'A Chinese Life in Late Spanish Era

University of San Carlos Publications
A Chinese Life in Late Spanish Era Cebu CityAuthor(s): Michael Cullinane

Source: Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society , Vol. 43, No. 3/4 (2015), pp. 258-321
Published by: University of San Carlos Publications
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/26476477
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258 Philippine Quarterly of Culture & Society, Vol. 43 (2015)
Philippine Quarterly of Culture & Society
Vol. 43, 3 & 4 (2015): 258-321
©2015, University of San Carlos Press
A Chinese Life in Late Spanish

Era Cebu City: Nicasio Veloso
Chiong Tuico, 1838-1903
Michael Cullinane
ABSTRACT
This essay attempts to reconstruct the life of one of Cebu City’s most
prominent Chinese residents, Nicasio Veloso Chiong Tuico (1838-
1903), who lived during the last four decades of the 19th century. The
emphasis of the study is on his many commercial activities and on the
critical role his large family played in the final years of Spanish rule and
in the beginning of the 20th century. Among other things, the essay hopes
to serve as a model of a well-documented biographical account of a
significant figure in the city’s history, while at the same time highlighting
the urban area’s considerable transformation during this period.
Keywords: Chinese, Cebu City, Late Nineteenth century, Family history,

Commerce, Property ownership, Moneylending, Pacto de Retroventa, Gremio de
hinos, Opium monopoly
The author is Associate Director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the University
of Wisconsin-Madison and a Faculty Associate in the Department of History. He may be
reached at mmculline@wisc.edu

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A Chinese Life in Late Spanish Era Cebu City 259
INTRODUCTION
Although Cebu City is home to a large and influential Chinese community,
significant Chinese settlement did not begin in this part of the archipelago until
the 1860s. Before the opening of Cebu as an international port (1860), there were
only a handful of Chinese residents in the city or province. Since 1773, when some
55 Chinese (Chinos Infieles) were expelled by the Spanish government, Cebu’s
economic life was dominated by a large community of Chinese Mestizos, nearly all
of whom resided in the Parian until the early 1850s. Few, if any, of these Chinese
Mestizos had any contact with Chinese or China for over 70 years. By the time Cebu
City began its major transformation as an economic center, these Chinese Mestizos
had become Filipinos, with many of the wealthiest emerging as powerful figures in
urban and provincial landownership, in commerce, in local government, and in the
secular clergy (Cullinane 2013). Between 1850 and 1890, the Chinese population in
Cebu City rose from less than 50 to over 1,300. These Chinese arrived in Cebu at a
time of considerable economic growth and social change and, within a half-century,
many had established themselves permanently in this part of the Philippines. This
essay will attempt to tell the story of one of these Chinese pioneers in Cebu.
During the 40-year period from 1863 to 1903, Nicasio Veloso Chiong Tuico
was involved in over 330 transactions documented in the notarial records of Cebu
Province, making him one of the most active businessmen and property owners in
Cebu City during the last four decades of Spanish rule.1 This essay is intended to
explore several aspects of his life during this period in an effort to offer an in-depth
study of one of Cebu’s most prominent late-19th-century Chinese residents. In many
ways he was similar to most of the other Chinese who settled in Cebu City during
this period of Spanish rule, and in other ways he was unique, establishing with his
family a remarkable place in the urban society by the end of the 19th century.
What this essay lacks and what is its most regrettable silence is the voice of
Chiong Tuico. Despite the copious colonial records that document his commercial
and official life in Cebu City, there is nothing by him, nothing autobiographical.
Although glimpses of his personal life emerge from newspaper accounts and
reminiscences of family members of later generations, he remains---in a story about
him---a largely invisible subject. If only he had written a memoir; if only one of
his eleven children had written a “life with father” manuscript; if only Genoveva
Rosales, his Filipina widow of eight days, had had the time to record the memories
of her forty-year life with her Chinese husband. Without sources like these, this essay
must concentrate on, certainly until the 1890s, archival records that reduce him to
a series of business transactions, to segments of a complex life reflected largely in
bureaucratic records. There is, of course, much to be learned from these records, but

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it is critical to realize that these sources undoubtedly omit many significant events
and fail to provide any insight into his emotional or intellectual response to the place
he made his home. That said, these records make it possible to reconstruct and to
analyze the life of one of Cebu’s most intriguing Chinos Cristianos.
In this essay, the diverse entrepreneurial activities of Nicasio Veloso
Chiong Tuico will be discussed and analyzed under the three major occupational
designations (oficios) applied to him during his lifetime: comerciante (merchant),
propietario (property owner), and contratista (government contractor). The family’s
considerable wealth was obtained through these endeavors, each of which involved
numerous transactions and interactions with diverse members of the larger society,
as well as with the official representatives of the Spanish colonial government.
While pursuing his economic interests and serving as the head of his family, Nicasio
also operated within three overlapping social and institutional jurisdictions: he was
a leading member of his ethnic community, principal of the Gremio de Chinos;
a prominent resident of the city’s transformed urban society, as ciudadano; and a
member of the city’s Catholic parish, as feligrés. All these activities and interactions
were carried out within a highly visible and influential family, making it important
for this essay to conclude with a discussion of his familia, as its members moved
out of the Spanish era and into the early years of the 20th century. The essay has
no other objective than to construct the life of this remarkable Chinese man and his
prominent Filipino family during more than a half century. There is much in this
story that contributes to a better understanding of Chinese settlers, and there is much
that moves the focus away from the Chinese to the emerging urban society of Cebu
City at the end of one century and the beginning of another.
Chino Don Nicasio Veloso Chiong Tuico, 1838-1903
Chino Cristiano, Vecino de la Ciudad de Cebú

In his earliest recorded notarial transactions in 1863, he was referred to in the
standard colonial-era format as Chino Cristiano Nicasio Veloso Chiong Tuico, vecino
de esta ciudad, indicating that prior to this time he had been baptized as a Christian
and that he was an official resident of Cebu City. Consistent with records of this
period, his Chinese surname was identified as “Chiong” and his Christian surname
given as “Veloso.” He took or was assigned the baptismal name of “Nicasio” and
used the Hispanized Chinese second name “Tuico.” In all official records, therefore,
he was referred to as Nicasio Veloso Chiong Tuico. Later sources confirmed that

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his baptism had taken place in Cebu City and that his Christian surname derived
from his baptismal sponsor, Gavino Veloso del Rosario (1825-1881), a Chinese
Mestizo and the wealthiest and most powerful individual operating in Cebu City in
the 1860s.2
What made Nicasio Veloso Chiong Tuico unique among the large majority of
Chinese in Cebu during the late 19th century was his partnership with Genoveva
(Bibang) Rosales, described in the records as a Chinese Mestiza and native of Cebu
City. The earliest references to Nicasio in the notarial records were directly related
to Genoveva, the mother of their eleven children (see Appendix A on the members
of the family).3 On June 13, 1863, Nicasio notarized two transactions before the
Juzgado de Cebú: 1) the purchase of a wooden house with tile roofing (“casa de
tabla y teja”) on Calle de Butuan (today Manalili) from Leonora de la Visitacion y
Rosales; and 2) the donation of this house to Genoveva Rosales and her daughter,
Eleuteria Rosales. These, the first official acts in the local records attributed to him,
documented the purchase and donation of a substantial house in the Suba district
of Cebu City to his future wife, Genoveva, and his eldest daughter, Eleuteria, born
less than two months before this transaction.4 Thirty-nine years later, in 1902, before
the Court of First Instance in Cebu City, Don Nicasio Veloso Chiong Tuico and his
then long-time wife, Doña Genoveva Rosales, formally acknowledged their “hija
natural,” Eleuteria, who at the time was married to the prominent attorney, Segundo
Singson. Only a year before their deaths, the aging couple officially recognized
that Eleuteria was born of their “relaciones amorosas” prior to their marriage.5 By
the birth of their second child and eldest son, Potenciano, in 1866, the couple was
officially designated as married.6
As was common in most Spanish bureaucratic records pertaining to the
birthplace of Chinese, Nicasio was reported to be a native of “Emuy” (Amoy or
Xiamen) in the southern Chinese province of Fujian (Minnan). Later, somewhat
more precise records suggest that he was born in September 1838 in the district
of “Tangoa” (Tong’an) of Fujian Province, on the mainland, north of Xiamen.7
As such, like most Chinese in the Philippines, he was a Hokkien speaker. Family
histories do not record the date of his migration to the Philippines or whether he
passed through Manila on his way to Cebu. If his age has been reported correctly,
he was 25 years old when he began his life with Genoveva Rosales in Cebu City.
Existing records and family accounts are also silent on whether he made any return
trips to China between 1863 and 1903, the year he died in Cebu City, only eight days
before the death of Genoveva.8 It is more likely that he spent his entire adult life
in the Philippines, mostly in Cebu City, where he does not appear to have had any
Chinese kinsmen, despite the number of Chinese in Cebu with the surname Chiong.9

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Nicasio’s baptismal surname--Veloso--has caused some confusion, since

his wealth and prominence frequently resulted in his association with the long-
established Veloso family that can be traced back to Cebu City’s Parian in the mid-
18th century. Though he was consistently identified in Spanish notarial records as
“Chino Cristiano,” he was periodically identified within transactions as “Nicasio
Veloso” and often signed as “Nicasio Veloso C.T.,” placing an emphasis on the
Veloso surname.10 In the late 1890s and early 1900s, the association with the Veloso
family became more frequent and, perhaps, more problematic. For example, as late
as 1903, Nicasio’s wife was formally designated as Genoveva Rosales de Veloso,
while even before this time, the couple’s active children were emerging in public
records with the surname “Chiong Veloso,” later written as “Ch. Veloso,” with
the “Chiong” as a marker to distinguish Nicasio’s family from that of the various
branches of the Veloso family.11
The surname “Chiong Veloso” was not applied to Nicasio himself during
his lifetime. “Chiong Veloso” was, however, increasingly used to identify his
children in the late 1890s and consistently in the 20th century. Before the surname
stabilized to “Chiong Veloso,” there were several variants among Nicasio’s sons
and daughters. At his marriage in Barili in 1886, Nicasio’s eldest son was listed in
the registers as “Potenciano Chiong,” having been assigned his father’s Chinese
surname. Throughout the 1880s, Potenciano retained the surname “Chiong” and
was not designated as a “Chiong Veloso” until after his death in 1903.12 Nicasio’s
second son entered the Seminario-Colegio de San Carlos in 1890 as “Januario
Veloso” but, over the next six years as a student in Cebu and at San Juan de Letrán
in Manila, his surname fluctuated from “Veloso” to “Chiong y Rosales,” even
to “Chiong y Veloso.” He was not consistently referred to as “Januario Chiong
Veloso” until 1901.13 In public records, the surname of their eldest child, Eleuteria,
moved from “Chiong” (1889) to “Rosales” (early 1891) to “Veloso” (late 1891)
and, finally, to “Chiong Veloso” (in 1896). Likewise, when Nicasio’s unmarried
daughters (Cayetana, Tomasa, and Hermenegilda) began to enter the records in the
early 1890s, they were often referred to as “las Señoritas de Chiong” (El Boletin de
Cebú, 4/28/1891), but individually they were identified variously: “Tomasa Chiong
y Rosales” (1891), “Cayetana and Hermenegilda Veloso” (1895), “Hermenegilda
Chiong y Rosales” (1896), “Cayetana Rosales” (1896), and “Hermenegilda V.
Rosales” (1897). Nevertheless, in the notarial records from 1897 and after, the
“Chiong Veloso” surname was used consistently in the official transactions of each
of the daughters.14 By 1902 and 1903, the local press in Cebu adopted the use of
“Chiong Veloso” in their many reports on the family’s activities, especially after the
deaths of Nicasio and Genoveva in October 1903.15

