What they did on December 24

Today, 127 years ago, the Spaniards left Cebu City. Cebu’s exit from Spanish rule is historically significant because it occurred before any American occupation, allowing the province to pass briefly under purely Filipino revolutionary control. The withdrawal was orderly and bloodless, illustrating how Spanish authority in Cebu collapsed not through decisive battles but through exhaustion and inevitability.

Many of today’s top politicians are descended from families that were already relevant when Spanish authority ended in the Philippines. The relatives of President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. played two different roles towards the end of Spanish rule. The Marcoses of Ilocos Norte weren’t ilustrado leaders of the Propaganda Movement, or known organizers or players of Katipunan cells in Ilocos Norte. In fact, Ilocos Norte was relatively quiet during the 1896–1898 revolution and didn’t experience sustained revolutionary warfare until late 1898. Even then, local elites tended to wait out the collapse of Spanish authority rather than spearhead rebellion. On the other hand, the Romualdezes of Leyte played a more active part in the revolution. Romualdez family members engaged in nationalist action; for instance, Vicente Orestes Romualdez, Imelda R. Marcos’ father, was sympathetic to the Propaganda Movement. Though not active in the battlefield, the Romualdez participation was political and intellectual and could be considered as genuine nationalist engagement.

Vice President Sara Z. Duterte’s ancestors also played different roles. Her Duterte antecedents aren’t documented as having joined armed revolutionary units or served in the Cebu Revolutionary Junta. It was her Veloso roots that were more active. Historically, the Duterte surname would have been Veloso if the VP’s female Duterte ancestor, Dionisia Francisca Duterte, had married Maximo del Rosario Veloso. Although they were among Cebu’s wealthiest and most politically-active mestizo families, they were deeply embedded in Cebu’s revolutionary networks and active later in the short-lived Federal State of the Visayas. Isabelo Duterte Veloso, the son of Dionisia Francisca and the great-great-grandfather of the VP, was identified as a revolutionary leader in Cebu and a Filipino officer active before U.S. occupation. He participated in the seizure of Spanish administrative buildings, the organization of revolutionary militia units, and played a role in the transition governance after Spanish withdrawal in December 1898.

Senate President Vicente Sotto III’s ancestors in Cebu were also active and Filemon Sotto, the brother of his grandfather, was a member of the Cebu Revolutionary Junta. National artist and historian Resil Mojares wrote that Filemon Sotto was among those who pressed the Spanish commandant to consider evacuation in view of the impossibility of holding Cebu. Vicente Sotto, the grandfather of the current Senate president, though not active in the military, was nevertheless active in underground journalism and propaganda and his later newspaper Ang Suga (1901) grew out of the clandestine news network formed in 1898 to spread revolutionary communications.

Some other Cebuano families from the time of the revolution include the Osmeñas, the Sansons, and the Del Mars. Sergio Osmeña, just 20 years old during the revolution, was already active in the revolutionary movement’s political and information wing and served as a secretary, courier of sensitive communications, and political aide to the revolutionary junta, while his father’s family, the Sansons, provided financial and logistical support. Members of the Del Mar family were among Cebuano lay leaders who supported the revolutionary assembly and who helped shape public sentiment against Spanish rule.

During the 1898 revolution, the Veloso and Romualdez families actively engaged in nationalist efforts in their respective regions. Similarly, the Romualdezes of Leyte were involved in the political and intellectual facets of the revolution, though they transitioned to pragmatic collaboration under American rule. In contrast, the Marcos family of Ilocos didn’t have a documented revolutionary role and adapted early to American administration. Today, these families have produced prominent political leaders in the Philippines, illustrating how these families transitioned from colonial-era elites to modern political dynasties.