 1990s, Boracay's beaches were being acclaimed as the best in the world.

Individuals being honored by naming communities, military camps, streets, public buildings, and even airports surely have contributed much to the development of the localities they served. They significantly played a part in uplifting the lives of the people in their respective communities to be immortalized by using their name to christen public and private places and edifices.

Travelling around the country and some parts of the globe, I can testify that The Almighty truly blessed our country with natural wonders including our almost never-ending coastline. In 2012, the Department of Tourism reported that Boracay had been named the world's second best beach after Providenciales in the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Atlantic Ocean.