CDN FILE PHOTO
The words carved on the white, concrete fountain of the Fuente Osmeña Park are in Spanish. And park worker Democrito Elcana does not understand what they mean.
The 53-year-old street sweeper of the Cebu city government’s Parks and Playgrounds Commission has little knowledge of the value of the park that he must keep clean at all times.
“All I know is that it’s a landmark for Fuente Osmeña and nearby buildings…,” Elcana says in Cebuano. He does not even know to which Osmeña the fountain is dedicated to.
For several years now, Elcana goes to the park from Monday to Friday, and cleans the entire rotunda from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. He is the only person designated by the city’s park commission to keep the heritage site clean.
When he learned that the legal battle between the provincial and city governments of Cebu for the ownership of the Fuente Osmeña rotunda was finally concluded, Elcana says he is relieved it is over.
“I even personally witnessed former Cebu governor Gwendolyn Garcia and some officials of the Capitol did a ribbon cutting to mark the start of the park’s renovation. That was in 2007, I think, and it actually took a long time for improvements to take place,” he adds.
For Elcana, Fuente Osmeña should not be a subject of any dispute. He also hopes that further renovation will be done to it, aside from the P13 million beautification project in 2011 done by the Cebu city government, under then mayor Michael Rama, with the help of business couple Michel and Amparito Lhuillier.
But even as he knows little about the park’s history, Elcena says he has no doubt that Fuente Osmeña remains as one of the most popular landmarks in the city.
“Because it’s within the heart of the city. You don’t need to travel via bus just to get a glimpse of this historical spot. Tourists and locals in Cebu knew about it. It’s for everybody and anybody,” adds Elcana in Cebuano.
Last Aug. 25, the Cebu Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 23 ruled that Cebu City is the legitimate owner of the Fuente Osmeña property and not Cebu province, which, in a court case filed in 2010, claimed ownership of the land occupied by the 1,100-square meter park.
Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III accepted the ruling and directed the provincial legal office not to appeal the case.
Raison d’etre
Housed within the walls of the Jose Rizal Memorial Library and Museum are historical archives about Cebu City and the province of Cebu, which reported that in the first few years of 1900, a cholera outbreak struck the island with no less than 100 individuals as fatalities.
At that time, creating a proper water system to prevent the spread of the disease was not feasible due to Cebu’s climate and topography.
Florentino Bolligor from the Cultural and Historical Affairs (Chac) narrates to Cebu Daily News that the local government back then helped established the Osmeña Waterworks System, the country’s second waterworks facility, which ultimately stopped the spread of cholera.
Construction of the Fuente Osmeña park and its fountain began in 1910 and completed in 1912, a place meant to commemorate the launching of the Osmena Waterworks System in Barangay Tisa and of the Buhisan Dam. Various history records and books that date as far back as 1956 reported about pipes connecting the fountain to Buhisan Dam.
Both the Chac and the city library store old photos depicting the early years of Fuente Osmeña, including a wide-shot image of the fountain during its inauguration, surrounded by men with bowler hats, and women dressed in floor-length dresses. The photo’s caption states that most of the people in the photograph were former officials of the Cebu city government who helped made the Osmeña Waterworks System possible.
For Chac acting director Patricia Perez, the city clearly owns the park and the court’s ruling was just.
“It is just appropriate. Fuente Osmeña is situated right in the heart of Cebu city. There’s nothing to quarrel about that, even history will tell you. History will convince people that the Cebu city government, at the time of its construction, has jurisdiction and control over the park, therefore, having ownership,” says Perez.
Significance
The Cebu RTC Branch 23 ruling also shows that under existing laws in 1910, the provincial government was not yet allowed to own parks of municipalities, and that the fountain was built within the territorial jurisdiction of the then municipality of Cebu.
“In my observation even, the city government has been keeping the park clean. It was Cebu city who did the maintenance and beautification ever since it was built,” she adds.
But Perez says it will also be great if Capitol decides to help in beautifying and keeping Fuente Osmeña clean.
“If they (Province of Cebu) wants to help the city government, why not? They can coordinate with the right officials if they are interested to keep this historical place beautiful, safe and clean.”
For Perez, the rotunda has to be open to everyone, and that any forms of exclusivity must be prevented.
“Come to think of it, whether it belongs to the city government or province of Cebu, Fuente Osmeña is something that can be accessed to anyone in Cebu. It’s a park where people go and relax. You cannot say that Fuente Osmeña belongs to Cebu city and only people in Cebu city can go to it,” Perez opines.
The challenge now is how to make more Cebuanos, especially the young ones, become aware of the historical significance of the park.
“People think it’s just a park, in the middle of the city, where they can go anytime they want. And maybe because it’s just a rotunda for them, which they pass by everyday,” she comments.
“Everybody knows that the Fuente Osmeña park was named after former President Sergio Osmeña for being the first president in the country who came from Cebu, but that’s only it. Only some actually knew the purpose of its creation, the people who were behind it, and that there are actually pipes connecting it to the Buhisan Dam,” adds Perez, who has a personal collection of historical accounts on Cebu.
Unfortunately, Perez says many of the city library’s historical records, including those on Fuente Osmeña park, have gone missing and they are now still trying to locate them. fruitless.
“These books and historical artifacts should be made available to the public, and Cebu is rich in history – we should definitely store and keep these safe,” she adds.