Pascuala Yap Sotto, Sotto clan matriarch
The maverick senator (Don Vicente) and one of the Seven Wise Men of the 1934 Constitutional Convention (Don Filemon) were sons of a petite Chinese Mestiza originally from Binondo, Manila. The Chinese mestiza destined to be the mother of the two greatest Cebuano Senators was Pascuala Yap.
Pascuala also called Nyora Kwala was the daughter of a Chinese named Joaquin Yap, also called Yap Sut Co. Pascuala Yap married Marcelino Legaspi Sotto and relocated to Cebu. Pascuala armed with the values of industry and thriftiness begun as a merchant in the old Lutao District, now part of what is now called as Carbon. She was a puso (hanging rice) vendor while her husband, Marcelino was a kargador.
The Sotto couple thrived and became part of the rich merchants that resided in the Parian District. The husband of Nyora Kwala, Don Marcelino died on February 5, 1890. Pascuala had two sons, his eldest, Filemon was born on November 24, 1872 while the second, Vicente was born on April 18, 1877. Filemon was barely 18 years old, while Vicente was only 14 years old when their father died, making Pascuala a single parent.
Pascuala believing education being the true equalizer of men sent her sons to the best schools and gave them the best education. Both went to the San Carlos Seminary in Cebu for their secondary education. The Sotto brothers (so as their grandsons, the brothers Tito, Marvic, and Maru went to the same Catholic school) finished their college at the Colegio San Juan de Letran.
It was Pascuala who comforted her son Vicente who at the young age of 21 was arrested by American constables with rifles pointed at him and incarcerated him at Fort San Pedro. Pascuala harassed and threatened by the American authorities of Cebu regularly visited her son, Vicente, imprisoned for months at the Fort San Pedro (that is why after his release, Don Vicente took as his pen name, Tagakotta, meaning a man from the fort).
The achievements of the Sotto brothers so far has not been broken, both became lawyers, newspapermen, writers, publishers, poets, constitutional convention delegates, congressmen, and senators. Both her sons, had streets named in their honor (F. Sotto by virtue of City Ordinance No. 1123 enacted on April 26, 1982, while V. Sotto by virtue of City Ordinance No. 164 enacted on July 7, 1953).
Don Filemon married Carmen Rallos, daughter of Municipal President of Cebu, Florentino Rallos. Prior to his marriage, he had a daughter from a woman named Remedios Duterte. He named their child Pascuala (born on February 9, 1913), in memory of her mother. The child Pascuala was nicknamed Lily who married Sixto Pahang and they had a child named Antonio, who later became a lawyer on May 11, 1959. The other children of Filemon were Marcelo, Miguel Barcelona, and Matilde Sotto-Palicte.
Don Vicente married Maria Festin Ojeda of Dumanjug, Cebu. The couple had the following children: Galileo (born on September 30, 1907) married Natividad Jose and had the following children: Honor (Nora), Ernesto and Diana), the second was Voltaire, born on December 31, 1910 in Dumanjug, Cebu married Josefina Benito, and had two children: Vicente Macario and Agnes, the third child of Vicente and Maria, was Tagakotta born on February 2, 1912 in Hongkong, the latter became a lawyer on June 8, 1937, he married Paula Inumerable and had the following children: Marita, Diana and Renan.
The fourth child was Britania (named by Don Vicente as his gratitude to the country, Britain for denying the petition for extradition by the American sponsored cases against him in the Philippines), married Deogracias Yanong and had the following children: Deogracias Jr, Ciencia, Americus, Ariel, Roberto, Ceres and Venus. The fifth child was Marcelino (a pioneer employee of the Central Bank) married Dr. Herminia Castelo and had the following children: Valmar (an actor and a City Councilor), Vicente (Tito) III (composer, leader of the VST Band, former Chairman of the Dangerous Drugs Board and Senator), Marcelino, nicknamed Maru (an advertising executive) and Marvic nicknamed Vic also known as Bossing Vic.
The youngest, Suga, a Doctor of Medicine, used to write a column with The Freeman, born on the same year the The Freeman was established by Don Paulino in 1919, became Cebu City Councilor, married a fellow Doctor of Medicine, Merito N. Yuvienco. Dra. Suga and Dr. Merito have the following children: Minerva, also known as Minnie, Merito Jr., Eugene, Christopher, and Jose Mari.
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