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In addition, Nicasio Veloso Chiong Tuico was also recognized in some sources
by his more familiar or personal name, “Tuya,” a name used by his family and
friends, and by later chroniclers of his life.16 It is likely that “Tuya” was related to
his second, more familiar, Chinese given name, “Tuico/Tuyco,” but this connection
has not been confirmed.
Comerciante
Throughout his life, Nicasio Veloso Chiong Tuico was routinely designated
as a comerciante or as vecino y del comercio de la Ciudad de Cebú. It was not,
however, until the late 1860s that his commercial activities began to surface in
notarial transactions. His first recorded purchase in 1863 of the house on Calle de
Butuan for 700 pesos, a substantial amount, suggests that he was already a somewhat
successful businessman. Though the existing records do not delineate his earliest
entrepreneurial ventures, it is evident that by the late 1860s and early 1870s he was
already deeply involved in the rapid commercial transformation of Cebu City since
its official opening at the start of the decade. He was already engaged in business
with many of the city’s most active merchants at that time. As early as 1868, Nicasio
also established legal representation in Manila, securing one of the procuradores
(solicitors) of the Real Audiencia as his apoderado general.17
Until 1868, his only apparent property was the house on Calle de Butuan, where
he lived with his growing family. In 1868, he began to acquire lots and buildings
in the Zamboanguillo part of Lutaos, the rapidly developing commercial district
of Cebu City just south of what became the Plaza de Amadeo I (later the Plaza de
General Loño, then Plaza Rizal and today’s Plaza Sugbu) on the coastal strand in
close proximity to the Convento de Santo Niño.18 Perhaps the most important of his
earliest acquisitions was in 1870, when he purchased a large house (of masonry, de
cal y canto) and lot beside property he had already acquired along Calle de 1520
(Calle de Lutaos; later Calle de Escolta), paralleling the shoreline.19 This house
was purchased from the heirs of Maximo Veloso del Rosario (the uncle of Gavino
Veloso) and, along with its contiguous property, became the center of Nicasio’s
primary business operations for the next three decades.
As his commercial activities grew, Nicasio and Genoveva sold their original
family house in Suba (Calle de Butuan) in 1873 and the family moved to a larger
and more permanent house at the northern edge of the commercial enclave of
Zamboanguillo, adjacent to the Plaza de Amadeo I at the rear of the Iglesia de Santo
Niño. This house, located near the intersection of Calle de Alfonso XIII (previously
Calle de Maria Victoria, and today D. Jakosalem Street) and the terminus of Calle

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de Alcarazo, became the primary residence of the family during the remainder of the
19th century; it was later assigned the address No. 37 Calle de Alfonso XIII and was
the house where their children were raised and grew to adulthood.20
Nicasio’s commercial interests were broad and varied. Until the 1880s, he
concentrated on both imports (initially rice and later corn and tobacco) and exports
(initially sugar and later abacá), with a particular focus on the warehousing of
the former for local distribution and of the latter for sale to British and American
commercial houses. At no point in his long career did he invest in interisland vessels,
preferring to depend on consignments with Chinese rice importers, contracts (often
based on loans) with sugar and abacá producers, and commercial arrangements with
foreign export agents.21 In the early 1870s, he expanded into shopkeeping, acquiring
and establishing tiendas, especially in the Lutaos-Zamboanguillo district and often
in the lower levels (bajos) of houses he had acquired, mostly in the city’s commercial
and retail districts.22 As store owner and operator, his business interests diversified
into quincalla (hardware and related products, including construction materials) and
local and imported commodities (including rice, corn, European luxury items, and
local necessities and essentials). His tiendas also served as sites of acquisition of
local commodities and manufactured goods, both for re-sale and for dissemination
to other locations within Cebu’s extensive commercial zone.
Nicasio first appeared in the Guía Oficial in 1891, when he was described as
one of 16 notable “comerciantes chinos” operating in Cebu City; at the time the
location of his business was confirmed as Calle de Lutaos. Likewise, in the existing
documents for Cebu City’s Contribución Industrial (1891-1897), Nicasio was listed
as one of the city’s most active Chinese businessmen, with his primary headquarters
in 1897 reported to be at No. 2 Calle de Escolta, placing his complex of warehouses
and stores at the entrance to the city’s commercial district.23 In the 1890s, he was
classified as an “especulador,” a speculator or business operator, engaged in buying
and selling “efectos y productos del país” and “generos de Europa,” including
yarn and fabrics of all kinds (hilados y tejidos de todas clases) sold as pieces or as
garments, a variety of hats (sombreros), and a range of hardware items (quincalla).24
The annual registers of Chinese in Cebu (Padrones de Chinos), especially
for 1893 and 1897, confirmed Nicasio’s role as a major Chinese merchant of Cebu
City. In 1893, perhaps the height of Chinese commercial activity in Cebu during
the Spanish era, Nicasio employed thirteen Chinese dependientes at his business
headquarters on Calle de Escolta. At the time, there were 15 other Chinese merchants
with 13 or more Chinese employees.25 Four years later in 1897, after the outbreak
of rebellion in Luzon, the Chinese population of Cebu had declined, resulting in a

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smaller number of major entrepreneurs. At this time, Nicasio was among the top
six Chinese merchants in terms of his employees, with 21 dependientes, all but one
located at his Cebu City headquarters on Calle de Escolta (with the other residing in
the municipality of San Fernando).26
His camarines (warehouses) and stores (tiendas) in the Lutaos-Zamboanguillo
district, along Calle de Escolta, were always at the center of his business ventures.
Significantly, this commercial complex was only a short distance from the family’s
residence on Calle de Alfonso XIII. The most complete description of his business
holdings was given in 1897, when he was reported to own and operate, in addition to
his commercial headquarters at No. 2 Calle de Escolta, six other stores (almacenes
and tiendas) and storage facilities (camarines, bodegas, or depósitos) within the
commercial and retail districts of the city, including those located in their residence
on Calle de Alfonso XIII (no. 37), on the Plaza de Recoletos (No. 27), on Maria
Cristina (No. 14) (later P. Burgos), on Nao Victoria (later F. Gonzalez), and two
others in the interior between Calle de Escolta and Calle de Alcarazo.27
An important indicator of Nicasio Veloso Chiong Tuico’s success as a merchant
was the consistently high tax status assigned to him from the mid-1880s to the end of
Spanish rule. In 1885-1886, when the colonial government instituted the progressive
tax system known as the Cédula Personal, all potential tax payers were organized
into brackets (clases, from 9th, the lowest; to 1st, the highest) that reflected their net
wealth, based on property holdings, commercial activities and, if relevant, industrial
enterprises, rather than on race or ethnicity as under the earlier tribute system.
Individuals at the highest echelons of these tax brackets were generally directly
enrolled (empadronados) in regional branches of the Administración de Hacienda
Pública, rather than within the traditional tax-collecting jurisdictions: municipalities
and gremios. When the Cédula Personal was instituted, Nicasio’s initial tax brackets
were given as 4th class (1885) and 3rd class (1886-1887).28 Starting in March 1887
and continuing to 1897, Nicasio was consistently reported in the top tax bracket
(primera clase) and was regularly enrolled through Cebu City’s Hacienda Pública.
During this same period (1885-1898), only seven other Chinese merchants were
assessed at the first class tax level.29
These existing records undoubtedly fall short of characterizing the full extent of
Nicasio’s business ventures, but suggest the size and diversity of his entrepreneurial
activities.30 Although Nicasio’s business interests remained diverse, by the early
1890s his success was increasingly based on his considerable ability to store large
quantities of commercial products in his major warehouses along Calle de Escolta
and to operate a number of outlets (tiendas) both in Lutaos and in the emerging

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retail district, especially along Calle de Alfonso XIII (D. Jakosalem) and Calle de
Maria Cristina (P. Burgos) between Calle de Magallanes and Calle de Legazpi. By
the 1890s, he appears to have been less active in acquiring sugar and abacá for
export, concentrating his business on the buying and selling of local products and
major imported items arriving in Cebu City.31 He acquired rice on consignment
from a variety of dealers and corn from local producers and commercial agents in
the province; these commodities were also stored in his warehouses and distributed
through his tiendas in and out of the city. From a wide range of importers, he acquired
an array of products from abroad, especially from Europe, and distributed them
through a network of stores and shops he owned throughout the city. Though he was
recorded to have maintained stores in at least four of Cebu’s municipalities (Carcar,
San Fernando, Barili, and Sogod) in the 1880s and 1890s, his main commercial
activities were concentrated in Cebu City’s retail district.32
Nicasio’s success in a wide range of negocios can be observed in the continuous
growth of his businesses and the considerable expansion of his urban property.
There is little indication in his 40 years of commercial activity that he accumulated
any personal debts, while his success was in part based on debts others had to him.
Significantly, there are no recorded instances of him borrowing money from anyone
during his lifetime. Moneylending, both in terms of direct loans (in pesos) and in
various pacto de retroventa arrangements (sales with the option to re-purchase) were
an important part of his entrepreneurial strategies. Both these forms of business
(moneylending and pacto de retroventa) produced profit (through interest) and
resulted in the expansion of his private property, which in turn could be converted
into commercial real estate (as tiendas, warehouses, and rental property) or resold
as improved property at a price higher than that of the purchase. The importance of
these two commercial endeavors is exemplified in Tables 2 and 3 below. Table 1, on
the recorded moneylending transactions of Nicasio, makes it clear that he engaged
in a wide range of loans, both with Chinese and non-Chinese borrowers, with many
of these resulting in the acquisition of significant property.

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Table 1: Moneylending Transactions, 1868-190333

Year Amount of Loan Borrower Resolution
With non-Chinese
1868 3,951 Martin Meneses took casa: Lutaos
1874 1,800 Antonio Roa took land: Borbon
1876 2,000 Pascual Antonio repaid in sugar
1876 500 Santiago Causing repaid in sugar
1876 846 Mariano Espina took land: Compostela
1876 1,000 Pascual Veloso court settlement
1876 500 Andres Villamor took land: Tinago
1879 58 Pedro de la Victoria took land: Pardo
1880 385 Narciso Gorre took land: Danao
1883 1,000 Leoncio Alburo took camarin: S Roque
1883 1,999 Josefa Climaco took casa: Lutaos
1883 2,878 Luis Ortiz repaid in sugar
1883 500 Macaria Rabor repaid
1884 400 Natividad Alo repaid
1886 3,500 Luisa Rafols repaid
1887 1,600 Luis Fernandez took camarin: Talisay
1887 700 Vicente Franco repaid
1890 400 Pascuala Cala repaid
1891 859 Escolastico Abadia took land: San Nicolas
With Chinese
1876 545 J Lao Congjua repaid
1882 1,739 Tan Tangco repaid
1886 800 JM Tan Chingin, etc took fábrica: Tejero
1887 2,400 JM Tan Chingin, etc took fábrica: Tejero
1887 2,500 Sy Chiengco, et al repaid in abacá
1887 645 Tan Goco repaid
1887 2,400 RF Tieng Yap Sieng, etc repayment agreement
1887 1,000 DT Tin Quienjan undocumented
1887 302 YV Yap Uyco repayment agreement
1889 5,000 AM Lao Yangco undocumented
1889 2,122 F Go Tongco repaid in abacá
1889 1,000 Sy Buaco, Tan Tuanco undocumented

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1890 1,047 FA Diao Ypco repaid

1891 1,623 J Chiong Quiengco took property: Danao
1895 2,905 Sy Guangco repaid in commodities
1896 2,000 PB Yap Pangco repaid in will
1900 2,000 Go Quingco repaid in will
1905 10,200 Tan Cuanco litigated in will
One of the best examples of how Nicasio’s moneylending activities resulted in

both the expansion of his urban property and the diversification of his commercial
operations was his acquisition in the late 1880s of a large factory in Tejero for the
production of nipa wine (fábrica de aguardiente). At this time, Nicasio extended a
series of loans (amounting to approximately 6,000 pesos at 15% annual interest) to
three Chinese entrepreneurs engaged in the manufacture of nipa wine on the city’s
outskirts (Tejero) and in the distribution of the product through two retail stores
located in Lutaos. To guarantee repayment, these men mortgaged all their property
to Nicasio. By 1887 one of the business partners died and the other two declared
bankruptcy, at which time Nicasio acquired their entire business, including their
still (alambique) and equipment located in Tejero (across the street from the newly
erected Cárcel Pública, now Museo Sugbo), an outlet (almacén) in Lutaos (under the
azotea of the house of Valeriano Climaco), and a sundry store (tienda de chucherias)
in Lutaos (in the lower part of the house of Buenaventura Veloso).34 By the early
1890s, Nicasio was reported as the owner and operator of one of only two alcohol
manufacturing businesses in Cebu City at the time (Guía Oficial 1891).
In addition to the direct loan transactions outlined in Table 1, Nicasio engaged
in a wide range of pacto de retroventa arrangements, which functioned similarly
to moneylending, but focused more directly on property. Table 2 summarizes
Nicasio’s pacto de retroventa transactions, dividing them between properties that
were re-purchased (retroventa) by the original seller and properties that were
more permanently acquired by Nicasio; in both cases these transactions frequently
involved the seller renting back the property from the buyer (in this case Nicasio)
during the prescribed time period.

