Family Search: A Cebu City Family Tree crosses to Carcar

The Duterte family of southern Cebu

There is little known of the patriarch, Bernardo Duterte, except that his wife was a Dominga Guzmán (presumably mestiza Sangley or india) and that their son, Francisco, was born 1798 in Cebu City (when it was still pretty much for Spaniards only). A copy still exists of a certification attesting to Francisco’s baptism in 1798, issued 1841 by the Cebu Cathedral that says the parents were Bernardo and Dominga.  Since Cebu records were lost during the last world war, this must be one of the oldest surviving family history document held by any family in Cebu.  Bernardo was my 5great-grandfather through my mother’s side (where he was the 1st, I am of the 8th generation).

We have no other record showing ancestors, siblings or other children of Bernardo.* There is, however, another Duterte family having coexisted parallel with ours, and they generally covered Northern Cebu, but since both families called each other primos (cousins), the entire Duterte clan must be really huge.

The link to both branches has been my Holy Grail and, like the dubious prospect of the legend, this, too, does not appear ordained for me to finally find. But the bet is this one’s not a legend, and I know down the line the Galahad of the family will unearth this link some day and complete the family history which has long been awaiting those first chapters. Ship manifests with a Duterte (or Dutertes) bound for the Philippines from either Spain or Mexico are good leads to look into, too. And from there, Spanish records for that peninsular Duterte’s lineage and ancestry.

Bernardo’s son, Francisco Duterte, married Romualda Fulgencia**, a mestiza Sangley in Cebu City (1821 per certification by Cebu Cathedral in 1862 ), and eventually settled in Naga.  Their 5 known children (4 girls, 1 boy) were all born in Cebu City though, but got married to either Naga or San Fernando natives. But once the family began to spread out, did they ever!

1. Venancia. The eldest got married to Guillermo Suárez.  Suarez may have been born either in San Nicolas or Cebu City (or Parian).  His pre-Claveria name (pCn) was José Guillermo so this circumstance ostensibly rules out his being Spanish-descended. The couple had 9 children. Guillermo was a cabeza in Naga and a capitán of San Fernando (see previous post Cabeza de barangay 4:  The cabeza was not the capitán).

Jose, presumed the eldest of Venancia, married twice but died relatively early. His eldest daughter, Maria Ponce Suárez, married Amando Villarosa here in Carcar and they raised their family here.  Their children included Genoveva (Mercado), Carmelita (Campugan), Trinidad “Trining”, Adolfo “Opong”, Saturnina (Aleonar), Eleuterio, Mariano “Itoy”, and Clara (Juario).

Vicente Suárez, María’s half-brother from the second wife (Braulia Ramas), married Amando’s sister Marcela and a grandson of theirs became a Philippine ambassador to China who unfortunately died in office there in 1993, Ambassador Pablo Rocha Suárez Jr.  The ambassador was himself also descended from the illustrious Rocha clan of Tagbilaran.

Justo was an hacendado in Naga. His daughters with wife Felipa Papas married a Librea, a Tolentino, and a Canónigo and their families soon ballooned to Galeos, Quirante, Guanzón, Escala, Casals, Suzara and Parungao. Meanwhile, son Pablo and wife Magdalena Tabada had no children.

Trinidad (b. 1839, pCn: Ma. de la Trinidad) got married to Valentín Najarro Rabor of Cebu City but this Rabor couple settled in San Fernando and their daughter married a Papas.

Francisco (b. 1841, pCn: Francisco Silverio) also chose San Fernando, but married Barbara Quiachón who was also from Naga. Their daughter Emiliana married Valentin’s (above) brother Evaristo Rabor and their son, Emiliano Rabor, in turn became a mayor of San Fernando during the American period. Francisco Suárez had also been a capitán of San Fernando.

Félix (b. 1843, pCn: Felix de los Santos) remained in Naga, married Catalina Pañares Bartido and their line—Suárez, Frías, Saysón, Mendiola, Chiong, Ong, Aliganga– has made an exclusive club of the mayorship of the town.  The incumbent, Valdemar Chiong, as well as every mayor of Naga in the 20th century, save for Cipriano Corro (5. Juliana) and maybe just one other, all came from Félix’s family. Felix himself was also a capitan of Naga.

Antolín Frías was an Agustinian friar well-known for his literary and historical works who married (presumed) Felix’s daughter Aleja and their family settled in Naga.  Was he on record in Cebu as the first religious who left the orders to marry? He was one of the priests chased all over Cebu by the revolucionarios.

