If you are familiar with the intersecting roads of Barrio Obrero, chances are you’ve heard of Cervantes Street, an access road that starts from Loyola Street, at the back of the University of Southeastern Philippines, and ends at Lapulapu Street, in Agdao District. The road, which is perpendicular to Carmelo Porras and Nicasio Torres streets, is named after Carlos Cervantes.
There are only few available literatures on Carlos. Aside from being the father of Cenon, a former Philippine National Bank (PNB) manager, he was also the grandfather of the late anti-Marcos movie director Benjamin ‘Behn’ Cervantes. Behn was known for his unforgettable films such as the controversial Sakada (1976), Memories of Old Manila (1993), and Alas-dose (2001).
The origin of Cervantes as street name is unclear but it could have come about due to his verifiable contribution to the community, as owner of the property where the street is located, marriage to someone in the area with high social status, or as a pioneer in certain endeavor.
In jurisprudence, Carlos is mentioned in a Supreme Court decision dated June 30, 1941 in case G.R. No. L-47342 where his administrator contested the loan document titled Cesion de Derechos en una Venta con Pacto de Retro after his death on September 7, 1933. He lost the case to Ramon Echevarria to whom the property was mortgaged.
Carlos was married Carlota de los Santos and had 16 children. Two of his sons were Cenon and Tiburcio, a four-time (1948-51) postwar Davao City councilor. His forebears were originally from Luzon but migrated to Cateel first and later moved to Caraga, in Davao Oriental, where they settled before moving to the old town of Davao and acquiring lands in the process.
Cenon, credited for saving the vital documents of PNB during the Japanese occupation, married Rosario Elizabeth Holcombe of Zamboanga, with whom he had eleven children. A Mason, he started working as a lowly employee of PNB in Davao City in 1918 but was promoted to bank manager in Dagupan City before the war.
After World War II, he was appointed by Manuel A. Roxas as chairman and general manager of the National Abaca and Other Fibers Corporation and later, at the instance of President Elpidio Quirino, tapped as technical assistant to the PNB President. Following his public service stints, he moved to New York to accept the offer to manage a sugar-sales operation (1952-58).
Upon his return to the country, he became manager of sugar centrals and became comptroller-treasurer of Trans-Philippines Investment Corp. He was very active in socio-civic engagements and once served as president of Central Philippines University (CPU) in Iloilo and chairman of Central Iloilo Mission Hospital. He died on December 1, 1978, at age 75.
Like his brother, Tiburcio, the politico in the family, was also an active Mason; he was a Senior Warden of the Davao Masonic Lodge No. 149. A lawyer by profession, he was one of the sportsmen credited for introducing Davao basketball Olympians like Francisco Rabat and Loreto Carbonnel to the Manila collegiate leagues in Manila, a legacy that was later recognized.
Tiburcio also figured in the land dispute involving his father’s land. On June 18, 1937, as family envoy, he sent a letter to Echevarria expressing intention “to pay you the P3,000 due you under the contract executed on October 3, 1931, between you and [my father]” and “to prepare the necessary papers for the transfer of the property in favor of the heirs of said Carlos Cervantes.” His remains are interred at the Davao American Veterans and Masonic Cemetery.
But the most popular and high-profile Cervantes scion was the late Benjamin Roberto Cervantes, son of Cenon, who was thrice incarcerated during the Marcos dictatorship, namely Camp Crame (1975), Bicutan (1977), and Fort Bonifacio (1985). Known as an activist and stage actor, Behn, as he was fondly known, was one of the country’s best film directors.
Born on August 26, 1938, in Cabanatuan City, Behn, who came from a middle-class family, finished Bachelor of Arts in Speech and Drama (1962) from the University of the Philippines-Diliman, and later completed Master of Fine Arts: Drama and Theatre (1967) from the University of Hawaii.
For over two decades, he taught at UP while serving in concurrent capacity as artist-in-residence in UP (1974-76) and the University of Hawaii (1991). A passionate lover of the theater, he founded the UP Repertory Company and was a founding member of the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) and the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Filipino.
In recognition of his contributions to drama and theater, Behn was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the UP Alumni Association (UPAA), an Aliw Award for Life Achievement in Theater, Cultural Center of the Philippines’ (CCP) Centennial Award, Palanca Award (1997), and Gawad Urian (1976 and 2012).
Best remembered for his theater plays, Pagsamabang Bayan and Sigaw ng Bayan, Behn also acted in over 200 productions (plays, musicals, operettas, revues, cantatas, and street theatre) directed over 120 plays, operas, musicals, cantatas, and street plays, appeared in over a dozen featured roles in films (Filipino and French), wrote national columns, and was cited as one of the five outstanding Filipino stage directors of the last 50 years.
Immortalized in the iconic Bantayog ng mga Bayani monument for his contribution in the fight against the dictatorship, he died on August 13, 2014, at age 75 due to pneumonia and diabetes.
