The Bishop Antonio Y. Fortich Avenue at the Reclamation Area in Bacolod City will be launched on April 24 with the laying of a cornerstone and proclamation of the place at 4 p.m., Bacolod City Administrator John Orola Jr said.

Orola said the street, which will be proclaimed by the city as the Bishop Antonio Y. Fortich Avenue, stretches from Rizal-San Juan streets up to the Pope John Paul II Tower.

He said a mass will be held at the San Sebastian Cathedral between 10 to 11 a.m. on the same day and the bones of Fortich will be transferred to a chapel inside the church.

The ordinance naming the street from Rizal-San Juan streets towards the Reclamation Area, until the western shore of Bacolod City, as the Bishop Antonio Y. Fortich Avenue, was passed on final reading by the Bacolod Sangguniang Panlungsod early this month.

It was authored by Councilors Homer Bais and Archie Baribar.

Fortich, the bishop of the poor and man of peace, who was an outspoken advocate for human rights even in the most trying times of Martial Law, peacefully passed away at the Riverside Medical Center in Bacolod City on July 1, 2003 due to multiple organ failure and diabetes mellitus.

Known as “Kumander Tony”, Fortich was also called the champion of the poor and the oppressed.  

Fortich received his ordination for the priesthood on March 3, 1944, and was appointed Bishop of Bacolod on January 14, 1967 but resigned on January 31, 1989.

He was vice president of the Catholic Bishop's Conference of the Philippines in 1972, later a member of the CBCP Administrative Council.

Fortich was also a member of the Federation of Asian Bishop's Conference, National Citizen's Movement For Free Elections (NAMFREL), and was board member of the Bishop's Businessmen's Conference for Human Development.

In 1986-1987 he was chairman of the National Ceasefire Committee.

Fortich was born on August 11, 1913 in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental.

Meanwhile, Orola said they will form a task force to maintain order and sanitation at the public plaza.

Orola said he will head the task force and will call it the Public Plaza Action Group. It will be composed of representatives from the General Services Office, Public Order and Safety Office, Police Station 1, Department of Social Services and Development, and Secretary to the Mayor Moises de la Cruz.

He had already met with the group to discuss the presence of minors at the plaza during nighttime and vendors who violate their rules, he said.

Orola said they will address the problems involving minors by imposing curfew on them, and by prohibiting them from sleeping and from creating trouble at the plaza.

The DSSD, on the other hand, will monitor their activities and if they e engage in illegal acts, they will be rehabilitated, he said.

They will also come up with measures or corresponding penalties that will require these minors to render community service, he added.

Orola said he also plans to organize the tourist police and assign them at the plaza to provide security. These policemen have already undergone a seminar at the government center and the city will provide them uniforms, he said.*CGS

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