Is Corrales an avenue? (2)

A. Paulita Roa

THE present generation of Kagay-anons hardly know who the local patriots and personages that are honored by the city by naming streets after them. When I asked students if they know Toribio Chaves or Tirso Neri, their quick and predictable reply is that its a “dalan” or street. But pity Manuel Roa Corrales for he is just a “dalan” because this thoroughfare is known only as Corrales Avenue not Manuel Corrales Avenue.

It was the Taft Commission that appointed Corrales as the Governor of Misamis Province in 1901. Later, Gov. Gen. William Howard Taft came to visit Cagayan de Misamis and was accorded a grand welcome by Corrales. In 1904, Taft selected him to be one of the Philippine Honorary Commissioners that will go  on a tour of the United States. This select group was composed by prominent men of letters, politics, art, science and the judiciary like Cayetano Arellano and Epifanio de los Santos.They came mostly from Luzon and the Visayas while Corrales was the only one that represented Mindanao.

The Commissioners were invited to the United States so that they can see first hand the country of their new colonial rulers. Their first stop was Washington D.C. where they visited President Theodore Roosevelt at the White House. They then went to St. Louis, Missouri to attend the ceremonial opening of the vast exhibit of the Philippines at the 1904 World’s Fair. A thousand Filipinos from several ethnic groups notably from the Mountain Province were presented as living objects of curiosity and derision as they performed their dances and other cultural practices while garbed in their traditional wear like the G-strings. This shocked the American fair goers and it created a very prejudiced and negative view of the Filipinos that was to last for many decades. From St. Louis, Corrales and his group went to other big cities in America in the company of two high officials. They were always accorded with special welcome and social courtesies. The total budget for this 1904 tour was P75,000–a huge sum of money then.

In 1907, he and his cousin, Carlos Corrales of Camiguin were elected to represent Misamis Province to the First Philippine Assembly, the forerunner of today’s Philippine Congress. Both were addressed to as Assemblymen or Diputados. Taft by this time came to the inauguration as the special representative of the President of the United States. Corrales only served one term but he remained a highly respected individual whose opinions on important matters regarding political governance, law, security, history, science and medicine was highly sought by the local government officials and citizens. Old relatives remembered that he was addressed by many as Senyor Tatoy.

He was a crocodile hunter who shot all the remaining crocodiles in Cagayan River. He was also known for his compassion to the poor especially to the lumads. He built a small house for them in his estate in Cagayan so they had a place to stay when they came to town and sell their produce. Before they would be seen sleeping in the streets. He sent many young lumads to school while employed others to work in his household. It is said that more than 20 years after his death, when World War II broke out, his children and their families left Cagayan and sought refuge in the mountains of Bukidnon.They were well cared for by the lumads upon hearing that they were the children of their benefactor, Senyor Tatoy.

So Corrales is not just an Avenue. It should be renamed Manuel Corrales Avenue to honor this Kagay-anon who has served his country well in times of war and of peace.