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Table 2: Pacto De Retroventa Transactions, 1878-190335

Resold to Original Owner
Duration of Contract Type of Property Price (Pesos) Seller
1878-1879 2 casas/solar 400 Mariano Ygnacio
1880-1882 casa/solar 500 Julio Rivera
1881-1901 casa/solar 300 Timoteo de Castro
1882-1882 casa/solar 500 Basilisa Najarro
1884-1892 casa/solar 4,000 Josefa Climaco
1885-1886 casa/solar 150 Lorenzo Miel
1886-1889 casa/solar 3,500 Luisa Rafols
1889-1891 casa/solar 200 Mariano Bascon
1889-1894 casa/solar 5,000 AM Lao Yangco*
1890-1890 casa/solar 400 Pascuala Cala
1890-1893 casa/solar 2,250 Gertrudis Burgos*
1896-1900 casa/solar 500 Emilia Rafols*
1901-1901 camarin/solar 1,800 Jacoba Salazar
1901-1902 solar 2,000 Diego Cabrera
Acquired Permanently
Date of Transaction Type of Property Price (Pesos) Seller
1879 2 casas/solar 150 Serapia de Castro
1879 casa/solar 3,000 Josefa Climaco
1879 casa/solar 200 Leon Ledesma
1882 casa/solar 456 Francisco del Mar
1883 2 casas/solar 3,500 Juan Climaco
1884 casa/solar 340 Inocente Gonzales
1889 casa/solar 2,000 F Go Tengco*
1890 casa/solar 250 Martin Sison
1890 casa/solar --- Vicente Rubi
1891 casa/solar 1,000 Prudencio S. Camara*
1897 casa/solar 400 Lucas Manuel
1901 casa/solar 3,278 Florentino Teves*
* seller rented back from buyer

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Based on the figures recorded in Tables 2 and 3, it is significant to note that,

at any given time during the 1880s and 1890s, Nicasio had thousands of pesos
invested in these loans and loan-related property transactions, which during this time
amounted to over 100,000 pesos in loan investments (over 55,000 pesos in loans and
nearly 55,000 pesos in pacto de retroventa transactions).
Unlike many of his Chinese contemporaries, Nicasio was not inclined to
establish business contracts or commercial associations (convenios) and did not often
participate with others in joint ventures. The existing records suggest that during his
lifetime he engaged in only four contractual arrangements, two with agricultural
producers, one with Ker and Company in Cebu, and one as a share-holder (socio) in
a shipping cooperative (organized by Macleod and Company) aimed at the delivery
of commodities to Cebu from ports throughout the central Visayas and northern
Mindanao. The first two endeavors (1868-1871) ended in the court, with Nicasio
suing his partner in the first and being sued by the agent of Ker and Company in
the other.36 The third (1881-1892) also resulted in a court case over the failure of
Medellin landowner Marcos Rubio to deliver a promised shipment of sugar.37 In
the fourth (1884-1889), Nicasio invested 1,000 pesos in the Compañía de Barcos
Costeros (capitalized with 20,250 pesos), where he was one of seventeen socios
committed to share cargo space on ships jointly owned by the shareholders. Since
he did not own his own trading vessels, this was apparently an attractive enterprise
for him, permitting him to ensure a supply of commodities, including abacá from
Leyte and northern Mindanao.38 The company survived less than five years, and
after its collapse in 1889, Nicasio did not appear to have entered into any subsequent
business ventures with his fellow comerciantes.39 Based on the notarial records, this
may also have been when he began to move away from export commodities to
concentrate more on imports and shopkeeping transactions.
It is also significant to observe that Nicasio Veloso Chiong Tuico rarely served
as bondsman (fiador) for any of his business associates and on only one occasion
is recorded to have utilized a bondsman for a transaction of his own.40 Similarly, he
served as the administrator (albacea) for a Chinese countryman on only one occasion
in 1900. The only other time he was named to this position was for Gregoria Flores,
the benefactor of his son Potenciano in 1887 and 1897.41 For a man of his position,
this was unusual, since several of his Chinese competitors, especially Lucio Herrera
Uy Chijon (Bagares 2005; Bag-ong Kusog, 1/1/1926), were more active at taking
part in these representational tasks (bondsman and estate executor). On the other
hand, he was quite comfortable with designating legal representatives by giving them
his power-of-attorney (poder) for a wide variety of transactions. Based on the Cebu
notarial records (1868-1901), Nicasio issued 28 poderes (powers-of-attorney): six

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to Chinese; 19 to non-Chinese; and three to procuradores of the Real Audiencia in

Manila.42 It appeared that these more legalistic relationships were more comfortable
for Nicasio than the more personalistic relationships established through bonds
(fiadores), formal agreements (convenios), or service as estate executors (albaceas).
The latter associations, of course, reflected more personal relationships, often those
that transcended the more legalistic powers of attorney (poderes).
It is apparent that Nicasio was quite comfortable operating through this formal
colonial practice and frequently used his apoderados to represent him in a wide
range of business transactions. Until 1893, all the poderes issued by Nicasio were to
non-Chinese and were related to obtaining either general (poder general) or special
(poder especial) services in Cebu City, with only two involving matters outside Cebu
(both in Leyte). All six of Nicasio’s poderes to Chinese were issued between 1893
and 1897 and were related to business dealings outside Cebu City: four in Manila
and one each in Iloilo and Dumanjug (Cebu).43 From the mid-1880s and throughout
the 1890s, Nicasio made consistent use of the solicitors (procuradores) of Cebu’s
Real Audiencia: Saturnino Jiz de Ortega, Jose G. de la Peña, Isidoro Yboleón,
Enrique Carratalá, Luis Flores, and Eduardo López.44 Although his wife, Genoveva
Rosales, was consumed between 1863 and 1886 in childbirth and care, she was
empowered as his legal representative in 1873 and engaged in more transactions
on his behalf than any other apoderado.45 After the 1891 marriage of their daughter
Eleuteria to the abogado Segundo Singson, the latter became the couple’s primary
representative until late 1901, when they issued a poder general in favor of Sergio
Osmeña, who had recently married their daughter Estefania.46
During his long business career, Nicasio served as apoderado for another
person on only six occasions, five of these for Chinese merchants, including
Mariano Veloso Uy Siongco, whom Nicasio had sponsored for Christian baptism.47
The only other time that Nicasio served as an apoderado himself was in 1892, when
he represented the Spaniard Pedro Pérez Pastor in obtaining a public works contract
to build a bridge over the river that passed through the municipality of Dumanjug.48
Propietario
In assessing the commercial life of Nicasio Veloso Chiong Tuico it becomes
clear that he invested considerable energy in the acquisition of urban property,
becoming one of the city’s leading property owners by the 1880s. Not surprisingly,
therefore, he was frequently described in the records as propietario y comerciante,
indicating that commerce was not his only distinguishing occupation. As already
noted above, many of his moneylending and pacto de retroventa transactions

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resulted in the acquisition of substantial urban and rural property. Throughout his life,
Nicasio and his wife also engaged in a wide range of direct purchases of property,
particularly in the Lutaos-Zamboanguillo commercial district (Calle de Escolta) and
in the retail districts along Calle de Alfonso XIII and Calle de la Ynfanta, as well as
in the more formal port area of Pampango (especially on Calle de Prim).
Based on the urban property assessments (Fincas Urbanas) compiled in
1890-1891, Nicasio was revealed as the third largest urban landowner in Cebu
City and the largest Chinese propietario. At this time, he was listed as the owner
of eight major houses (casas) and four warehouses (camarines) in Cebu City, with
these properties valued at over 43,600 pesos. Six of these fincas (5 houses and a
warehouse) were located on his substantial commercial property in Lutaos (Calle
de Escolta), while the other six were located elsewhere in the city.49 For all but
one of these properties, Nicasio owned not only the buildings but also the lots
(solares).50 His most important commercial property was located at the northern end
of Calle de Lutaos--Zamboanguillo--and developed around the large house and lot
he acquired from the heirs of Maximo Veloso in 1870 (see above). Between 1868
and 1889, Nicasio’s holdings in this area expanded to include ten fincas, obtained
through a variety of transactions (including direct purchase, pacto de retroventa,
and mortgage foreclosure). These properties were consolidated into a more or less
contiguous complex described in 1890-1891 as comprising his five casas and one
camarin.51 His other six fincas, those acquired by 1890, consisted of the following: a
house and warehouse in Pampango (Calle de Prim), the family house and warehouse
in San Roque (Calle de Alfonso XIII), another warehouse in San Roque (Calle de
Urdaneta), a warehouse in Recoletos, and a house in Parian (Calle de Colon).52
Subsequently, between 1890 and the time of his death in 1903, Nicasio’s urban
property nearly doubled in terms of both the number of houses, warehouses, and lots
and in the value of his overall holdings. In Lutaos (Calle de Escolta) alone it was
disclosed that during the 1898 uprising in Cebu, the Spanish naval bombardment of
the commercial district destroyed six houses and four warehouses owned by Nicasio
Veloso Chiong Tuico.53 Table 3 below estimates the growth of his urban property and
its approximate value (based largely on the price of purchase) in the last decade and
a half of his life. Given the small number of warehouses (two) actually purchased by
Nicasio as indicated in Table 3 and in the Fincas Urbanas of 1890, it is clear that he
constructed at least three or four camarines on the property he acquired up to the time
of his death in 1903, especially along Calle de Escolta. A number of the properties,
particularly houses enumerated in Table 3, were rented out to individuals or business
agencies, providing Nicasio with additional income.54 Based on these holdings, he was
undoubtedly one of the top five property owners in Cebu City at the end of Spanish rule.

