Who is Gil J. Puyat?

The name Gil Puyat has gone viral after a marketing campaign supposedly for sleep-inducing melatonin pills had workers placing the words "Gil Tulog Ave. (formerly Gil Puyat)" over Gil Puyat Avenue street signs on the road that connects EDSA in Makati to Jose W. Diokno Boulevard in Pasay.

Makati Mayor Abby Binay has since ordered the Gil Tulog signs taken down and supplements firm Wellspring has apologized for the campaign.

But who is Gil Puyat and how come the thoroughfare formerly known as Buendia goes by his name?

According to the Senate website, Gil J. Puyat was elected senator in 1951 and served in the Senate until his last term expired in 1973. He was the Senate President when then President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. declared Martial Law in 1972.

Puyat is one of the sons of industrialist Gonzalo Puyat, one of the country's first business leaders.

"Gil Puyat’s renown for business acumen and foresight in managing the family business caught the eye of the late President Manuel L. Quezon.  At the time, the country was predominantly agricultural in activity and the President was advocating industrialization," his Senate profile read.

"Quezon named the young Puyat as dean of the College of Business Administration at the University of the Philippines when he was only 33.  At this age, he became the youngest dean the UP ever had," he added.

Former Presidential Communications Office Usec. Noel Puyat recalled his grandfather as the "economic czar of his generation."

"His motto was, 'Above all, integrity.' This has been embedded in our minds since childhood," the former Palace official said.

"Thus, double the insult by this whimsical media campaign," he added.

Buendia Avenue became Gil Puyat Avenue in 1982 when Batas Pambansa No. 312 (An Act Changing the Name of Buendia Avenue in the Municipality of Makati and Pasay City, Both in Metro Manila, to Senator Gil J. Puyat Avenue) was signed. —NB, GMA Integrated News