Nicolas Rafols St. (in honor of a Cebuano legislator-writer)
It is the street we still call as Jazmin Street in Barangay Capitol Site, Cebu City. It was 41 years ago (January 5, 1977) when the Cebu City Council renamed Jazmin Street and Ma. Cristina Street as Nicolas Rafols Street. However, a later ordinance renamed Ma. Cristina Street as M.P. Yap (Monsignor Manuel Yap, the Bishop of Bacolod).
CEBUpedia previously wrote articles about Rafols Street on December 9, 2013, July 24, 2017, and August 26, 2017 to remind the Cebu City government of its overdue and remised duty of unveiling the street name. Last year, the road to unveiling street names resulted to two renaming events; Lopez Jaena Street to Eduardo Aboitiz Street and Gansiang Street to Gabriel Elorde Street. It has been decades since these ordinances were enacted, and CEBUpedia will ensure that this year the street names, Rafols, Filoteo (the road to Good Shepherd) and Leyson (Progreso) will finally be unveiled with the gracious help of the Cebu City Mayor and the Cultural, Historical Affairs Commission/Office.
Nicolas Rafols was from Toledo, Cebu, he was the son of Nicolas Rafols and Ignacia Mercado and born in 1894. He finished his Bachelor of Laws at the Escuela de Derecho and was admitted to the Bar on October 12, 1912. He was elected as congressman of the old 6th District of Cebu and reelected in 1928 and 1941, he was also elected as a delegate to the 1934 Constitutional Convention together with the Sotto brothers, Filemon and Vicente.
It was Nicolas Rafols who wrote the novel, "Pulahan" in 1919. It is the story of the Cebuano patriot who fought the Americans because of injustice. It was Don Sergio Suico Osmeña, then a young lawyer, who became convinced the "Pulahans" were unjustly branded as brigands and asked them to surrender and be assimilated back into the community. The feat of Don Sergio made him a legend and earned him the respect of the Americans, thus paving his rise to political power from Governor of Cebu, to being the first Cebuano and the first to be elected as the country's First Speaker of the Congress (in 1906, the Philippine Congress was unicameral, it was only in 1916 that it became Bicameral with the creation of the House of Senate).
Rafols wrote a book in 1918 which was a collection of stories and poems. He also wrote the "Ang Kalibutan sa Katitikiang Binisaya," in English, the World of Visayan Letters. The January 19, 1935 issue of Babaye saw print of his article, "Kinsa si kinsa sa mga magsusulat sa pinulongang Bisaya."
Nicolas Rafols died on May 2, 1947.
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