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Table 3: Urban Property Acquired in Cebu City, 1890-190355

Estimated Price
District/Street No. of Solares No. of Casas No. of Camarines
(Pesos)
Lutaos
1520 (Escolta) 4 1 - 5,148
Alcarazo 6 2 - 7,069
Nao Victoria 1 1 - 4,000
Ynfanta 6 4 - 7,978
Pampango 1 - - 4,000
Prim 2 1 - 4,800
Magallanes 1 - - 50
Gravina 1 1 - 340
San Roque
Alfonso XIII 2 1 1 8,250
Sevilla 1 1 - 450
Suba
Butuan 2 2 - 1,200
Maoco
Princesa 2 3 - 400
Pili 1 - - ---
Sangi 1 - - 100
Ermita 1 1 - 400
Parian
Colon 1 - - 120
Hernan Cortes 1 1 - 456

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Tejero 1 - 1 5,500
Total 35 19 2 46,261
Despite the fact that Nicasio made no systematic effort to acquire land and
property outside Cebu City, his various commercial dealings with agricultural
producers throughout the province resulted in the acquisition of considerable land,
often through the liquidation of the owner’s debts to him. Based on the notarial
records, he acquired agricultural landholdings in seven municipalities of Cebu:
Compostela (10 contiguous parcels of sugar lands, with a camarin and trapiche);
San Nicolas (over two hectares in sugar lands in Labangon); Pardo (as much as two
hectares of sugar and rice lands in Basac and Bulacao); Talisay (slightly less than
two hectares of sugar lands in Tabonoc, Lawaan, and Mananga); Minglanilla (some
three hectares of sugar lands in Libo); Carcar (three parcels of corn fields in Tapon);
and Toledo (over five hectares of sugar lands in Calumampao, with a camarin,
molino, and several carabaos). In addition, he owned property in the poblaciones of
San Nicolas (on Calle de Novaliches), Carcar (including a casa and camarin), and
Barili (including a casa in Guibuangan and a solar and huerta in Ylaya).56 Since the
early 1890s, Nicasio also owned a house on Calle de Anloaque in Binondo. In 1894,
he had constructed another house in Binondo on Calle de Rosario, where he lived for
a short period in 1894-1895 and again in 1901, and where family members stayed
on trips to the capital city.57
Nicasio’s largest land acquisition outside Cebu City was an extensive
agricultural estate located in the municipality of Borbon. This estate was acquired
and developed in the 1870s by two Chinese Mestizo entrepreneurs, Antonio Roa
and Antonio Sanson. Their intention was to establish a large, mostly contiguous,
sugar estate in the low-laying valleys of Borbon’s interior, which, until the 1870s,
was not an area of any significant commercial agriculture. Antonio Roa, a prominent
comerciante, along with his son, Filomeno Roa, formed the company, “Antonio
Roa é hijo,” to exploit the growing economic developments in the aftermath of the
opening of Cebu City to foreign trade. By the mid-1870s, the Roas partnered with
Antonio Sanson, also a member of a prominent family of Cebu, to develop a sugar
hacienda in Borbon, largely in the two rural barrios of Lugo and Sagay, which
by the early 1880s encompassed over 849 hectares. From the early 1870s, Nicasio
had been involved in the various business operations of the Roas and Sanson; he
was, along with others, a source of loans for their enterprises. Nicasio also acquired
their debts to other creditors and, by 1876, Roa and Sanson owed him over 2,600

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pesos. By the end of the 1870s, the Roa-Sanson sugar estate had been unable to
produce enough revenue for the two entrepreneurs to pay off their growing debts,
with Nicasio emerging as their primary creditor.58
Antonio Roa died in 1885, and Antonio Sanson, the administrator of their
business interests, found himself in a grave financial situation. In 1886, Sanson sold
the largest part of their estate in Lugo to Nicasio in a pacto de retroventa transaction
for 4,800 pesos, with Sanson continuing to administer the land and the business
and retaining the right to repurchase the property within six years. At the time, the
Lugo estate was reported to be over 588 hectares and included two camarines, a
sugar mill (molino) and other equipment, fifty heads of carabao, and all the indebted
farmhands and tenants (“inquilinos trabajadores y los apaceros de la hacienda”). By
the end of 1888, Antonio Sanson died, having failed to repurchase the Lugo estate,
and by the early 1890s Nicasio had taken possession of this part of the hacienda.
In 1894, the only legitimate heir of Antonio Sanson, his 18-year old daughter,
Concepcion, inherited the land as well as her father’s continuing debt to Nicasio and
was forced to sell for 1,800 pesos the remaining lands and a house in Borbon, with
the largest portion of this property being a 256-hectare estate in Sagay.59 As such, by
the end of the 1890s, Nicasio owned what was quite likely the largest hacienda in
Cebu Province, including both the Lugo and Sagay portions of the original estate.
In 1896, Nicasio’s ownership of this vast estate was contested in the Juzgado de
Cebu by the heirs of Antonio Roa, led by Remberto Roa (the son of Filomeno Roa).
Though the Roa grandchildren won their case in 1896, Nicasio appealed, and, in
a 1903 Supreme Court decision (under the American colonial administration), he
was declared the legal owner of the entire estate, which was estimated at that time
to have a value of over 26,809 pesos.60 The entire estate was eventually inherited by
Nicasio’s daughter, Estefania Ch. Veloso, who in 1901 married Sergio Osmeña, the
illegitimate son of Antonio Sanson. The Borbon lands eventually came under the
ownership of the Osmeña-Ch. Veloso family.
Contratista
Like most wealthy Chinese of Cebu, Nicasio Veloso Chiong Tuico
supplemented his income by competing for government service monopolies or
leaseholds. Until the 1870s, most of these contracts were awarded to Spaniards,
Chinese Mestizos, and prominent urban-based natives; after this time, however, the
most lucrative monopolies were dominated by Chinese leaseholders, who competed
consistently for these contracts. The leaseholds were awarded through a bidding
process conducted through auctions administered by the Cebu-based Administración

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de Hacienda Pública, with most of the contracts issued for a three-year period
(trienio). Some of the most competitive bidding was for the administration of
cockpits, opium dens (fumadores de anfion), and the collection of license fees for
public markets and slaughterhouses.
Nicasio Veloso Chiong Tuico’s involvement in monopoly leaseholds began in
1875, when, through his apoderado, the Escribano Público Valeriano Sanson, he bid
for and won the three-year contract to collect the license fees for “carruajes, carros
y caballos” within the greater urban area; at the time this lease cost him 1,296 pesos.
He administered this leasehold along with his wife for the full trienio (1875-1878)
but was outbid in the subsequent period by Eduardo Hermida Uy Julian, the brother
and business partner of Lucio Herrera Uy Chijon, who soon emerged as Nicasio’s
primary competitor.61 Three years later, Nicasio competed for the more remunerative
leasehold to administer the licensing fee for the slaughtering and cleaning of meat
(matanza y limpieza de reses) for the urban area, but he was outbid by the prominent
Chinese merchant Ambrosio Martinez Lao Yangco, who paid 20,927 pesos for the
three-year contract.62
Based on the leasehold transactions for Cebu available in the notarial records,
it appears that Nicasio did not re-enter this field of competition until the early 1890s.
In late 1893, he launched a major effort to dominate the opium leases in Cebu (at the
time combined with Bohol) and Negros. In Cebu, he successfully outbid 14 other
participants (13 being Chinese merchants) in obtaining the contract for Cebu and
Bohol with a bid of 116,280 pesos, a cost that he and his wife guaranteed for the
trienio of 1894-1897. As such, he controlled the distribution of opium during the
final years of Spanish rule, including the period of the rebellion in Luzon (8/1896-
12/1897). In so doing, he appears to have displaced the closely linked group of
Chinese dominated by Lucio Herrera Uy Chijon, whose bid was third highest in
the competition for Cebu and Bohol in 1893.63 At the same time, Nicasio entered a
bid (62,310 pesos) to administer the opium leasehold for the island of Negros. His
Negros bid did not prove to be enough and the contract went to a competing Chinese
based in Bacolod (Aguilar 1998: 247), but his expansion to Negros clearly reveals
his concerted effort to dominate the government’s monopoly of the distribution of
opium beyond the Cebu-Bohol region.64
The competition to control the legal opium market continued to the end of the
1890s and into the early years of the 1900s. The situation at the end of Spanish rule
remains somewhat ambiguous and was undoubtedly complicated by the political
turmoil that occurred between April 1898 (Cebu’s rebellion against Spain) and
the early part of the American intervention in 1901. What is apparent, however, is
that the competition between Nicasio Veloso Chiong Tuico and Lucio Herrera Uy

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Chijon continued for control over the lucrative opium market. The details of some
of these machinations are worth relating, since they reveal how Nicasio was able to
deploy his well-developed relationships with key officials of the nascent Philippine
Republic in Cebu. The post-1898 situation also sheds even more light on Nicasio’s
on-going competition with Lucio Herrera Uy Chijon.
During the last three months of 1898, a time when Spanish rule over the
archipelago was declining precipitously, the local revolutionary leaders in the name
of the emerging Philippine Republic granted Sergio Osmeña, a 21-year-old industrial,
the leasehold for the distribution of opium in Cebu and Bohol. As the collaborative
Provincial Government of Cebu became more stabilized under American rule in
March 1899, Osmeña’s leasehold was confirmed. By June 1899, however, it was
reported that the opium dens in Cebu City were under the administration of Lucio
Herrera Uy Chijon (La Justicia, 6/25/1899: 3). This changed abruptly in July, when
the Provincial Council, as approved by its interim president, Segundo Singson,
granted the opium monopoly once again to Sergio Osmeña through his apoderado,
Teodoro Velez, for payment of 6,760 pesos for four months, with Velez having
outbid Lucio Herrera Uy Chijon for this contract. At the end of 1899, the situation
reversed again, with the leasehold granted to Ong Diongjay and his apoderado Juan
Herrera, the son of Lucio Herrera, who bid 14,544 pesos over Teodoro Velez’s 13,509
pesos. For the next year and a half, the legal opium trade was administered by Ong
Diongjay and the Uy Herrera family.65 During this period (late 1898 to mid-1901),
Nicasio was not directly involved in any of these transactions, but was undoubtedly
financing the contracts and influencing the decisions; this is particularly apparent in
that the three most important individuals involved in the opium leaseholds during
this time were Nicasio’s sons-in-law, Segundo Singson and Teodoro Velez, and
his protegé, Sergio Osmeña, all of whom were the official representatives of one
another.66 The loss of the contract in early 1900 can be attributed to the more direct
control by the Americans over the distribution of opium, reducing the influence of
the Republican officials over this governmental function. By the middle of 1901,
the American colonial government terminated the government’s involvement in the
trade and use of opium, despite the objections of leading members of the Chinese
community (El Pueblo, 1901).
Principal, Ciudadano, Feligrés

For most of his life, Nicasio Veloso Chiong Tuico lived in Cebu City, except
for a brief period when he resided temporarily in Binondo in a family house that
he acquired there in the early 1890s. Throughout his 40 years of residence in Cebu

