Is Corrales an avenue?

A. Paulita Roa

SINCE the 1950s, Corrales Avenue stands out among all the streets in Cagayan de Oro because it is the only one that is called an “Avenue.”  All other long streets in the city though equally deserving to be classified as an Avenue have never been called as such. This thoroughfare starts in Barangay Nazareth and ends in Barangay Puntod.  Xavier University – Ateneo de Cagayan, Capitol University, Centrio Mall,Gaisano City Mall, the Corrales Elementary School, banks, offices, radio stations, restaurants, bars, gasoline depots and even the Provincial Jail are all located in Corrales Avenue. Many in the city know where Corrales Avenue is but present day Kagay-anons do not know the person to whom this thoroughfare is named.

Manuel Corrales y Roa was described as “El prestigioso vecino de Cagayan” or the most worthy citizen of Cagayan. He was considered a brilliant man and very knowledgeable in arts, social sciences and medicine, even if he was not a physician. During the last decade of Spanish colonial rule in the Philippines, Corrales distinguished himself by participating in military campaigns against Moro piracy in the coastal areas of the province. When the Spanish officials grew paranoid over the rapidly increasing anti-Spanish activities of the Filipinos they would not hesitate to execute anyone suspected of being a revolutionist. The Filipino soldiers of Regiment 72 were all suspected to be revolutionists so there was this plan to drown them at sea or execute them in Iligan. However, this plan leaked out and the men became restive. They all went out of their barracks, ready to fight in case they be shipped to Iligan. It was Corrales that helped quell what could have been a bloody uprising in Cagayan de Misamis when he negotiated with the Spaniards to pardon all the men of Regiment 72.

In December 1898 when the Spanish colonial rule in this country ended, the Kagay-anons and the rest of the people in Misamis Province, politically aligned themselves with the Aguinaldo revolutionary government and elected their local officials. Corrales was then elected as the Counselor for Peace and Internal Order in the Provincial Council. Before the American invasion in 1900, there were several American warships that dropped anchor in Macabalan and Corrales was sent to talk to the officials on board in behalf of the provincial government. However, he could not prevent what was inevitable–that the Americans were coming to Cagayan and the rest of Mindanao to fulfill what was agreed upon in the 1898 Treaty of Paris when Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States.

Corrales stayed in town all throughout the yearlong resistance war (1900 – 1901) that his people waged against the Americans. But he was among those who was acknowledged to have financially supported and gave other forms of assistance to the Liber Troop under Gen. Nicolas Capistrano. In 1901, Gen. William Kobbe, commanding officer of the US forces requested Corrales to give Capistrano a letter where a five day truce was offered so that a peace conference be held on any place of his choice. Capistrano agreed and chose the Gevero residence in Gusa as the place where he will meet with the Americans. It was Corrales that discussed with Capistrano the terms of the peace negotiations on the eve of this historic meet and the former was part of this historic peace talk.

After the end of the Philippine – American War in Misamis Province in 1901, Corrales was appointed by the Taft Commission as Governor of the Misamis Province. It was during his term, that the rotund Governor General William Howard Taft visited Cagayan. Taft later became the 27th President of the United States. (to be continued)