READ: Federated region of Cebu and why, 1
SEVENTH. It was the Cebuanos that captured Admiral Mineichi Koga, who succeeded Isoroku Yamamoto the commander-in chief of the Japanese combined fleet in the Pacific. The Koga papers thrown out from his plane and recovered by the Cebuanos contained data on locations of all Japanese forces and were sent to Gen. MacArthur and hastened the liberation of the Philippines.
Eight. It was only in Cebu that in World War II more than 10,000 Japanese soldiers surrendered peacefully. In other places in the country and abroad, they chose to fight it out to the last man.
Ninth. In 1978 (during Martial Law) when the election for the Interim Batasang Pambansa assemblymen was held, it was only in Region 7 (Central Visayas), under Cebu’s dominance, that all of the 13 candidates of Pusyon Bisaya (an opposition party) won. In 1986 snap elections, Mandaue City of registered the highest opposition rating of 96% against President Marcos.
Eleventh. During the first Edsa revolution, Cory Aquino was in Cebu and was protected by the Cebuanos who escorted her to Manila.
Twelfth. Cebu is the exporter of big business leaders like Henry Sy, Lucio Tan, the Gokongweis and the Gotianuns who started with small businesses in Cebu.
Thirteenth. Cebu is also the chief exporter of political leaders like the Almendrases, the Cagases, and the Llanoses of Davao, the Quebranzas of Lanao, the Amantes of Agusan, the Navarros of Surigao, the Velosos of Leyte, Samar, and Mindanao, the Climacos, Hoffers, and Cerilleses of Zamboanga, and the Roas of Leyte and Cagayan de Oro. Senate President, Vicente Sotto III, is grandson of the late senator Vicente Sotto.
The foremost among them is President Rodrigo Duterte, whose father, Vicente, was the first post-liberation mayor of Danao City, Cebu and whose uncle, Ramon, was the mayor of Cebu City in 1957 and whose first cousin, Ronald, was also the mayor of Cebu City when the first Edsa revolution occurred. Another first cousin of the president’s father, the late Beatriz Duterte-Durano, was the wife of deceased Congressman Ramon Durano, Sr. of Danao City.
Fourteenth. Of national relevance too are the contributions of Cebu through its Cebuano sons:
a) The committee that drafted the 1935 Constitution was composed of seven wise men chaired by lawyer Filemon Sotto of Cebu. Its members included, among others,Manuel C. Briones, another Cebuano who became Justice of the Supreme Court;
b) Lawyer (who became senator) Vicente Sotto (brother of Filemon and grandfather of Senate President Vicente Sotto III) and the father of the Cebuano-Visayan language, was the only candidate in our country who won an election in absentia having left for Hong Kong on self-exile in 1907 before the election.
c) Former Supreme Court chief Justice and former Senate President Marcelo B. Fernan, another Cebuano, was the only Filipino to have held the two highest positions in the judiciary and the Congress.
d) World champion Filipino boxer Gabriel “Flash” Elorde was from Bogo City (Cebu). The father of another boxing world champion, Emmanuel “Pacman” Pacquiao, is from Pinamungahan, Cebu.--Adelino B. Sitoy. presidential legislative liaison secretary