No Cebuano among today's national leaders

These times are among the few chapters in Philippine history when there is no national figure from Cebu City or Cebu Province. This is then the winter of our discontent, and the desert in the long stretch of our national journey as a people. We are missing the good old days of the Osmeñas, Cuencos, and Sottos.

In the glorious times of our fathers, all the administrations of presidents Quezon, Roxas, Laurel, Quirino, Magsaysay, Garcia, Macapagal, and Marcos always had a Cebuano or two Cabinet members, justices, or senators. Even presidents Cory, Ramos, Estrada, GMA, and PNoy always appointed great Cebuano leaders to the Cabinet or included Cebuanos in senatorial lineups. Cory appointed three top-caliber lawyers from Cebu to the Supreme Court; justices Pedro Yap, Marcelo Fernan, and Hilario Davide Jr. Today, we have a president, whose father hailed from Danao. But President Duterte hasn’t appointed a Cabinet member from Cebu.

Perhaps it’s because the president doesn’t see any among us who deserves an elective or appointive national post. I’m missing the glorious era of Don Sergio Osmeña, Don Mariano Jesus Cuenco, and the Sotto brothers. Don Sergio was the first speaker of the House from 1907 to 1922. He was senator from 1922 to 1935. He was vice president from 1935 to 1944 and president from 1944 to 1946. His son, Serging, was senator several times. He ran for vice president and president but lost both times. Serging lost to Marcos in 1969 because the Duranos of the first district, the Kintanars of the fourth, the Zosas of the sixth, and the Dumons of the seventh, supported Marcos.

Don Filemon Sotto was a member of the Philippine Assembly from 1907 to 1916. He was a senator from 1916 to 1922. He was a delegate to the 1934 Concon, and was elected as the chairman of the so-called Seven Wise Men who drafted the 1935 Constitution. His younger brother, Don Vicente Sotto, was also a senator from 1946 to 1950. He was the principal author of the country's first Press Freedom Law. He is the grandfather of today's senate president, Tito Sotto. The Vicente Sotto Medical Center was named in his honor. We cannot really say that Senate President Vicente Sotto III is a true Cebuano. He doesn’t even speak our language, and he never resided here.

We have had three chief justices; Pedro Yap, Marcelo Fernan, and Hilario Davide Jr. We have dozens of former Cabinet members and scores of senators. But those were the days when Don Mariano Jesus Cuenco was a stalwart in the Senate. There was a time when there were three senators among the 24 in the Upper House. Manuel Briones was our first justice of the Supreme Court. The first secretary of Public Works during the American commonwealth government was a great lawyer from Dumanjug, Don Dionisio Jakosalem. The first Social Welfare Secretary was from Ronda and Argao, Cebu, Francisco Emilio F. Remotigue, who was elected governor earlier. He was also the first vice governor of our province.

The first Cebuano Bar topnotcher was Don Paulino Arandia Gullas, the founder of this paper, and a brother of Don Vicente Gullas, the founder of the first university in Cebu, my dear alma mater, the University of the Visayas. Don Vicente, also a former senator, was the father of the Cebu City Charter. He was the grandfather of former mayor, now vice mayor, Mike Rama. I hope Mike becomes a senator and another Gullas becomes a governor like the best of them all, EddieGul.