T. Breslin St., Cebu City
It is the formerly unnamed street within the Gochan Subdivision, now part of Barangay Kasambagan in the then Mabolo District. It starts at the U-portion of President Laurel St. running southeast crossing F. Cabahug St. toward the limits of the subdivision.
It is named in honor of "Thomas Francis Breslin" who was born on July 6, 1885 in the United States of America. T. Breslin was the son of Thomas Breslin and Mary Malloy. T. Breslin finished his Civil Engineering and Mining Engineering at the Pennsylvania State College (now the Pennsylvania State University) when he was 22 years old.
Engr. Breslin was contracted by the United States Army to conduct the survey of the lands in the Philippines. He was assigned in Cebu.
Most of Cebu's land disputes are resolved on the surveyor's benchmark bearing the initials of T. Breslin, especially in the mountain peaks of Cebu. Among the cases that cited the survey works of Breslin is one that reached the Supreme Court and resolved on September 9, 1937, a legal suit among heirs and the Director of Lands.
Breslin married a Cebuana from Danao, her name was Maria Mata Laurel, daughter of Candido Laurel and Gabina Mata. Breslin suited well in Cebu, he learned to speak Cebuano and Tagalog. Years later after settling in Cebu he went to Manila. He became a Mine Engineer and Inspector in Baguio before World War II.
Before the Japanese invaded the Philippines after it bombed Pearl Harbor, Breslin was tasked for the construction of additional barracks at Fort William McKinley.
When the Japanese invaded the country, Breslin was commissioned as Colonel of the USAFFE. He was part of the Bataan Death March. He was already 57 years old at that time. His physical condition caused his death during the march. He died on May 10, 1942. His son Richard "Dick" Breslin who survived the march also later died at the hands of the cruelty of the Japanese being a Prisoner of War.
Shortly after the Liberation in 1945, when the Americans re-occupied the Philippines, the family of Thomas Breslin exhumed his body in Bataan and buried him at Fort William McKinley in Manila.
It is interesting that of the 15 streets named in City Ordinance No. 594, majority of which were named after presidents, while the other three were members of the judiciary, national heroes and senators of the Republic it is only Breslin Street is named after a civilian.
The influence of the contribution of Breslin in the growth of Cebu when it was yet a young municipality when the Americans taught us democracy and local governance must have been so strong that it moved our legislatures to name a street in honor of an American who held no government position.
It was then Councilor Eulogio Enriquez Borres, who also served as Cebu City Mayor (also an Engineer, a graduate of the University of the Philippines and Building Inspector of the Philippine Army in 1939). Borres held T. Breslin in high esteem, a colleague in the Engineering Profession and a comrade in arms, being a soldier himself that sponsored the ordinance naming the streets, one of which was after Thomas Francis Breslin. The ordinance was co-sponsored by Councilor John Henry Osmeña also a son of war hero, executed by the Japanese, a street is named after him "Dr. Emilio V. Osmeña", a military surgeon.
City Ordinance No. 594 was enacted by the City Council on July 10, 1967 more than two decades after the death of an American Engineer who devoted his talent and skills in serving the Filipinos especially the Cebuanos. T. Breslin, the American who found his love in Danao, Cebu.
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