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City, Nicasio operated in two somewhat distinct urban communities. As a sojourner

and settler from China, Nicasio was incorporated into the city’s Gremio de Chinos,
within which he was a leading figure (principal). At the same time, he was the
patriarch of a family that had no links to China, except for those he chose to share
with them. As a long-time vecino of Cebu City, Nicasio was widely recognized as a
citizen of the urban area, a ciudadano, who had been baptized at the Cathedral and
had ever since been a member of its congregation, a parishioner or feligrés. Given
the location of his home, it is not inconceivable that he could have crossed paths
on a daily basis with the parish priest of the Cathedral, the bishop, the provincial
governor, the magistrates of the Audiencia, or the rector of the Seminario-Colegio de
San Carlos. As a member of the Gremio de Chinos, he was a foreigner (extranjero),
but at the Juzgado, the Cathedral, or on a stroll in the Plaza de General Loño, he was
Don Nicasio, a ciudadano and feligrés and enjoyed a local status that in many ways
was unique among most Chinese of the late Spanish era.
The earliest existing documents pertaining to community-wide taxation of
Chinese in Cebu is dated 1855, indicating that by that time the number of Chinese in
the urban area warranted a formal reporting process often referred to as the capitación
de Chinos. It was not until after Cebu was opened to international trade in the early
1860s that a Gremio de Chinos was established.67 The earliest recorded head of
the Chinese gremio (the Celedor de Chinos or often simply the Gobernadorcillo
de Chinos) in 1861 was Marcelino Carmelo Uy Jepua, one of the earliest major
Chinese entrepreneurs of Cebu City.68 Unfortunately, there are few existing records
pertaining to Cebu City’s Gremio de Chinos, making it difficult to determine the
early involvement of Nicasio Veloso Chiong Tuico in the governing body of this
community. By the mid-1880s and into the 1890s, he was clearly one of the leading
figures of his community, occasionally referred to as “principal de su gremio.” It is,
however, quite likely that he never held the post of Celedor of the gremio.69
In a rare set of documents relating to an electoral conflict among the members
of the Gremio de Chinos in 1885, Nicasio emerged not only as a candidate for
Celedor but also as the leading figure in a protest filed against the election of the
winning candidate, Ignacio Veloso Yap Uyco, his “hermano espiritual.” In the
election itself there were 55 eligible Chinese voters, 41 of who cast their ballots for
eight candidates for Celedor, with Nicasio among them. Nicasio received only one
vote, while Yap Uyco received 12; two other candidates obtained nine votes each,
and the incumbent Celedor, Lucio Herrera Uy Chijon, collected seven votes. In his
defense against the protest, Yap Uyco admitted that he was not as wealthy as Chiong
Tuico and others but that he was qualified for the post; the protesters emphasized that
Yap Uyco had a case against him in the courts, which should disqualify him. Despite

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the protests, Uy Chijon declared Yap Uyco as the legitimate winner of the election
and expressed his objections to the protest, which appears to have failed to alter
the results of the balloting.70 Despite this setback, Nicasio remained a prominent
member of the Chinese Gremio to the end of Spanish rule.71
Throughout the 1890s, as indicated above, Nicasio found himself in
competition with Lucio Herrera Uy Chijon in both the quest for control of the opium
leasehold and for leadership in the Chinese Gremio. In addition to his limited efforts
to maintain personal and strategic links with Chinese businessmen in Cebu City (see
above), it is possible that Nicasio’s disadvantage in seeking a leadership position in
his Gremio was also related to his lack of literacy in Chinese. Unlike many of his
Chinese associates, for example, Nicasio never signed any transaction in Chinese
characters and there is no evidence that he was literate. Moreover, there is no
indication that he formed any lasting friendships or associations with other Chinese
in Cebu City. Though Nicasio retained his connection to the Chinese community to
the end of Spanish rule, his interactions with Chinese residents of the city became
increasingly ambiguous. His ascendancy at the end of the 1890s and in the early
years of the 1900s must be attributed to his status within the emerging Filipino
community.
Through his family and commercial activities, Nicasio maintained close
relationships with a wide cross-section of Cebu City’s urban society, which was
facilitated by his wife, and in the 1890s, by their “Filipino” children. By 1890, five
of their children were in their 20s, with four others reaching this age by 1897. These
children represented the newest generation of Chinese Mestizos, with their lives
firmly oriented toward the urban lifestyle that surrounded them; there was almost
no Chinese society for the family to emulate or join, since most of the Chinese
community was comprised of unmarried males, many of whom had retained links to
China. As the Chiong Veloso family took its place in the urban milieu, its wealth drew
Nicasio’s family into the city’s Hispano-Filipino high society. His long residence
and distinctively prominent place in Cebu resulted in his more formal Hispanization
in the notarial records, where he was often referred to with the honorific titles of
“Don,” “Señor,” and “Chino Don.” These were quite unusual titles for Chinese
residents of Cebu during the Spanish era and were only bestowed on a handful of
individuals from the Chinese community, including among them Lucio Herrera Uy
Chijon.72
By the 1890s, Nicasio was recognized as a distinguished resident of Cebu City
and a respected member of the Catholic community centered at the Cathedral. During
this decade, Nicasio was publicly acknowledged for his contributions to various
causes sponsored by the Spanish authorities or by groups of prominent residents.

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Under Governor Francisco Loño, Nicasio was among the early contributors
(accionistas) to the construction of a theater in the city (El Boletin de Cebú,
1/18/1889), a project that was begun at this time and concluded during the tenure
of Governor Inocencio Junquera. Nicasio also supported the efforts of Governor
Enrique Zappino and the newly installed Ayuntamiento by donating money for the
construction of a Legazpi monument to be erected in the birth town of the adelantado
in Spain (El Boletin de Cebú, 1891, 6/25 and 7/30). As a major propietario and
affluent ciudadano, Nicasio was also invited to serve on the citywide committee
to find a solution to the fire hazards caused by casas de caña y nipa (El Boletin de
Cebú, 9/13/1891). In 1894, under Governor Junquera, Nicasio was commended for
his donations to the city’s official lotería, a fund-raising project of the Ayuntamiento
(El Boletin de Cebú, 3/11/1894). In the aftermath of the rebellion in Manila in August
1896, Nicasio’s wife and daughter Eleuteria, were publicly thanked for their major
contributions to the formation of Cebu’s Voluntarios Leales, a detachment of local
residents recruited to join Spain in its efforts to defeat the rebels in Luzon (El Boletin
de Cebú, 10/11/1896). In 1891, when his daughter Tomasa was honored in Manila,
it was stressed that her enviable situation derived from her father, one of the leading
capitalists in Cebu Province and a modest and affable man, “esteemed and loved by
all who know him” (El Bello Sexo, 6/23/1891; El Boletin de Cebú, 8/2/1891).
The place of Nicasio Veloso Chiong Tuico in the larger urban society is
perhaps best exemplified by his nomination by Cebu’s Gobernador Político-Militar,
Celestino Fernández Tejeiro, for the Medalla del Mérito Civil in October 1897, two
months before the formal end of the conflict with the Filipino rebels in Luzon. At this
time, Cebu’s governor selected five residents of Cebu City to be recipients of this
prestigious award, three Chinos Cristianos and two Filipinos. Not surprisingly, two
of the Chinese nominees were the long-time rivals Nicasio and Lucio Herrera Uy
Chijon, with the third being Ramon Lao Yuco. In each case these Chinese were not
selected for their affluence alone, but for their long residence and their contributions
to the Spanish cause in the region, in particular for their patriotic donations
(“suscripciones patrióticas”) and for their having been comrades (“comiguatarios”)
who made available their resources to the governor during the troubled times facing
the province. The nominations were forwarded to Manila and, by February 1898, the
Governor General, only six weeks before the outbreak of rebellion in Cebu, formally
bestowed the medalla on Nicasio Veloso Chiong Tuico. At this time, there was no
mention of the other two Chinese nominees, Lucio Herrera Uy Chijon and Ramon
Lao Yuco.73
In the tumultuous times before and after Cebu’s Tres de Abril 1898 uprising,
it is not clear where Nicasio and his family stood in terms of the changing political

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status of Cebu and the Philippines. Neither he nor anyone connected to his family
was involved in Cebu’s conspiracy and rebellion. Nevertheless, Nicasio’s son
Januario was arrested and detained by the Spanish authorities in Cebu during
most of the period from April to December 1898. Though there is no indication
that Januario was sympathetic with the rebels, his long period of study in Manila
must have led the paranoid Spanish administrators to suspect that he was a potential
subversive.74 Unlike Lucio Herrera Uy Chijon, who was affiliated with the rebels of
1898, Nicasio and his family had no links to the conspirators beyond the fact that
one of his apoderados, the Procurador Luis Flores, was one of the leading figures
in the uprising.75
It is uncertain where the family took refuge during the time when Cebu City
was under the rebels (April 3-7) and during the violent and destructive aftermath
when the Spaniards retook the city (April 7-8). It is possible that the family retreated
to Borbon, where Nicasio owned the large estates at Lugo and Sagay, acquired from
the late Antonio Sanson, the father of Nicasio’s young protegé, Sergio Osmeña,
who is also reported to have taken refuge at this time in Borbon.76 If Nicasio was
in the city on April 7th, he would have witnessed the destruction of his extensive
commercial property in Lutaos (Calle de Escolta), which was bombarded and
burned to the ground by the Spanish warship, Don Juan de Austria, in its efforts to
drive the rebels from the city. If he was not in the city, he and his family would have
returned in the weeks that followed to discover that they had lost six houses and four
warehouses to the Spanish cruiser and subsequent fires.77 In late December 1898,
as the rebel forces prepared to take control of the city and province, the future of
Nicasio and his family was uncertain.
At the start of 1899, Nicasio’s political situation improved, in large part based
on the place that his son-in-law and apoderado, Segundo Singson, came to play in the
emerging government of the Republic of the Philippines. With the Spanish departure
in December 1898, the Cebu rebels took charge of the city and province. At the time,
segments of the more conservative leadership opened the way for non-revolutionary
elites to come to power on the eve of the outbreak of hostilities with the Americans
in February. Under the leadership and influence of the well-known ilustrado Julio
Llorente, who captured the leadership of the provincial government, Segundo
Singson emerged as the Delegado de Justicia of the Republican government at the
start of 1899.78 To celebrate the selection of his son-in-law and the other officials of
the new Republic, Nicasio and his family hosted a major banquet at their home on
Calle de Alfonso XIII (Go 1976: 361). By the end of February 1899, this government
was in full collaboration with the American military, which had taken control of the
city by then. As the Republican army retreated into the province to continue the

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military struggle against the Americans, the city was administered by a growing body
of urban elites who rejected the military struggle for independence and chose what
they hoped to be increased autonomy in administering the archipelago. Among this
group of influential men were two of Nicasio’s sons-in-law, Segundo Singson and
Teodoro Velez, as well as his emerging protegé, Sergio Osmeña, at the time closely
linked with Singson and Velez and, as noted, involved in the distribution of opium.
Only a year before this time, the 19-year-old Osmeña had received, along with his
future father-in-law, the Medalla de Mérito Civil from the Spanish government.
As the war escalated in the province, Segundo Singson emerged as the
acting Provincial Governor of Cebu (6/1899-4/1900), replacing Julio Llorente and
becoming a leading figure working with the resident American military commander.
In April 1900, when the American forces took direct control over the city and
province of Cebu, Singson was named by the Americans as the city’s Juéz de Paz.
By early 1901, Nicasio and his family hosted another major banquet on behalf of
Segundo Singson, who in February had been selected President of the Cebu branch
of the Partido Federal, the Manila-based political party working closely with the
Americans to end the war and encourage cooperation with their effort to rule over
the archipelago. In early April 1901, the members of the Philippine Commission, led
by William H. Taft, arrived in Cebu and were feted at the “elegante morada del rico
capitalista,” the residence of Nicasio Veloso Chiong Tuico (El Pueblo, 1901, 2/14
and 4/18).79 Only a few days earlier, Nicasio’s daughter Estefania Chiong Veloso had
married Sergio Osmeña, the popular director of Cebu City’s only daily newspaper,
El Nuevo Dia. As the war against the Americans wound down in the subsequent
months, Nicasio, now 63 years old, was widely recognized as an influential citizen
of Cebu City. In September, he spoke at a large meeting of propietarios convened
by the Municipal President, Florentino Rallos, to critique the new land evaluations
and assessments imposed by the Americans; he was the only Chinese mentioned as
a participant in this event. As the new century began, the Chiong Veloso family was
well placed to play a major role in the future of Cebu.
Familia
One of the salient aspects of the life of Nicasio Veloso Chiong Tuico, one
that set him apart from most of his Chinese contemporaries, was that he had a large
“native” family that was well-integrated into Cebu’s urban society (see Appendix
A for information on members of the family). Although Nicasio participated in this
integration, it largely resulted from relationships developed by his wife, Genoveva,
and, in the 1890s, by his children, especially his older daughters, all of whom adapted

