It was on August 5, 1971 that the Cebu City Council enacted City Ordinance No. 720 renaming Progreso Street to Governor Jose S. Leyson Street after one of the martyred governors of Cebu.
The ordinance remained unimplemented and uncorrected for decades. CEBUpedia first wrote about the uncorrected street name on April 30, 2014 calling the attention of the city government.
Jose S. Leyson was admitted to the Bar on November 15, 1923. He married Lourdes Velez, daughter of Teodoro Velez and Herminigilda Chiong Veloso (sister of Estefania Chiong Veloso, more known as Doña Pepang, the wife of Don Sergio Suico Osmeña Sr.)
Jose was forced by the Japanese to become the governor of Cebu and was executed by the Japanese Imperial Army before the end of World War II. Before the outbreak of the war here he was elected board member of the Cebu provincial government together with Fructuoso Barte Cabahug on December 10, 1940. F. Cabahug served as Governor of Cebu after the war, a street is named after him in Cebu City and Mandaue City.
The road to the unveiling of the Jose S. Leyson Street was long and arduous; numerous CEBUpedia articles pleading with the city government to rename the street, meetings with the CITOM, CHAC, and Cebu City Council Officials laid the groundwork.
Then after the 2016 elections, an administration respecting the past came. Mayor Tomas Osmeña reorganized the Cebu City Historical Affairs Commission complemented with an executive arm, the CHAO or the Cebu City Historical Affairs Office headed by Bryner Diaz.
The first to be corrected by the CHAO was the Lopez Jaena Street to Eduardo Aboitiz Street (ordinance enacted on November 5, 1987) finally unveiled on July 19, 2017. This was followed by the Gansiang Street to Gabriel “Flash” Elorde Street, finally unveiled on November 2017, which was 32 years belated. Then Jose S. Leyson Street on October 13, 2018, 47 years after the passage of the city street renaming ordinance.
My snappy salute to the men and women of the CHAO: Florentino Boligor, Joenivil Duerto, Fatma Panganungan, Liza Lim, Leo Nolasco, Elvera Espinosa, Nelia Buhawe, Bryner Diaz, Michael Braga, and Balbino “Ka Bino” Guerrero (now with the Cebu City Public Library).
Our next mission is the unveiling of the “Dr. Cesar Filoteo Street,” the street going to Good Shepherd in Sitio Banawa, Barangay Guadalupe. Filoteo holds the distinction of being the first Cebuano to serve as chairman of the Philippine Board of Medical Examiners. The street-naming ordinance was authored by a fellow doctor, Dra. Suga Sotto Yuvienco under City Ordinance No. 1203 on September 23, 1985.