Julian Alcantara, the Provincial Warden
The street more known by many as P. Del Rosario Extension has long been renamed as it is officially called as the Julian Alcantara Street. It was on December 18, 1978 that the Cebu City Council by virtue of Ordinance No. 1013 that renamed the street.
But who is Julian Alcantara?
Julian Alcantara was elected vice president of the then Municipality of Cebu (now Cebu City), he was reelected in 1934, however, Governor Buenaventura Rodriguez appointed him as Provincial Warden of the Cebu Provincial Jail (now the Cebu Museum).
While Provincial Warden he had a prisoner who was sentenced to two months and one day arrest mayor for physical injuries, in the Municipal Court of Cebu. According to the Municipal Judge Tereso M. Dosdos, he was informed of such sentence on the same day. Eleven days afterwards the prisoner filed habeas corpus proceedings in the Court of First Instance of Cebu and who intend to file a bond. Judge Dosdos and Warden Alcantara replied that the judgment had become final, that the prisoner had not appealed his case. After hearing, the Court of First Instance of Cebu found that the prisoner had appealed verbally on the same day he was informed of the decision, and that, consequently, his appeal was perfected in due time. The Court of First Instance also said that the prisoner could file a bond for his provisional liberty.
Alcantara and Dosdos appealed the ruling of the Court of First Instance before the Court of Appeals which reversed the ruling of the lower court. The issue was that Section 45 of Act No. 58 (Cebu City Charter) which requires from the municipal court of the City of Cebu in criminal cases to be filed with said court in writing within six o'clock in the evening of the day after rendition and entry of judgment is unconstitutional as being a class legislation, discriminatory, and unjust.
The prisoner insisted that oral appeals are permitted not only to justice of the peace but also to municipal courts, thus the case reached the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court on November 10, 1939 said that it adopted on March 24, 1937 a resolution amending the Code of Criminal Procedure. The verbal notice of intention to appeal from the judgment of conviction of the Municipal Court of Cebu filed by the prisoner was therefore, in accordance with law. And the appeal should have been given due course. The decision rendered by the Court of First Instance of Cebu in the petition for habeas corpus filed by the prisoner against Honorable Tereso M. Dosdos and Julian Alcantara, which orders both of them to give due course to the appeal taken by the prisoner, is likewise in accordance with law.
The prisoner was assisted by Lawyer Pedro Lopez, who was elected congressman. He died together with the 7th President of the Philippines, Ramon Magsaysay when the plane they were riding crashed into Mount Manunggal, Balamban, Cebu on March 17, 1957. A street in Cebu City formerly called as the "Carmelo Street" named after Father Miguel Nellas Carmelo was renamed Congressman Pedro Lopez on May 15, 1962. This is the street where the University of San Jose-Recoletos is located. Lopez became a lawyer on December 14, 1929.
Tereso M. Dosdos, the pride of Borbon, Cebu was born October 15, 1892. He was the child of Crispin Dosdos and Ana Mondigo. Tereso was admitted to the Bar on September 26, 1921. He holds the title as first lawyer of Borbon, Cebu. Tereso was elected Assemblyman of the second National Assembly and served from January 24, 1939 to December 16, 1941.
Congressman and Judge Tereso Dosdos married Filomena Mangubat also of Borbon, Cebu.
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