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enthusiastically to both the commercial and social worlds that engulfed them as
children and young women. From the family’s house at 37 Alfonso XIII (now D.
Jakosalem), Nicasio, Genoveva, and their growing family lived on Cebu City’s
main plaza (in the 1890s: Plaza de General Loño), around the corner from the main
entrance to the Iglesia de Santo Niño, and two blocks from the Cathedral, which
was the family’s parish church.80 In addition, their home was in close proximity to
the city’s commercial center on Calle de Escolta and in the midst of its emerging
retail district, where they maintained their residence and some of the family’s stores
and storage facilities. Within this locale the family was consumed by maintaining
stores, buying and selling a range of commodities, and generally finding ways to
turn in a profit, while at the same time they deviated from the stereotypical milieu
of the Chinese shopkeepers by moving comfortably toward a more ostentatious
lifestyle within the rapidly developing urban upper class, in which they were deeply
intertwined.
Genoveva Rosales had grown up in this urban area--the Maoco-Suba-San
Roque part of Cebu City, where her family was among the earliest Chinese Mestizo
families to establish residence on the city side of the Rio de Parian. The original
house of Nicasio and Genoveva in 1863, as noted, was on Calle de Butuan (Manalili)
in Suba, with their later (post-1873), more permanent, residence located deeper into
the city proper along Calle de Alfonso XIII in the area where Maoco merged into
San Roque. Until the late 18th century, this was the primary area of Spanish, Creole,
and Spanish Mestizo residence. By the early 19th century, the Rosales family had
married into two of these families, the Lasalas and the Dutertes. Although Genoveva
was almost certainly a descendant of the family that traced itself to the prominent
secular clergyman Blas Martir de Rosales (1793-ca.1861), her direct connection is
not clear. Most likely, her grandmother, Leonora de la Visitacion y Rosales, was
either the younger sister or niece of Padre Blas. It was from Doña Leonora that
Genoveva and Nicasio acquired their first home in 1863, with Genoveva inheriting
from her another house on Calle de Butuan only six years later.81 As the couple settled
into this neighborhood in the 1860s, Genoveva was in a familiar locale, surrounded
by many of her relatives. As this urban district transformed in the last four decades
of the 19th century, her family was at the forefront of these developments.
Led by Genoveva, the family’s public presence was most notable in festivities
related to Cebu’s Cathedral, especially under the last two Spanish Bishops, Benito
Romero de Madridejos (1876-1885) and Martín Ma. García Alcocer (1886-1903).
One of the increasingly popular sodalities promoted under both bishops was the
Cofradia del Santo Rosario, closely associated with the Cathedral and apparently
founded by Bishop Madridejos. Genoveva’s intimate relationship with the Cathedral

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was undoubtedly established through her first cousin, Sor Apolonia Lasala y Rosales,
who was chosen as superiora of Cebu’s first congregation of nuns, the Hermanas de
Caridad, established by the Vincentian priests and sponsored by Bishop Madridejos
in 1877-1878.82 From the late 1870s on, the Hermanas (Hijas) de Caridad were
active in several of Cebu City’s major Vincentian-managed institutions, including
the Casa de la Caridad (1877, or by 1888 the Hospital de San José), the Colegio
de la Inmaculada Concepción (1878), and the Escuela de Niñas (1880).83 During
this period, the Cofradia de Santo Rosario was one of the most active lay groups
affiliated with the Cathedral.84 The members of the Cofradia were, for example,
among the major participants in the elaborate funeral procession held in Cebu City
for the burial of Bishop Madridejos (El Comercio, 11/12/1885: 3).
In the 1890s, Genoveva Rosales was a dominant figure among the women of
this sodality and, in 1891, was selected the Hermana Mayor of the Cofradia and
played a central role in its increasingly popular annual fiesta held on the first Sunday
of October (El Boletin de Cebú, 10/11/1891). Unlike the festivities commemorating
the Santo Niño, the feast day of the Holy Rosary, which was closely associated with
the worship of the Virgin Mary (Our Lady of the Holy Rosary), was celebrated
largely by the city’s upper class, with its officers both presiding over the religious
services at the Cathedral and sponsoring banquets and elaborate festivities at their
homes in the aftermath of the procession. In 1895, “Sra. D.a Genoveva Rosales de
Veloso” was again selected as Hermana Mayor of the Cofradia and sponsored “un
gran concierto vocal é instrumental,” which was reported to have attracted more
than 200 invited guests--”todo Cebú”--to her home on Calle de Alfonso XIII. The
delivery of delicious and abundant food and a lively velada were reported to have
entertained the participants until sunrise the next day (El Boletin de Cebú, 1895,
10/6, 10/13; and 10/20).85
Events such as these were major venues for the urban elite, both Spanish
and Filipino, to display themselves, to frolic, and to express their solidarity with
others from the same socio-political milieu. There were a number of such events
throughout the year and what is significant to observe for this study is that the
Chiong Velosos were among the most active hosts and regular participants. Two
years later in 1897, the Hermana Mayor of the Cofradia del Santísimo Rosario
was the eldest Chiong Veloso daughter, Eleuteria, who was at the time the wife
of the wealthy and prominent licenciado and hacendero, Segundo Singson. In the
“espaciosos salones” of her parents’ home, she sponsored a buffet-style supper,
followed by a “suntuoso baile” that was reported to have created a state of “éxtasis”
for those in attendance. One of the major attractions at the event was when her
unmarried sister, Hermenegilda, accompanied by the resident Italian pianist, Enrico

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Stancampiano, sang an aria from El Barbero de Sevilla. Local observers concluded

that, despite the political crisis facing the colony at the time, this celebration had
been a truly memorable event (El Comercio, 1897, 10/19 and 10/26; El Boletin de
Cebú, 10/23/1897).86 Although Nicasio was not mentioned as an active participant
in any of the events related to the Cofradia, all these festivities took place in his
home. Though he remained commercially assertive during the 1890s and frequently
recognized as one of Cebu’s prominent residents, his participation in these public
festivities went unrecorded.
Another strong indication of the family’s efforts to integrate into the elite
society of the late 19th century was their decision to educate their sons through all the
institutions available to them. The eldest son, Potenciano, attended the Colegio de
San Juan de Letrán in Manila in 1878-1879, but does not appear to have finished his
secondary course.87 Januario entered the Seminario-Colegio de San Carlos in Cebu
in 1890 and studied there under the Vincentians until 1892, at which time, as noted
above, he transferred to Manila to finish his studies at San Juan de Letrán, remaining
as a student up to the time the school closed in late 1896 due to the rebellion.88
The youngest son, Bartolome, entered the Seminario-Colegio de San Carlos in
1900 and, in 1903, was reported to have completed his fourth year of secondary
studies.89 Although none of their sons completed a post-secondary degree, and none
of them had a profession or an income-generating position, their studies provided
them with sufficient training to participate in the highest levels of urban society, a
role that was greatly facilitated by their family’s considerable wealth. Based on the
descriptions of the lives and talents of the women in the family, it is also evident that
they all obtained considerable informal education and were comfortably literate in
Castellano as well as Cebuano.
Convinced that the family’s future was rooted in the rapid transformation of
Cebu and the Philippines, Nicasio and Genoveva consciously pursued the effort to
strategically manage the marriages of their children, especially their daughters. This
strategy does not appear to have been deployed until the late 1880s and is more
evident in the 1890s, at a time when the family’s wealth and social position had
been fully realized, and their daughters in particular were at marriageable ages. It is
uncertain if the early marriage of their daughter Maximina in 1882 to a Chinese rice
merchant operating in Cebu was planned or even condoned by the parents; clearly
Maximina at the time was barely out of adolescence. She was the only Chiong
Veloso child to marry a Chinese. The marriage of their eldest son, Potenciano, to a
teenage provinciana from Barili in 1886, however, was a clear strategic liaison, as
will be explained in more detail below.

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Subsequent marriage partners, especially for their seven remaining single

daughters, were carefully considered, if not manipulated. The selection of male
partners was not just about finding appropriate husbands for their daughters but also
about securing strategic links for the family. In addition, the objective did not appear
to be aimed at wealth, but more at the man’s station, influence, and potential. In these
endeavors, Nicasio and Genoveva proved prescient, especially in the selection of the
first three men: Segundo Singson, Teodoro Velez and Sergio Osmeña. Each of the
prospective husbands was deeply involved in the larger transformations taking place
in Cebu and beyond. Significantly, the three men selected, when taken collectively,
descended from eight of Cebu City’s wealthiest and most prestigious Chinese
Mestizo families of the day: Climaco, Noel, Osmeña, Roa, Sanson, Singson, Suico,
and Velez (Cullinane 2013 and 2017a). Moreover, each of the husbands not only
improved the family’s social position but also protected and promoted its interests,
especially within the changing political milieu at the end of the 1890s and in the
early decades of the 20th century.
Although there may have been earlier prospects, the first more fully documented
son-in-law was Segundo Singson y Suico (1845-1913), whose first wife had died by
1882, making him a very eligible widower. In many ways, Singson was the perfect
choice as a husband in late 1880s Cebu, when the eldest Chiong Veloso daughter,
Eleuteria, was in her late-20s and already well-established in Cebu City. Singson
was highly educated (an abogado), the heir and owner of three substantial houses in
Parian and extensive sugar lands in Medellin, and an increasingly well-positioned
attorney and judge in the colonial administration of Cebu City.90 Nicasio was well-
acquainted with Singson, since their lives overlapped in many urban venues (see,
among others, El Boletin de Cebú, 1/18/1889, 9/13/1891). Segundo and Eleuteria
were married in 1891 and by 1892, Singson had become the primary apoderado of
Nicasio and Genoveva and, as noted, played a major role in the family’s post-1898
life in Cebu City.91
Though somewhat less strategic economically, the marriage between their
daughter Hermenegilda and Teodoro Velez y Climaco (1869-1932) was well-
considered in terms of his social standing.92 Teodoro was one of the sons of the
influential Velez-Climaco family of Cebu City, with links to Misamis; he had studied
at San Juan de Letrán in Manila and returned to Cebu in the mid-1880s to assist
his parents in managing their property in the city. By the mid-1890s, he was an
eligible bachelor in his mid-20s and an active member of Cebu’s Jockey Club, the
meeting ground of Cebu’s most prominent males. The Velez-Climaco family had
most of their commercial property along Calle de Lutaos which, like that of Nicasio,
was destroyed by the Spanish naval cruiser in April 1898. Though the family was

