Who owned portion of the lots of Mango and Gorordo Avenues? (Part 1)
Officially there is no longer a Mango Avenue. It was renamed before World War II as Maxilom Avenue, named after the first Cebuano governor of Cebu (CEBUpedia article dated November 20, 2015) and The Patriot of Tuburan (CEBUpedia article dated October 7, 2015).
It was called then as Mango Avenue during the American administration of Cebu. The Americans replaced the Spaniards when they bought the Philippines for $20 million via the document called the “Treaty of Paris” signed on December 10, 1898. The Americans arrived on the shores of Cebu on January 1899.
Though we do not have a president, we were administered by an American governor general (from 1899 to 1935). There was local autonomy in the provinces and the towns were governors and municipal presidents were elected by the people. But it was the Americans who showed us urban planning, transferring to the Philippines what they had done to their country. They sent their architects, engineers, and urban planners to Cebu, thus the birth of numerous buildings during the American era.
Among the streets constructed during the American era were the Mango and Gorordo avenues (named after the first Cebuano bishop). The avenues were already existing in 1921 but were in bad condition and very narrow, unlike the wide and beautiful avenues they became in 1925.
The tracing of the roads began in 1924 and the formal construction was made in 1925. But the roads were not owned by the government. The registered owner of the lands used as roads was Victoria Amigable. She was the registered owner of Lot No. 639 of the Banilad Estate in Cebu City. It was issued to her by the Register of Deeds of Cebu on February 1, 1924.
In the title, no annotation has been made in favor of the government of any right or interest in the property. Without expropriation or negotiated sale, the government used a portion of the lot, with an area of 6,167 square meters, for the construction of the Mango (now officially renamed as Maxilom Avenue) and Gorordo avenues.
On March 27, 1958, Victoria Amigable through a lawyer wrote President Carlos Polistico Garcia (the Boholano president who married an Oponganon, Leonila Dimataga) for the payment of the lots appropriated by the government. (To be continued)
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