The Sudlon National Park in Cebu City

The Sudlon National Park was declared as such by virtue of Proclamation No. 56 signed by President Manuel L. Quezon, the country's first elected president on April 11, 1936.

An excerpt from the proclamation is quoted below:

"Proclamation No. 56. Setting apart and designating as Sudlon National Park for park purposes for the benefit and enjoyment of the people of the Philippines the parcel of public domain situated in the Municipality of Cebu, Province of Cebu, Island of Cebu. (At that time, the cityhood of Cebu was still in process of legislation.)

"Upon recommendation of the secretary of Agriculture and Commerce and pursuant to the provisions of Section 1 of Republic Act 3915 entitled "An Act providing for the establishment of national parks, declaring such parks as game refuges and for other purposes," I, Manuel L. Quezon, President of the Philippines, hereby reserve, set apart, and designate as "Sudlon National Park," under the administration of the Bureau of Forestry, subject to the general executive control and supervision of the said Secretary of Agriculture and Commerce, for park purposes for the benefit and enjoyment of the people of the Philippines and withdraw from sale, settlement, or other disposition, subject to private rights, if any there be, the following parcel of the public domain, situated in the municipality of Cebu, Province of Cebu, Island of Cebu, and described in the Bureau of Forestry map No. N.P.-11, to wit:

"Beginning at a point marked 1 on Bureau of Forestry map No. N.P. 11, a stake, marked 1290/125, at junction of trails, which is N. 19 E., about 4,300 meters from M.B.M. No. 18, Toledo-Talisay-Minglanilla; then following a trail in westerly and northwesterly directions, about 260 meters to point 2, a historical trench in Sitio Sipac, Sudlon; thence S. 81 W., 150 meters to point 3, a historical trench in Sitio Sipac, Sudlon containing an area of 696,000 hectares, more or less. The trees used as corners 9-26, 45, 46 and 51 were marked with official marking hatchet No. B.F. 466; corners 27-36 with B.F. 418 corners 37, 38, 40 and 42 with B.F. 109."

Sipac, also called "Sip-ak," literally means a "split". It is the site where the American soldiers were able to break the last stronghold of the Cebuano revolutionary soldiers during the Cebuano-American Revolution that started in 1899. It was in the hills of Sudlon that the KKK survivors of the Tres de Abril (April 3, 1898) re-grouped after General Leon Kilat (Pantaleon Villegas) was killed in Carcar on April 10, 1898. It was Luis Flores who acted as the political leader of the KKK Cebu that made Sudlon as his headquarters.

The last general who surrendered to the American forces in Cebu was Arcadio Molero Maxilom of Tuburan, Cebu. Maxilom is considered and should be given the rightful title as Cebu's first Cebuano governor. The Philippine National Police is wise enough to honor General Maxilom as the name of the Cebu Provincial Police headquarters located in Barangay Sudlon, Cebu City.