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not directly involved in the uprising in 1898, both Teodoro and his older brother
Marcial, like Segundo Singson, were active in the Republican government that
came to power in Cebu City at the start of 1899. At this time, Teodoro married
Hermenegilda Ch. Veloso and, at the same time, he developed a close relationship
with both Segundo Singson (now his brother-in-law) and Sergio Osmeña.93 As the
political upheavals played out over the next two years, Teodoro and Hermenegilda
entered the American era as one of Cebu City’s most prominent couples.
The most intriguing of these strategic marriages, of course, was between
Estefania Ch. Veloso and Sergio Osmeña y Suico (1878-1961). Osmeña’s relationship
with Nicasio probably began in late 1896, when Osmeña returned to Cebu in the
midst of his law studies at the University of Santo Tomás; he had just turned 19 years
old.94 The most likely link between the two was Nicasio’s son Januario, who was also
studying law at Santo Tomás at this same time. Subsequently, both Nicasio and the
young Sergio pursued their relationship with Cebu’s provincial governor, Celestino
Fernández Tejeiro. For the next year, Osmeña served as an assistant and publicist
for Tejeiro and began his own integration into the political economy of Cebu City,
his birthplace.95 In so doing, he established lasting relationships with a wide range
of ciudadanos, including Nicasio Veloso Chiong Tuico, Segundo Singson, and
Teodoro Velez. These relationships persisted throughout the turmoil that began in
Cebu in April 1898 (the uprising) and persisted with the arrival of the Americans
in the Philippines in May and their military intervention in Cebu in February 1899.
Within a year (4/1898 and 3/1899), Cebu underwent a rapid transformation from the
site of an anti-Spanish uprising, to the installation of a Republican government, to
the imposition of an American military occupation.
By the middle of 1899, Osmeña was trying to finish his law degree at Santo
Tomás, was empowered by the Republican government as Cebu’s contratista
de anfion (likely on behalf of Nicasio), and was courting or being courted by
Constancia Ch. Veloso, the daughter of Nicasio and Genoveva (Villamor 1948:
27-32; Cullinane 2003: 210). By April the following year, he was concluding his
studies, launched his newspaper (El Nuevo Dia) in Cebu, mourned the sudden death
of his betrothed, Constancia Ch. Veloso, and observed his two colleagues move in
different directions in the impending struggle with the Americans (Singson toward
collaboration, and the Velez family toward resistance to American rule). In 1901,
he joined the Chiong Veloso family by marrying Estefania (Constancia’s sister),
passed the bar exam, began his political career in Cebu, and became the apoderado
of Nicasio Veloso Chiong Tuico, his father-in-law.96 In the case of Osmeña, the
most obvious contribution of the Chiong Veloso connection was financial security,
something he had not yet achieved in his earlier life. For the Chiong Veloso family,

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the relationship undoubtedly proved more rewarding than either of the parents could
have anticipated.
At the time of the deaths of their parents in 1903, nine of the children of
Nicasio and Genoveva, as well as the children of their late son, Potenciano, inherited
the family fortune. At the time of his death, Nicasio was one of the wealthiest
residents of Cebu and left a considerable inheritance to his heirs. His children were
among the most prominent residents of Cebu City at the time. There were no social,
political, or religious events that did not involve one or another member of this
family. Summarizing the lives of this second generation reveals a family that was
well-integrated into the early 20th-century urban elite of Cebu and a rapidly growing
national oligarchy.
Two of their children, of course, had died ahead of Nicasio and Genoveva:
Constancia, a younger daughter, and Potenciano, their eldest son. In 1895,
Constancia had been featured in El Boletin de Cebú (9/1) as “la simpática señorita
D.a Constancia Veloso, hija del comerciante acaudalado de esta localidad, D. Nicasio
Veloso.” Her tragic death in 1900 resulted in her alleged fiancé, Sergio Osmeña,
marrying her older sister Estefania (Villamor 1948: 27-32).97 Although the family
records the death of Potenciano in 1907, it is clear from the litigations pertaining to
the inheritance of Nicasio and Genoveva that he had died earlier. His daughter and
son-in-law stated that he died in 1903, six weeks before the deaths of his parents.98
Potenciano’s relationship with the family remains somewhat ambiguous, in part
because he resided much of the time in Barili, removing him from family festivities
that occurred in Cebu City. After the death of Potenciano, however, his wife,
Damasa Ricablanca, and their six surviving children were all fully incorporated into
the family of Nicasio and Genoveva.99 Perhaps the most curious matters pertaining
to Potenciano were his livelihood and the apparent loss of part of the property his
wife and children inherited from Gregoria Flores, the widow of the wealthy Barili
landowner Francisco Cabaton. This is a tale that provides valuable insight into the
ability of Nicasio to operate within the Hispano-Filipino world surrounding him.
Francisco Cabaton and Gregoria Flores were both Chinese Mestizos from
Cebu City’s Parian. By the 1860s, they had migrated to Barili, where Francisco, in
addition to serving as Gobernadorcillo, accumulated an immense amount of land,
nearly all of which included tenants (inquilinos). These lands largely produced
corn and, probably, by the 1880s an increasing amount of tobacco, with these
commodities abundant in the Barili-Dumanjug-Aloguinsan-Pinamungahan area
of Cebu’s southwest coast. At his death in 1886, Francisco left to his widow a
substantial fortune in mostly non-contiguous landholdings and tenants throughout
Barili and elsewhere, as well as houses and warehouses in Guibuangan and in the

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nearby población of Barili. The couple had no children of their own, but in his
testamento he left property to Damasa Ricablanca for her services, noting that she
was also his niece (sobrina; should be grand niece). The bulk of his estate, however,
was left to his widow, Gregoria Flores, the great aunt of Damasa Ricablanca. A
month and a half later, Potenciano Chiong, at the age of 20, married the 17-year-old
Damasa Ricablanca at the Barili Church.100
Less than a year after their marriage, Gregoria Flores, at the age of 65, notarized
her will, leaving nearly all her possessions and property to Damasa Ricablanca
and naming Genoveva Chiong y Ricablanca, the infant daughter of Damasa and
Potenciano, as her universal heir. At this time, Gregoria named Nicasio Veloso
Chiong Tuico, Damasa’s father-in-law, as the primary executor (albacea) of her
estate. A decade later, in 1897, Gregoria Flores re-issued her testamento, confirming
the property she had left to her grand niece, Damasa Ricablanca, but updating the
names of her universal heirs. The child, Genoveva Chiong, had died, but four others
had been born to Damasa and Potenciano: Maria, Anunciacion, Alfonso, and Pilar;
she named these children as her universal heirs. At the time that she revised her will,
Gregoria Flores, now in her mid-70s, was living in the Chiong Veloso house in Cebu
City and, once again named Nicasio Veloso Chiong Tuico the primary executor of
her estate; in revising her will, she then assigned Segundo Singson as her assistant
executor, placing the entire estate under the control of the Chiong Veloso family.101
Despite the fact that the available documents are incomplete and somewhat
inconsistent, they confirm that the property inherited by Damasa Ricablanca and the
children of Potenciano Chiong Veloso was quite substantial. It included extensive
corn and tobacco lands (with resident tenants) throughout Barili and in Aloguinsan,
all the “terrenos, camarines, molinos, carabaos y aperos de labranza” in Bato,
Toledo, and the family house and warehouses in the municipality of Barili.102
This story raises a number of questions, beginning with the presence of
Potenciano Chiong Veloso in Barili in the 1880s. His marriage to Damasa Ricablanca
in the midst of her becoming an heiress to the substantial estate of Francisco Cabaton
was not a coincidence. According to Potenciano’s daughter and son-in-law, Nicasio
Veloso Chiong Tuico sent his son to Barili as a buyer of tobacco. Upon his arrival,
Barili was also at the center of a major corn-producing area, with one of its leading
producers and merchants being the prominent Barili resident, Francisco Cabaton.
Corn, a major food staple in Cebu, and tobacco, a rapidly growing commercial
crop, were significant productos del país entering Cebu’s market from Barili, often
through Chinese merchants, like Nicasio, based in Cebu City. Several critical events
occurred in 1886: 1) the establishment of the Barili branch of the Compañía General
de Tobacos (Tabacalera); 2) the death of Francisco Cabaton and the empowerment

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of Damasa Ricablanca in his will; and 3) Potenciano’s marriage in Barili to Damasa

Ricablanca. Potenciano was in the right place at the right time, with his daughter
later observing: “it is said that he married Damasa mainly for her lands.”103 Although
Damasa retained the family house in Barili, as well as some of the old Cabaton
lands, much of the inherited property appears to have been sold or lost. When
his granddaughter was asked about the property, she responded by stating that
Potenciano had “apparently gambled [it] away.”104
At the death of their parents in 1903, the nine surviving children, as well as
Damasa Ricablanca and her six children, were the recipients of the properties and
business assets left to them by Nicasio and Genoveva. As noted above, four of the
nine children, daughters all, were already married, three to prominent local men:
Eleuteria to Segundo Singson y Singson (1891); Hermenegilda to Teodoro Velez
y Climaco (1899); and Estefania to Sergio Osmeña y Suico (1901).105 The fourth
daughter, Maximina, was married to Manuel Martinez Tio Cuangco (later: Tio
Cuana), who first appeared in the records in the early 1880s as a Chinese rice merchant
operating in Cebu City.106 By the 1890s, Manuel disappears from the records, other
than being listed periodically as Maximina’s husband and, occasionally, as her
business associate. All four of these daughters were hailed in the local press both as
distinguished wives (señoras) and as major figures in their own right, often involved
in a range of activities within the larger society and economy. Estefania, as ‘Donya
Pipang,’ emerged by 1907 as the “first lady” of the land, with her husband, Sergio
Osmeña, selected as the Speaker of the Philippine Assembly and as the President of
the dominant Partido Nacionalista.
Between 1904 and 1916, the five other Chiong Veloso children all married
prominent Filipinos of Cebu and Manila. In 1904, Cayetana Ch. Veloso, married
Dalmacio Francisco, at the time the head of the Forestry Department’s office in Cebu
and from a prominent Tagalog family; in less than a year Cayetana died, resulting
eventually in a concerted effort on the part of her siblings to limit her widower’s
share of the family’s inheritance, a litigation that appears to have been successful
(Ang Camatuoran, 11/5/1904; 6/10/1905; 6/17/1905).107 In about 1906, Tomasa,
Cayetana’s older sister, married Pedro Rodriguez y Lasala, a wealthy landowner
of Bogo and major political figure in the city and province; Tomasa gave birth to
three children but died in childbirth in 1911 (Ang Camatuoran, 7/29/1911).108 In
1907, Januario had married Encarnacion Garcia y Fortich, whose father, Pablo
García Fernández, a Spaniard, resided at the time in Sibonga.109 In 1908, Bartolome
married Rosalia Rosado of Manila, but by 1919 they were legally separated and
later divorced (Bag-ong Kusog, 10/2/1919; 9/25/1925; The Freeman, 10/5/1919).110
Lastly, at the age of 36 in 1916, Corazon married Manila-born Antonio Torres, the

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son of the Supreme Court Justice Florentino Torres; since 1912 Antonio had been
serving as a private secretary for Corazon’s brother-in-law, Sergio Osmeña. Antonio
later became the Chief of the Manila Police Department.111
What stands out in assessing the Chiong Veloso family at the end of the 19th and
early 20th centuries is the remarkable industriousness of the daughters of Nicasio and
Genoveva and the perceived lack of these qualities on the part of their sons.112 The
instability of the sons contrasts strikingly with the structured lives of the daughters,
as well as with their sister-in-law, Damasa Ricablanca. While each of the daughters
engaged in an array of social and religious commitments in the city as representatives
of their family, they also took the lead in a wide range of entrepreneurial pursuits.
Several examples of the latter are described by family members and in the public
records of the time, revealing the breadth of their activities.
The two most commercially active daughters of Nicasio and Genoveva were
Eleuteria and Tomasa. Both before and after her marriage to Segundo Singson,
Eleuteria was fully engaged in a number of business transactions, appearing for the
first time in the colonial records as she reached adulthood (age 25) in 1889 as the
buyer of a sailing vessel (pailebot) used for interisland commerce; this was the first
major sailing vessel purchased by the family according to the existing records.113
After her marriage, she continued her commercial endeavors, many of which
focused on businesses related to those of her father. During the same year as her
marriage (1891), she had two commercial entries in the Contribución Industrial, one
indicating that she was a tuba merchant in the city, and the other describing her as a
traficante, selling “menor generos y productos de país” in the municipalities of Cebu
Province. In 1896-1897, she was taxed for three commercial operations in the city
and was reported to be the owner of a tienda at No. 3 Plaza de General Loño, where
she sold “hilados y tejidos de todas clases.”114 By the early 1900s, Eleuteria, in
addition to her own interests, engaged in business as her husband’s apoderado and
was herself referred to variously as hacendera and propietaria.115 Based on these
transactions, it is possible to consider Eleuteria as the most entrepreneurial child of
her Chinese father.
Tomasa (Masay), though younger than Eleuteria, was already in 1891 registered
for tax purposes as a traficante engaged in the sale of the same commodities as her
sister throughout the province. In the same year, she was featured on the cover of
the inaugural issue of a new Manila-based magazine, El Bello Sexo, where she was
praised for her beauty, her education, and “otras excelentes cualidades,” all of which
made her “un astro de primera magnitud.” Over the next decade and a half, Tomasa
was involved in land transactions, in a money-changing business, and in tobacco

