Mayor Evelio Leonardia on Tuesday, July 13, thanked businessman Simplicio “Sammy” Palanca, whom he called “the man who saw tomorrow,” for changing the landscape of Bacolod literally and figuratively through the creation the city’s reclamation area.
“We mourn the passing away of Atty. Simplicio ‘Sammy’ Palanca. We mourn because we lost an extraordinary man. A rarity. He was ‘one of a kind’. He was a man with a vision that nobody else had,” Leonardia said.
Palanca, 98, founder and chairman of the Bacolod Real Estate Development Corp. (BREDCO), died at the Bacolod Adventist Medical Center in Bacolod City on July 10.
Leonardia said as early as the 1960s, when Bacolod was relatively laid-back, Palanca had envisioned the reclamation area.
“Maybe so many did not comprehend what he was dreaming of and how the reclamation would impact us as a city… now it is hard to imagine Bacolod without the reclamation area,” the mayor said.
This project helped catapult Bacolod to where it is today, he said.
“If there is any single person who had a colossal impact on our progress and development, without fear of contradiction, we must give the credit to him. Atty. Palanca, or Uncle Sam as we would all fondly call him, was a man who saw tomorrow,” Leoanardia said.
He said for all that Palanca has done, Bacolod City will always remember him.
“Here is a City that will always be grateful to you, Uncle Sam. May you rest in peace…We will always be proud of you,” the mayor added.
There will be a wake for Simplicio Palanca and his brother Dr. Ernesto Palanca, who died on July 6, at the Our Lady of Victory Parish Church 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday, July 17.
They will be buried at the family mausoleum at the Victorias City Cemetery immediately after a 2 p.m. mass Sunday, July 18, at the Our Lady of Victory Parish Church.*