Potenciano Alino (Tres Alino Street, Talisay City, Cebu)

Potenciano Alino was one of the three legendary brother heroes during the Cebuano revolt against Spain. He was born in 1864 and died in 1909. His other brothers were Felix and Hilario.

A street in Barangay Poblacion, Talisay City is named after the three brothers, aptly named as "Tres Alinos." Not known by many that the famous battle of Tres de Abril as the launching of the Cebuano revolt against Spain in San Nicolas district on April 3, 1898 started a day before in Talisay City, Cebu. It is when the Alino brothers together with other Talisaynon patriots attacked guardia civil in Talisay.

The attack led by the Alino brothers forced Pantaleon Villegas known more by his alias Leon Kilat decided that they have to start the revolt in Cebu after the attack in Talisay. The original date of the start of the uprising was on April 8, 1898. The fellow revolutionaries of Potenciano in Talisay were Pascasio Dabasol, Silvestre Canedo, Simeon Canedo, and Wenceslao Capala.

A monument honoring the Alino brothers stands within the compound of the Talisay City College, which is right across the old municipal hall-turned school. Talisay City remembers the heroism of the Alino brothers every 2nd of April.

Aside from being a general of the KKK, Potenciano was a prolific writer. He is credited for having translated the Ultimo Adios (Katapusang Panamilit) into Cebuano.

Potenciano was one of those young Cebuano writers pooled by Don Vicente Yap Sotto. The contemporaries of Potenciano in the literary works were Vicente Ranudo, Leoncio Avila, Felix Sales, Uldarico Alviola, and Francisco Arias.

Potenciano together with Don Vicente Sotto and Filomeno Roble who were associates in the Ang Suga of Sotto, helped translate the Bible into Cebuano for the American Bible Society. In 1902, Potenciano together with Vicente Sotto organized the first labor group in Cebu, and called it "Club Kagawasan" which organized a group of workers.

The society was not just contended of organizing them for political purposes but envisioned to upgrade their personality. Sotto and Potenciano Alino gave Spanish lessons while John W. Barrow of the Cebu High School taught the members English.

The greatness of the Alino Clan is not recognized in Talisay City but also in the heart of the province, Cebu City. In 2012, the Cebu City government honored the Alino Clan as one of the 75 Families of Distinction.

The Tres Alinos, brothers Potenciano, Felix, and Hilario may have died decades ago but the greatness of the clan still continue. Justice Portia Alino Hormachuelos, now Dean of the College of Law of the University of the Visayas (her Alma Mater, having graduated as Magna Cum Laude in 1963 and admitted to the Bar on March 10, 1964) retired in 2011 as chairman of the Second Division of the Court of Appeals. In 1995, she was appointed in the Court of Appeals after serving as presiding judge of a Regional Trial Court in Cebu City for eight years. Justice Portia was honored in 1992 with the Cayetano Arellano Award for Judicial Excellence as Outstanding Judge.

Among the many decisions written by Justice Hormachuelos that reached the Supreme Court was the case of Heirs of Atty. Jose C. Reyes, et. al versus Republic of the Philippines. The issue was whether estoppels apply to the government.

The Republic of the Philippines having lost its case before the Regional Trial Court that rendered a decision ordering the distribution of hectares of lands appealed through the Office of the Solicitor General.

The Court of Appeals reversed the decision of the Regional Trial Court and annulled the latter's decision. When the private party went to the Supreme Court, the latter affirmed the decision written by Justice Hormachuelos. The Supreme Court's decision is dated August 3, 2006.