"Gil Tulog" Is a Reminder to Stop Changing Street Signs

(SPOT.ph) When I was a kid, I lived near Santolan Avenue, parallel in my area to Main Avenue. Now, official documents call these two roads Col. Bonny Serrano Avenue and—deep breath—Justice Lourdes Paredes San Diego Avenue. You know who else calls these two roads those names? Basically no one. They're still known as Santolan (which is the same name for the area surrounding it) and Main. Even Google Maps still refers to Main Ave. as Main Ave., which really might simply be because the full name wouldn't fit on our screens. I know it sounds strange but it's real. So you'll have to forgive me if my groggy morning self honestly believed for a split second that Makati's Gil Puyat is now called Gil Tulog. 

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What's with Gil Puyat becoming Gil Tulog? 

You've likely been seeing it all over your TikTok. Clips of people shocked, amused, and overall just confused over the fact that the Gil Puyat road signs in Makati carried the words "Gil Tulog Ave. (formerly Gil Puyat)." There were puns being made about the late senator finally saying goodbye to sleepless nights. There was concern that this would be confusing to people on the move (a personal fave is a clip on TikTok of the new "road sign" with someone asking in the background, "Paano na 'yan sa Waze?). Most importantly, there were people pointing out the disrespect to the late Senator Gil Puyat's name. 

The road signs popped up sometime this week and had been making waves online the past few days—until Makati Mayor Abby Binay had them removed today, July 26. The reason for "Gil Tulog"? A marketing stunt. 

The permits for the "so-called advertising campaign to change the street signs of Gil Puyat Avenue did not reach my office," said the Mayor. "Kung dumaan sa akin 'yan, rejected 'yan agad." 

This marketing stunt was claimed by Wellspring PH in now-deleted posts on their social media. It was tied to a free ride program that would take passengers around Metro Manila on their "sleepneys."

Binay explained that she had already reprimanded the officials who approved the marketing stunt for what she called a glaring oversight. "They should have been more thorough. Dapat inisip ang kaguluhan na maaaring idulot sa mga motorista at komyuter. At dapat ay binigyang halaga ang respeto sa pamilya at sa alaala ni dating Senate President Gil Puyat," she wrote. 

The sentiments of the Mayor echoed the sentiments online. Some people were able to laugh about it, because we cope with our absurd reality by thinking it funny, but most found the stunt to be in bad taste. One user on X (formerly Twitter) called it "stupid, distasteful, and illegal." Another asked what the late senator would think if he knew what was happening, saying "baka bigla syang gumising at multuhin 'yung nakaisip ng PR stunt na 'yan." 

The pun is not lost on us, of course, but it seems the marketing team forgot they were playing with a little too much, including an actual historical figure's name and a massive city thoroughfare. Add in the unfortunate circumstances of Typhoon Carina and you have a recipe for disaster. 

Why Gil Tulog is a reminder to stop renaming roads

"Dapat inisip ang kaguluhan na maaaring idulot sa mga motorista at komyuter," said the Mayor in her statement. It's worth a double-take because in an ideal world, people should be able to catch immediately that there's no way a name change like that is legitimate. You know, a world where road names aren't changed more often than Leonardo DiCaprio changes girlfriends.

If people are able to mistake a marketing stunt for an actual law-mandated road change for one as important as Gil Puyat Avenue, then who's to blame? There is a precedent, after all. There hasn't been one as ridiculous as Gil Tulog, of course, but who knows what's possible anymore after Roosevelt Avenue became Fernando Poe Jr. Avenue? 

Understand that I have nothing against Col. Bonny Serrano, a highly decorated Filipino soldier who fought in the Korean War and actually earned all 48 of his medals, including a Medal of Valor. I have nothing against Justice Paredes either, the first woman to preside over the Court of Appeals. And certainly I have nothing against Da King.

What I don't understand is why these people have to be honored in this manner. These name changes ultimately only bring confusion, sometimes annoyance, to the ordinary commuter who use these roads on the daily. How many road signs do you see with the underscipt stating "Formerly..." and how many of us actually even use the new names to refer to these streets? On some level, the simple fact that these name changes are glossed over in actual life makes the renaming more an insult than an honor to their namesakes. I won't even go into the logistical aspects of wasting time and resources to enact these name changes. 

Filipinos have a penchant for naming things after people, dead or alive. You see it in every road name that's changed, school sign that's erased and painted over, in every government project with a huge sign shouting a local official's name like they're paying for a project with their own money. I understand sometimes all we want is to be remembered and remember those who've gone before. But if your move to rename something in honor of someone only results in their name being tarnished, is it still worth it?