Ma. Francisco Labrador St. (the unceremoniously "evicted" street of Cebu City)

The street sign never existed. It was even changed without the council knowing that there was an earlier ordinance naming such a street. But where is this particular street?

In 1968, the Cebu City Council enacted an ordinance (City Ordinance No. 644) renaming two streets in the San Nicolas District, the Garfield St. (named after James Abram Garfield, the 20th president of the United States of America) to Andres R. Borres St., and Bugallon St. (named after Jose Torres Bugallon of Pangasinan) to Ma. Francisco Labrador St. The ordinance was never returned by the mayor to the Cebu City Council. The mayor was Eulogio Enriquez Borres and was the son of the honoree (Borres). Since it was not vetoed, but was not just returned, by operation of law it was considered approved by the chief executive.

There is no argument on the Borres St. change since the Cebu City Council enacted another ordinance on December 4, 1978 renaming Garfield St. to Andres Borres St. But this is a redundancy, since there is an earlier ordinance. Now with regards to Labrador St., the Cebu City Council on March 2, 1992 renamed Bugallon St. to Belgium St.

The unceremonious "eviction" of Labrador St. is unfair to the honoree, nobody fought for him in the city council. It is suggested that to correct this injustice or oversight, the city council may pass an ordinance officially demarcating a portion of the street in honor of Labrador. But who is Ma. Francisco Labrador? He was a son of San Nicolas, born in 1876 (unlike Bugallon who was from Luzon, much more Belgium, which was only honored in acknowledgment of a monetary donation to the city, I hope the Cebu City government will make a list of what this country has given to the city).

Labrador studied to be a priest at the Colegio de San Carlos and earned a Bachiller (Bachelor's degree) in Spanish, Latin, and Theology, but did not achieve priesthood. He served our city as councilor from 1912 to 1924, with Fructuoso Ramos as Municipal President (F. Ramos St. is named after him).

He was the playwright of the play "Syte Doktores." He died on April 5, 1958, but a son by the name of Rafael, followed in his footsteps by being a writer. The question is, is there anyone from the Cebu City Council willing to fight for Ma. Francisco Labrador? If there is none, surely the future generation will also not remember them.