Carbon Market, the lot given by the national government

Carbon was formerly called the Lutao District. It had two origins. First, because it was a flooded place, being near the sea, so it was called Lutao; second, it was a mysterious or enchanted place, and Lutao in Tausug means ghost. Part of the district is Ermita, which also has two origins. First, Ermita means chapel as friars came to the place to disseminate Christianity; second, Ermita being a place or sanctuary of hermits (ermitanyos). It was changed to Carbon as it is where the carbon used by the trains is dumped. The public transport system during the American administration was trains and Cebu was connected by railways from north to south. This was changed, with the advent of the buses, incidentally the new mode of public transport system was owned by the two most powerful Cebuanos, Don Sergio Osmeña with the Cebu Autobus, and Don Mariano Jesus Cuenco with his Bisaya Lines.

The size of the Carbon Market is now what it is because President Diosdado Macapagal, in a presidential proclamation, reserved a parcel of the public domain for the administration of the Cebu City government.

The parcel of land (Lot 913 of the cadastral survey) was along Calle N. Carmelo (named after Father Nellas Carmelo. This was renamed on May 15, 1962 to Pedro Lopez, who was a lawyer and congressman, who died together with President Magsaysay in a plane crash on March 17, 1957) on the southeast and Calle Washington in the northwest and Calle Progreso (renamed on August 5, 1971 to Jose Leyson, the martyred governor of Cebu, the ordinance remained unimplemented for decades, finally on October 13, 2018, it was unveiled after CEBUpedia started its campaign for its implementation starting in 2014).

The parcel of land reserved for the market site contained an area of 5,685 square meters. Incidentally, the cadastral survey (markings and corners) were made from December 1910 to February 1912.

Presidential Proclamation No. 241 was issued by President Diosdado Macapagal on May 13, 1964. Months later on November 9, President Macapagal lost to his Senate president, Ferdinand E. Marcos, who used to belong to the Liberal Party but transferred to Nacionalista Party so he could be its presidential standard bearer.