Sanciangco Street, Cebu City
It is the street that traverses from D. Jakosalem passing Pelaez, Osmena Blvd., Leon Kilat up to Tres de Abril St..
The street is named in honor of Don Gregorio Gozon Sanciangco. Don Gregorio was born on March 7, 1852 in Tonsuya, Malabon. He was the son of Don Eladio Sanciangco and Regina Gozon. Gregorio was a Chinese Mestizo. He finished his law degree at the University of Santo Tomas. He thereafter went to the Universidad Central de Madrid in Madrid, Spain, and earned Doctor of Civil and Canonical Law.
It was while he was working in Madrid, Spain with the newspaper, La Discussion that he published his book, Progreso de Filipinas in 1881. Don Gregorio in his writings opposed the colonization of the Philippines by Spain.
He argued that the Filipinos are not "indolent" or lazy as what the Spanish colonizers were telling about. Sanciangco explained that to make Filipinos capable, its education must be improved, social progress, and technology.
When Don Sanciangco returned to the Philippines he was appointed Justice of the Peace in Nueva Ecija. Sanciangco then resigned from his government position and practiced law under the mentorship of Don Ambrosio Rianzares Bautista.
Don Gregorio was the uncle of another national figure, Epifanio de los Santos, it is where the street named EDSA comes from.
While in Spain, Don Gregorio Sanciangco became a member of the La Juventud Escolar Liberal. He is considered to be the first writer of the propaganda movement.
The contemporaries and the likes of Don Sanciangco were Pedro Paterno, who also went to the Universidad Central de Manila, the Cebuano Julio Llorente (who became the first Filipino Governor of Cebu), Antonio Luna of Binondo, Manila.
The reason why there is a street in Cebu City named after Sanciangco when he was never a political figure of Cebu is because the "illustrados or intelligencia" of Cebu who were able to go to school in Spain considered him to be the pioneer of the movement of liberating our country from Spain. In fact, Dr. Jose Rizal admired the works of Don Sanciangco.
It is not only Don Sanciangco, a non-Cebuano that has a street in Cebu City named after, there is Jose Maria Panganiban of Mambulao, Camarines Sur, Jaime C. De Veyra and Plaridel (Gregorio del Pilar).
On March 6, 1941 the municipal board of Malabon named a school in his birthplace in Tonsuya as Gregorio Sanciangco Elementary School. Likewise the municipal board of Pasay on July 1954 named a public library after his name.
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