Felipa (b. 1845, pCn: Felipa Duterte) married Ramón Cuico, a mestizo Sangley of Cebu City and they chose to live with the other Cuicos in Carcar. The Cuico-Fano family of General Luna st.  here are descendants of Epay and Don Amon.

Prudencia (b. 1847, pCn: Prudencia Josefa) married a North Duterte and well-known Cebu City personality, Escolástico R. Duterte, and they lived in Cebu City but Prudencia returned to San Fernando and died there.

Their three children Segunda (Roa), Filomeno and Filecula (Papas) lived in Cebu City and San Fernando. Many descendants now bear other surnames like Baricuatro, Cabigon, Damo, Deen, Jayme, Lumapas, Zabala among others. Among the best-known were USP stalwart Escolastico S. Duterte (whose first wife was a niece of José Rizal), the lawyer-writer Remedios Jayme-Fernandez and corporate lawyer Danny Deen.

Pablo (b. 1849, pCn: Pablo Jose) lived in San Fernando with first wife, Ciriaca Sasil and the second, Isabel Sabaiton. A grand-daughter married a Medalla of Panadtaran-Balud and the couple’s children studied at St. Catherine’s here, one of whom, Doris, married Alexis of the Dutertes of the North.

Ramona, the youngest, married Numeriano Gerasta (Cabeza de barangay 4:  The cabeza was not the capitán) whose family had also settled in San Fernando from Boljoon (or possibly Cáceres). Numeriano served some terms as San Fernando mayor.  Ramona turned out Gerasta, Gesto, Tapia, Yap, Villariasa, Rodís, Sormillón, Campos, Villasán, Paradela and Llanto descendants in San Fernando, Carcar, Tuburan and Surigao.  These new surnames have sprouted into still others, too.  A Ramona great-great-granddaughter, Sari Yap, founded the Mega fashion publications and is its President and CEO. She had served as the editor-in-chief of its maiden publication, the groundbreaking Mega Magazine.

Besides its Naga and San Fernando mayors and a number of lawyers, Venancia’s branch has also produced an Army lieutenant general (Gumersindo Yap, Carcar), an air force major general (Gilbert Llanto, San Fernando), and a number of colonels and navy captains in the Philippine armed forces and some priests, too.

2. Nicasia. Married a Naga native, Paulino Algar in 1854 in Naga.

Daughter Tranquilina married Pablo Rojas Veloso in 1874 in Naga and they started the Veloso branch of Naga. Their descendants now carry the surnames Fadullon, Reyes, Binghay, Villaflor, Camomot, YuTiamco and others.

Son Honorio tried his luck in Barili with his cousin Mariano Pañares (see 5. Juliana below). Married Teodora Paras (whose father’s sister, Juliana, would marry Pañares). Their daughter, Rosario married Isidro Abad and their descendants are now Abad, Aguilar, Holganza, Jimenez, Janeo and others. Rosario and Isidro’s grandson, Msgr. Rolando Jimenez, is the current Team Ministry moderator of Carcar and is the Vicar General for the South of the Cebu Archdiocese.

3. Leon. Born 1827 as mestizo Español with a baptismal certification issued by the Cebu Cathedral to prove it, in 1850 married Naga lass Modesta Lara (pCn: Modesta Ma.) , whose brother, Guillermo, later also married Leon’s sister Teresa (No. 4 below).

Isidro Duterte (1875-1961), Leon’s grandson, constructed the prototype Duterte Family tree .  Leon’s descendants, besides Duterte, now carry Cadungog, Alía, Caballero (of Carcar), Manugas, Arriba, Bautista and others. A great-great-grandson, Albert Arriba, is a noted designer and stylist in Cebu City.

4. Teresa. Had a daughter, Baldomera Duterte, in 1849  before marrying Guillermo Pañares Lara in 1855.  The Lara girls married Rosales, Navales, Alferez. A Navales daughter married Victor Coloyan and their daughter, Leah, married Manuel Abellana of Carcar, brother of Dr. Ramon and Martino.

Baldomera above had a daughter, Anselma, generally known to have been fathered by another Spanish priest, Emiliano Díez, known as a church builder in San Fernando and Sibonga.  Baldomera and Anselma were given (or built) a house right next to the San Fernando church compound.  The house still stands today, extremely well-kept by its present owners, the Tapia-Labitan family (see 1. Venancia-Ramona above).

Like Frías (1. Venancia-Felix above), Díez was also much sought-after by the revolucionarios.

