Dr. Leandro Tojong Street, Cebu City

It is an interior street in Lahug, though now public utility jeepneys pass through there going to a mall. It may be an unknown street to commuters and city dwellers but it is named after a great man whom many of us have forgotten or are ignorant of.

The “Dr. Leandro Tojong Street” is named after a patriot of Cebu, he served in the resistance movement during World War II and was commissioned with the rank of Captain. Being a doctor he was assigned at the Base Hospital in Bolok-Bolok, Barili, Cebu and at the Base Hospital in Dumanjug, Cebu, 87th Regiment, 3rd Battalion, then appointed later as Assistant Civil Affairs Officer of the said unit.

Dr. Tojong was the first City Mayor of Cebu to be appointed during the Post-Liberation Period by then President Sergio Osmeña. He was elected Representative of the then 5th Congressional District of Cebu from 1946 to 1949. He then ran and was elected Representative of the then 2nd Congressional District of Cebu from 1949 to 1953.

Before the war, he served as City Councilor of Cebu in 1936. The old 2nd Congressional District of Cebu was then composed of Cebu (converted into a city in 1936), Liloan, Mandaue, Opon (now called LapuLapu City, and now a lone district), Cordova, Compostela and Consolacion. While the old 5th Congressional District of Cebu was then composed of Alegria, Badian, Boljoon, Ginatilan, Malabuyoc, Moalboal, Oslob, Samboan, Alcantara and Santander.

Dr. Tojong, established his own hospital (named after him). He was born on March 13, 1905 in the town of Ginatilan, Cebu.

The Cebu City Council on motion of Councilor Franklin Seno in 1985 enacted City Ordinance No. 1194 naming a street in honor of an eminent doctor and a public servant.

The next time you pass this road, remember the man who once served the city as mayor, fought the Japanese for our freedom and healed the sick.