Members of the Osmeña clan led by Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña (5th from right) gather to commemorate and celebrate Don Sergio Osmeña Sr.’s 139th birthday at Lapu-Lapu St. corner Osmeña Boulevard – the area where Don Sergio lived.
CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA
Be like Don Sergio Osmeña Sr.”
Cebu City Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella made this challenge to local government employees during the celebration of the 139th birth anniversary of Don Sergio, who is known as “the Grand Old Man of Cebu” on Saturday.
Labella, who described Don Sergio as a great man, was one of those who spoke during the event where the Osmeña clan gathered to commemorate and honor the legacy of Don Sergio.
The event started with a thanksgiving Mass celebrated by Fr. Raul Cabugao at Lapu-Lapu St. corner Osmeña Boulevard, Cebu City, where a marker of Don Sergio stands and which is the area where he used to live.
“Let us continue to inculcate and adapt the virtues of a good governance; integrity and simplicity in the office that was displayed by (Don) Sergio Osmeña (Sr.),” Labella said.
He also said that Don Sergio made a difference in the lives of not only the Cebuanos but to the entire nation as well.
Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, a grandchild of Don Sergio who was present during the celebration, shook Labella’s hands as he showed his appreciation of Labella’s call and tribute to his grandfather.
Don Sergio was elected governor of Cebu at 27 years old, and became the youngest member of the Philippine Assembly before he moved on to become the first House Speaker two years later.
According to the Office of the President in its website, Don Sergio succeeded as President of the Philippine Commonwealth government in exile in 1943 when President Manuel L. Quezon died.
Mayor Osmeña also described his grandfather’s legacy as an act that is hard to follow.
Like in previous years, Mayor Osmeña said he sees his grandfather as a grand young leader of Cebu, who was known to be the youngest named speaker in the first Congress of the Philippine National Assembly in 1907.
“When you called him as the grand old man, for me, he was a grand young man. And that I cannot forget,” he said.
Don Sergio was 29 when he was named as the highest-ranking Filipino official.
“Don Sergio was a master of parliamentary procedure. It is not who is the most popular or the most intelligent. It is about who can run the store. Siya ra ang (He is the only) pinaka-qualified,” Mayor Osmeña said.
Mariano Osmeña, son of the former Cebu governor Lito Osmeña, also spoke on behalf of the family.
Lito Osmeña is another grandson of Don Sergio.
Mariano cited the time when Don Sergio did not run as president when he formed a party and an alliance with Quezon’s party.
“He did not run because of unity and for the good of the Filipino, and it was the right thing to do,” he said.
Mariano also thanked the Cebuanos for honoring his great-grandfather.
The Osmeña family lay flowers to the marker of Don Sergio built in the same area where he used to live.