The Cebu City Tobacco Ordinance of 1952
On June 25, 1952 the then Municipal Board of Cebu City enacted City Ordinance No. 129. It was entitled "An Ordinance Fixing License Fees on Retail Tobacco Dealers".
The ordinance mandated that no person, firm or corporation shall engage in the business of retailing leaf tobacco without securing a permit from the City Mayor and paying a license fee to the City Treasurer.
The ordinance explains that a "Retail Dealer" in leaf tobacco is one who sells, gives away, or otherwise disposes of in a single transaction less than one mano of tobacco for the consumption of the purchaser.
The ordinance ordered that the license granted shall be paid in the amount of Twelve Pesos for every year, payable in advance annually or quarterly at the option of the retailer.
The penalty for violating the ordinance shall be a fine of not less than Ten Pesos but not more than Two Hundred Pesos or imprisonment of not less than three days but not more than thirty days or both such fine and imprisonment at the discretion of the court.
The ordinance was approved during the time of Mayor Pedro Bernal Elizalde, who was appointed by President Elpidio Quirino to serve the City of Cebu from August 16, 1951 to July 23, 1952.
Elizalde was Provincial Treasurer of the Province of Cebu at that time he was appointed Mayor of Cebu City. Mayor Elizalde was born on January 17, 1890 in San Jose, Antique.
Pedro Elizalde married Rosario Abiera Salazar and had the following children: Ma. Emelia, Pedro Jr., Augusto, Ma. Rosario and Augusto. His son Augusto, became a lawyer on January 18, 1954. Augusto married Petrona Velasco, and the couple had a son named Eugene, who grew to become Cebu City Administrator and Chairman of the Cebu City Peace and Order Council (PCAC) under the Mayor Michael Lopez Rama.
The President of the Municipal Board that enacted the tobacco ordinance was Carlos J. Cuizon, a lawyer. He took the Bar Examinations in 1939 and was formally admitted to the Bar on February 26, 1940. The street in Barangay Tinago, Cebu City formerly named as "Potat" was renamed in honor of Mayor Cuizon by the Cebu City Council by virtue of an ordinance enacted on May 8, 1989.
There was also a fellow member of Cuizon in the Municipal Board who was also a lawyer, his name, Generoso Jaca. Councilor Jaca was born from Moalboal, who was admitted to the Philippine Bar on May 16, 1950. Jaca was a loyal member of the Nacionalista Party. He was part of the group who met President Carlos P. Garcia at the pier on September 8, 1959.
Jaca ran under the Nacionalista Party in the general elections held on November 10, 1959. The Cebu City Mayoralty Candidate of the Nacionalista Party in 1959 was Casimiro V. Madarang who was a Cebu City Councilor then.
The candidate for Vice Mayor of the Nacionalista Party was Dr. Leandro Tojong. The candidate for Cebu City Councilors, aside from Lawyer Generoso Jaca were: Remedies Jayme de Fernandez, Alfredo Deen, Francisco Briones, Jose Fortich, Emilio Matheu, Nicolas Ruiz, Florentino D. Tecson, who was also a Cebu City Councilor, he was from Naga, Cebu, he became a lawyer on April 14, 1953, he was prolific writer, he died on September 11, 1962 and Dr. Luis Espina (who served Cebu City as Mayor in 1947 and Provincial Board Member).
The NP candidates for the Province of Cebu in 1959 were: Ramon Durano for Governor, Isidro Escario (of Bantayan, Cebu) for Vice Governor and for Board Members: Arsenio Villanueva, Ernesto Bascon and Reynaldo Mendiola.
The opponent of Lawyer Ramon Durano, the Political Kingpin of Danao for the position of Governor was then Incumbent Cebu Governor Jose Lorenzo Briones.
Governor Briones served Cebu City as Member of the Municipal Board in 1948, he was later elected as Governor of Cebu in 1955 when Governor Sergio "Serging" Chiong Veloso Osmena left the Province to run as Cebu City in 1955. Briones who was the candidate for Governor of the Osmena-Cuenco fusion was reelected in 1959.
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