5. Juliana. Married Alejandro Manguera Pañares (pCn: Alejandro Apolinario) of Naga in 1849. Juliana had the most children of her siblings—14.  Eldest son, Mariano (pCn: Mariano Alejandro), probably together with, if not ahead of, his cousin Honorio Algar (2. Nicasia above), sought and found his fortune in Barili in business alliance with the lawyer Pedro Cui. Married the most eligible woman there, Juliana Flores Paras, and their Pañares descendants of Barili still proudly carry on the couple’s legacy in that town, buttressed by one of the town’s oldest houses.

Juliana’s huge branch has also produced an Air Force major general in Marcel Agustin Pañares, himself a son of a colonel, as well as a legal luminary in Court of Appeals Justice Portia Aliño-Hormachuelos.  It had been hinted to me that incumbent Lahug, Cebu City barangay captain Mary Ann de los Santos also descends from Juliana and Alejandro but she would have to confirm that to me.

Other Dutertes. Names of the northern and other Dutertes appeared once in a while in Naga records. Examples are a Dionisia Duterte who was a baptismal madrina in 1839 and her daughter (presuming the same Dionisia) Filomena Duterte, also had her son Luis baptized in Naga in 1886. Luis’s younger sisters founded the USP. The story is that these children of Filomena had Florentino Rallos as their father.

Another Northern star, Ramon Duterte, also figured in Carcar records when he married Rosario Regis in Carcar. Their son, Ronald, became a vice mayor and mayor of Cebu City.  One of my biggest regrets is not meeting Ronnie Duterte and being able to compare Duterte notes with him.  I often wonder who keeps the records for the North Dutertes, although most of the known information for their’s appear in the Veloso family tree.

Anyway, I was also elated to discover that even my own grandmother, Dolores Aleonar, also seemed have the connection as her own grandmother’s name appeared in a Carcar church book as Placida Duterte, wife of Nicolas Rodecindo, and parents of her mother, Gaudiosa Rodecindo and the latter’s sisters Cristobalena and Nepomucena. Lola Senang had married Carcaranon Marcelino Ramos Tenchávez who served as a town councilor until the family migrated to Ozamis.  But I haven’t got a clue where to place Placida Duterte and her line in the Duterte family tree. I am aware though her line could be one of post-Claveria Dutertes and therefore not related by blood to the Spanish Dutertes whose surname stood out in the early Naga records. Only one other family in Naga already carried their surname before Claveria’s decree, and it’s Corro.

Carcar and the Duterte descendants. Carcaranons have come across many of the descendants of Bernardo and Francisco Duterte here in Carcar, living in the poblacion as Carcaranons themselves. These are the Villarosa-Mercado-Aleonar-Juario-Barcenilla-Cui-Alcudia clan (above), Cuico and Fano, Cesar Caballero and his twin sisters, the Aguilar-Rodís and the Tapia-Yap families, as well as the Tapias of Ocaña and the Dutertes of Perrelos.

Or as students from Naga, San Fernando and Barili–Aliganga, Bautista, Canónigo, Chiong, Coloyan, Corro, Galeos, Labitan, Lara, Lozada, Lumapas, Manugas, Medalla, Mendiola, Navales, Pañares, Papas, Paradela, Parungao, Rabor, Sormillón, Veloso-Camomot, Villasan, etc.–coming over to study at our prestigious St. Catherine’s and Carcar Academy, one of whom, Monsignor Lando from Barili, did come back triumphantly to be our very own parish priest (Team Ministry moderator; and he was not even aware of this heritage until I told him).

The peace of the Lord be always with us.

——-

* The general outline of Bernardo and Francisco Duterte’s descendants are based on Isidro Duterte’s pioneering effort. The grand old man of San Fernando died 1961.  Providentially, I was given two photocopies of his family tree only around 1991 at about the same time by both Gloria Gerasta-Lozada and Aida Tolentino-Malaza.  Isidro’s had 458 individuals (many of which had only nicknames); our present count is 2,963.  (See a 5-generation Bernardo Duterte family tree reconstruction at the experimental myfamilies (Vip’s Families) blog).

** the marriage certification for Francisco and Romualda reveals that Romualda was the daughter of Ygnacio de la Cruz and Petrona Fulgencia–obvious pre-Claveria names.  An interesting information also in the record is that Romualda was a “mestiza de Sanglay de esta ciudad”. We now know that the Sangley mestizos did not reside in the city but in nearby Parian, but although the marriage was 1821, the requested certification was issued only in 1862—when Parian was already a part of the city. The certification was signed by Don Anselmo Abanceña, interim parish priest of the Cathedral.  Subsequent records of the family just name Romualda as Romualda Fulgencia and it is another family mystery and quest what surname her family became after Claveria. We’d be only too happy to find them. That family is our blood, too.