Don Vicente Rama: Hundred years legacy of public service

Don Vicente Rama, the father of the Cebu City Charter entered politics in 1916. Don Vicente was elected councilor of the then Municipality of Cebu on June 16, 1916. It was a synchronized election for the local government units and that of the Philippine Assembly ( today's equivalent of the congress).

This year marks the hundred years of the Rama's Patriarch Legacy of Public Service especially to our beloved City of Cebu. It was also in 1916, that the Philippine Autonomy Law was passed, it is more known after its author, William Atkinson Jones, Congressman of the State of the Virginia of the United States. The law was passed on August 29, 1916, it is the law that mandated that the Philippine's legislative body be changed from unicameral to bicameral. It was the birth of the Philippine Senate that held its first election on October 3, 1916.

Cebu became the 10th Senatorial District ( the country was divided into 12 senatorial district, with every district electing two senators) electing Don Celestino Rodriguez ( Waling Waling Street had been renamed after him; in 1925 Celestino was succeeded by Don Pedro Rodriguez, the Grand Old Man of Bogo) and Don Filemon Yap Sotto (the elder brother of Don Vicente Yap Sotto).

Don Vicente Rama who was also elected senator in 1914, reelected in 1947, was elected four times as congressman of the old 3rd and 4th District of Cebu in 1922, 1924, 1925 and 1934. Don Vicente served Cebu City as its mayor from 1938 to 1940.

When World War II erupted in the Pacific after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 8, 1941, Don Vicente and his family escaped from the atrocities of the invading Japanese Imperial Army. But Don Vicente, being a senator, was hunted by the Japanese as it tried its best to assimilate Japanese governance into our country.

Don Vicente came to the town of Carcar when ushered by a wealthy farmer named Pedro Mancao were they were allowed to live in his hacienda at the mountains of Valencia, Carcar.

Don Vicente's respite from the public service proved to be short lived, when Jose Osmeña nicknamed Peping, one of the sons of Vice President Sergio Osmeña Sr. came to him on April 10, 1942. Peping Osmeña informed Don Vicente that he was on errand by the Japanese Military Administrations Chief by the name of Colonel Kawakani ordering him to report to their headquarters. Don Vicente refused to do so.

The Japanese were relentless on April 28, 1942, an automobile of the Japanese Imperial Army came to the house of Don Vicente on the mountains of Carcar where he was forced to board there he was brought to the headquarters of the town of Carcar. It was on May 3, 1942, that Don Vicente came face to face with the leader of the Kempetai. Their meeting was tense at first he was ordered to become Cebu Governor which he argued that he could not be, since Hilario Abellana was the rightful governor, he was also offered to be Cebu City Mayor, until the Japanese Colonel adamantly told Don Vicente that he and his family would be killed if he would refuse to be the mayor of Carcar.

Interestingly, Don Vicente in his many literary works he wrote after the war was the story of David Rivera. Don Vicente Rama who was mayor by Military Order narrates the story of Rivera, one of the several young people whom he had the opportunity to help. David Rivera was originally from Naga, he was unjustly accused of being involved in a robbery at a coal mine that belonged to one of the wealthy families in Cebu City. Rivera was arrested by Japanese soldiers in Tinaan, Naga which was near Toledo. Rivera was badly beaten, with bruise and broken bones. Carcar was the Japanese Imperial Army General Headquarters in Southern Cebu.

Rivera was saved by Don Vicente when he vouched that the former was no criminal. Rivera upon his release formed a group that launched the first attack on the Japanese, this happened on September 25, 1942. Don Vicente called David Rivera as the "True Father of the Cebu Guerilla."

Today, a century after Don Vicente's election as councilor, a grandson sits as Cebu City Mayor, Atty. Michael Lopez Rama. Don Vicente Rama's legacy lives on.