Jose Solon Drive, Cebu City
It is the road formerly called as KAMAGONG STREET in Barangay Lahug, Cebu City. The Cebu City Council on October 25, 1983 renamed Kamagong Street to Jose Solon Drive. It is the road beside Lahug Elementary School that stretches from Gorordo Avenue to Escario Street beside Parklane Hotel.
The renaming is contained under City Ordinance No. 1157 approved by Atty. Ronald R. Duterte, mayor of Cebu City on November 4, 1983.
It is named in honor of Jose N. Solon, a native son of Cebu City, and as the city council says "a class among the first line of politicians in the history of politics in the part of the country, leading the destiny of more than a million souls."
Jose N. Solon was elected board member of the Cebu Provincial Board in 1928 during the term of Governor Arsenio Climaco. Solon was reelected in 1931 as board member garnering the highest votes for the position. He was reelected during the first term of Don Mariano Jesus Cuenco, who served as governor of Cebu from 1931 to 1933 (M.J. Cuenco Avenue is named after him). Jose Solon being the senior board member had at times served as acting governor of Cebu.
Solon was elected member of the municipal board of the newly chartered city of Cebu. The election was held on December 14, 1937. President Manuel Luis Quezon issued on December 29, 1937 Executive Order No. 133 confirming the election of winners in that election. The fellow winners of Solon in that election as City Councilors were Regino Mercado, Felipe Pacana, Jose P. Nolasco, Dr. Leandro A. Tojong, Jose Fortich, Juan Zamora, and Dominador Abella.
In that election held in 1937 in the provincial government, Buenaventura Rodriguez was elected governor, while the members of the board were Vicente Lozada and Manuel Roa (who was governor of Cebu from 1912 to 1922, and the street formerly named as Kamuning Street has been renamed after him). Cebu City at that time was yet under the supervision of the provincial government.
The street renaming ordinance states that Jose N. Solon "discharged his duties with the highest integrity and devotion to duty, earning him the reputation of a Doer and Mover."
The acting presiding officer of the Sangguniang Panlungsod that enacted the ordinance was Jesus B. Garcia Jr., a lawyer, having been admitted to the Bar on March 13, 1969. Decades after, Atty. Jesus B. Garcia Jr. was appointed as Secretary of the Department of Transportation and Communications. The father Councilor Jesus P. Garcia Jr., Jesus Sr., also served the City of Cebu as chief of the Criminal Investigation Division. Jesus Paras Garcia Sr., (also a lawyer, was admitted to the Bar on November 4, 1946) brought honor to Cebu when he was elected delegate of the 1972 Constitutional Convention.
Solon Drive though is still called by others as Kamagong Street. The renaming was sponsored by Councilor Franklin N. Seno, seconded by Councilors Bienvenido B. Tudtud and Rodolfo Y. Cabrera. The other members of the city council in 1983 were Clinton P. Gumalo, Jose V. Cuenco (who became OIC Mayor of Cebu City in 1986), Antolin R. Jariol Jr., Pablo U. Abella, Emmanuel B. Aznar, Vicente A. Kintanar, Jr. (who became vice mayor) and Dr. Suga Sotto-Yuvienco. The Secretary of the City Council was Atty. Pompio A. Paradiang while the city attorney at that time was Vicente Varela Jr. (admitted to the Bar on March 9, 1957).