Why Alcantara has the shortest municipal road in Cebu
This was answered by Atty. Gervasio Lira Lavilles (the brains of the Cebu City Charter) in his book “CEBU: History of its Four Cities and Forty-Nine Municipalities” published in 1965:
“The town was established in 1830. At that time it was 10 kilometers wide, or distant, from each of the neighboring towns of Ronda and Moalboal. How this happened is explained as follows: Following one of the Spanish practices of fixing boundaries, it was decided that the town of Ronda, to the north and the town of Moalboal to the south appoint one representative each.
Alcantara was required to have two representatives. It was then agreed that at an appointed time early one morning the representatives of Ronda and Moalboal should start from the poblacion and proceed toward Alcantara. At the same time one delegate from Alcantara should go toward Ronda and the other should proceed to Moalboal. The spot where these representatives of Alcantara met the representatives of Ronda and Moalboal were to be marked with monuments. These monuments would server as markers for the boundaries between the three towns.
“When the day for this purpose came, the delegate from Ronda on the north and that from Moalboal on the South started at the time agreed. But the representatives from Alcantara were late in starting. The reason was that on the previous night they slept late because they had been drinking. When they woke up, the Ronda and Moalboal groups had already covered a long distance.
The delegates finally met. But they did to the advantage of Ronda and Moalboal. As agreed, monuments were planted where they met. Today these monuments that separate Alcantara from her neighboring towns still stand.”
In 1905 (Don Sergio Suico Osmeña was governor of Cebu at that time after he succeeded Governor Juan Faller Climaco), Alcantara was made a barrio of Moalboal. But in 1914 (Atty. Manuel Roa was governor of Cebu from 1912 to 1922) it was again converted into a municipality.
Moalboal, the mother parish of Alcantara, was erected as a parish by Diocesan decree on January 20, 1852, under the patronage of St. John Nepomuceno which separated it from its mother parish, Badian. The Parish of Badian was erected on August 26, 1825 under the patronage of St. James the Elder, separating from its mother parish, Barili. The record of the history of the parishes of the Diocese of Cebu is contained in the book written by Fr. Felipe Redondo in 1886 translated into English in 2014 by Ms. Azucena L. Pace of Barili, Cebu.
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