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trading, as well as various litigations relating to these and other enterprises.116 On the
eve of her marriage to Pedro Rodriguez, Tomasa was selected by the members of the
Cebu Jockey Club as their leading representative of the “bello sexo de esta ciudad”
and presided over their major racing event in 1905 (Ang Camatuoran, 5/3/1905).
Like her older sister, Eleuteria, Tomasa seamlessly balanced the two seemingly
contradictory roles of entrepreneur and muse, operating effectively in both worlds.
Although little is known of the early life of Maximina, aside from her marriage
to Manuel Martinez Tio Cuangco, it does not appear that she was engaged in the
business ventures of her parents and, despite her age, was not registered in any
taxable enterprises in the 1890s, like Eleuteria and Tomasa; her husband, Tio
Cuangco, disappeared from Cebu’s notarial records from 1883 to 1904, when he
reappeared as Maximina’s husband in a transaction negotiated by his wife.117 In the
early 20th century, however, Maximina emerged as an aggressive businesswoman,
who by 1908 owned and operated, among other things, a popular pawnshop. From
1911 on, some of her business transactions led to indebtedness, consuming her in
serious litigations and eventually causing conflicts with other members of family,
all involving the protection of assets inherited from their parents.118 Maximina’s
relationship with her siblings was exacerbated by the marriage of her daughter Lucia
Martinez to Domingo Franco (1878-1911), a prominent Iloilo-born attorney, who
filed a lawsuit against Maximina’s siblings in 1907 and between 1908 and 1911
unsuccessfully challenged the leadership of Sergio Osmeña in Cebu.119 Despite
her entrepreneurial propensities, Maximina and her family remained largely
marginalized from the other Chiong Veloso siblings, but consistently engaged in a
range of business ventures.
Though her life was cut short by complications relating to rheumatism in
1905, Cayetana (Tanay) was probably the most socially active of the sisters;
she travelled regularly to Manila, often with her parents, and, between 1897 and
early 1898 (before Tres de Abril), acquired considerable land in San Nicolas and
Pardo, extending the family’s landholdings in these adjacent municipalities.120
Both Estefania (Pipang) and Corazon (Azon), given their ages, had no recorded
involvements in the family businesses, though recollections allege that Nicasio was
reluctant to marry off Estefania since he is said to have considered her “the most
business-minded of the daughters.”121 Her marriage did, indeed, remove her from a
life of business, since, between 1901 and 1918, Estefania gave birth to 12 children
and died in childbirth with the 13th, resulting in her being pregnant more than half
the time she was married to Sergio Osmeña. Despite her overwhelming involvement
in childbearing, Estefania was able to carry out numerous representative obligations.
Moreover, both Estefania and Corazon spent considerable time living in Manila with

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their politically active husbands, removing both of them from the everyday life of
the family properties and business interests in Cebu.
In contrast to the daughters, the lives of the three sons moved in different
directions, resulting in their being viewed as non-productive children whose
lifestyles were detrimental to the collective well-being of the family. As noted above,
the eldest son, Potenciano, was sent to Barili (probably in his late teens), separating
him from the family’s city-based social and commercial activities, especially in
the 1890s, when the family’s business interests prospered and when the women
of the family entered the city’s high society. Potenciano’s primary contribution to
the family stemmed from his marriage to Damasa Ricablanca, the heiress of the
extensive properties of Francisco Cabaton. At the same time, he has been construed
as the one who jeopardized these assets through his gambling exploits. Nicasio and
Genoveva, of course, died before being able to assess the contributions of their
two youngest sons, Januario (Nayong, b.1877) and Bartolome (Oming, b.1886).
Unlike the daughters, both of these sons were launched on an educational rather
than commercial path as adolescents, Januario at 13 in 1890 and Bartolome at 14 in
1900. During much of the 1890s, Potenciano was in Barili, Januario was in Manila
(at Letrán), and Bartolome was a child surrounded by his assertive older sisters.
It was a household dominated by women, all of whom contributed to the family
business and comported themselves as eligible partners of respectable men of the
urban area---they were attractive representatives of el bello sexo.
Shortly after Januario returned to Cebu from his studies in Manila, he obtained
his share of his father’s fortune, which he was already accustomed to spending. In
1903, his brother Bartolome, while still contemplating post-secondary education,
began his adult life as one of the herederos of Nicasio Veloso Chiong Tuico. Januario,
probably because of his Manila-based education and broader range of contacts and
travels, was more in tune with the political economy of Cebu than was his younger
brother, who acted more irresponsibly as an entitled young man who was difficult to
control. Both men were plagued by their wealth and by the social position that came
with it. Moreover, they were empowered by their politically influential brothers-
in-law: Segundo Singson, Sergio Osmeña, Pedro Rodriguez, Teodoro Velez, and
Antonio Torres, as well as the attorney, Domingo Franco, the husband of their first
cousin, Lucia Ch. Veloso Martinez. In addition to wealth, they inherited an exalted
place in the urban society and undoubtedly struggled with perpetual comparisons
between them and their exemplary sisters.
Januario flirted with owning a bike shop (El Pueblo, 1/26/1901) and dabbled
in moneylending and rental property (Ang Suga, 1906, 10/12 and 10/17).122 Most of
his time, however, was devoted to politics, horse racing, gambling, and ostentatious

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entertainment. In 1900, he joined with the outspoken intellectual and newspaper

editor Vicente Sotto and his admirers to sign a petition to prevent friars from
returning to Cebu, while four years later he was selected as a board member of
the Comité de Caballeros de Colon (the Knights of Columbus), organized by the
priests at the Cebu Cathedral (El Pueblo, 1/31/1901; Ang Camatuoran, 11/19/1904).
On at least two occasions he was selected to serve on the organizing committee
for Cebu City’s Rizal Day festivities (El Pueblo, 12/30/1905; Ang Camatuoran,
12/12/1908). In the volatile politics of Cebu City between 1902 and 1907, he
actively supported the political ascendancy of his brother-in-law Sergio Osmeña and
was one of the major contributors in late 1906 to Vicente Sotto’s controversial bail
bond to avoid imprisonment (El Pueblo, 12/30/1905; Ang Camatuoran, 11/10/1906;
Bag-ong Kusog, 7/31/1931). In 1907, after the triumph of Osmeña in the Philippine
Assembly, he was nominated as a Nacionalista candidate for Cebu City’s municipal
council elections (Ang Suga, 9/6/1907), but does not appear to have stood for the
office. He was regularly engaged in a wide range of polemics and civil court cases
(El Pueblo 5/2/1901; Ang Suga, 4/15/1906 and 6/21/1909; Freeman, 6/5/1921) and,
on one occasion, was arrested and sentenced to fifteen days in jail, but was pardoned
by the Governor General (Ang Suga, 12/10/1909). Throughout these endeavors, he
was consistently active in the Cebu Jockey Club as the owner of successful race
horses (El Pueblo, 12/30/1905; Ang Camatuoran, 11/7/1906; 10/28/1911) and
various gambling activities (see, for example, Bag-ong Kusog, 4/27/1923). After
the victory of two of his horses in late 1905, he hosted an enormous banquet at
his family’s “regia morada,” featuring an orchestra, dancing, and a midnight feast,
an event that El Pueblo (11/18/1905) concluded confirmed the “almost legendary
savoir-faire” of “los opulentos Sres. Ch. Veloso.” Less than a year later, he joined
his sisters in hosting the large despedida for the American Provincial Treasurer and
early Osmeña supporter, Fred Schlotfeld, with the event written up in The Manila
Times (7/17/1906) as having included some 200 guests representing the “elite of the
province.” He died during the Japanese Occupation (1943) after spending much of
the 1930s as a controversial customs’ agent at the port of Cebu (Bag-ong Kusog,
5/19/1933). He left behind seven children with his wife Encarnacion Garcia.
Unlike Januario, Bartolome was never able to achieve any degree of normalcy;
he moved from one conflict to another up until his untimely death from pneumonia
in 1926 (Independent, 2/6/1926). At the time of the death of his parents in 1903, his
court-assigned guardian, Father Juan Gorordo (Ang Camatuoran, 1/28/1905), was
unable to restrain him from involvements in potentially criminal acts, resulting in
the priest placing a notice in the local paper informing the public that no one was
permitted to engage in any contract or business dealings with Bartolome without his

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approval (as guardian) and that of the court (Ang Camatuoran, 7/27/1907). Though
he returned to school in Manila, supported the victims of a fire in Pasil, and became
a member of the Pili branch of the Club Rizal (El Pueblo, 4/12/1903 and 8/6/1906),
his life spiraled out of control even before he reached formal adulthood in 1911 (El
Pueblo, 1904: 5/1, 5/8, and 5/22). In late 1907, he moved from petty crimes related
to swindling (estafa) to felony rape (“salang esturpo”) involving the daughter of
another prominent Cebu family. Though declared guilty, his sentence was appealed
and lingered in the courts for two years; though he was in the end pardoned by
the Governor General, he was required to provide regular monthly support for
the child of his victim.123 In the aftermath of this case, Bartolome continued to be
involved in cases of estafa (Nueva Fuerza, 1915, 5/27 and 11/7; The Cablenews-
American, 1915, 8/31 and 11/2), culminating in another felony arrest in 1918 for his
involvement in a criminal syndicate that included his nephew Vicente Martinez, the
son of his older sister Maximina. After several years of litigation, Bartolome was
sentenced to over six years in prison, but was pardoned on the condition that he go
into exile in Hong Kong.124 While he and his wife, Rosalia Rosado, were separated
in 1919 and divorced in 1925, she and their three children remained for some time
well-integrated in the Chiong Veloso family of Cebu City.
At the death of Nicasio and Genoveva in 1903, their estate “amounted in all to
upwards of 800,000 pesos.”125 It appears that Nicasio and Genoveva did not leave
a formal will, resulting in the necessity of the provincial court to intervene in the
distribution of the estate to the Chiong Veloso heirs. As such, public knowledge of
various portions of the estate was periodically revealed through various court cases,
often involving members of the family. Six months after their deaths, the Court of
First Instance named three prominent residents of Cebu City as the comisionados de
avaluo, tasked with assessing the value of the estate, as announced in both Tingog
sa Lungsod and Ang Camatuoran (4/2/1904). In a little over a week later, these
commissioners issued a public call to anyone with a claim against the estate to
present it within six months (Tingog sa Lungsod, 4/14/1904). At the end of August,
Tomasa Ch. Veloso deposited a document that purported to be her father’s will
with the court, which announced that the distributions of the estate would likely be
approved within a month, a decision that the heirs were reported to be anxiously
awaiting (Tingog sa Lungsod, 8/30/1904 and 9/27/1904). At the end of the year, the
court announced that Jaime Vañó, a well-known commercial agent in the employ of
the British firm of Smith Bell and Company, had been named as the administrator of
the estate (Ang Camatuoran, 12/24/1904 and 1/7/1905).
Over the next five years, Vañó further assessed the family’s assets, managed
the rental properties, collected debts to the estate, and negotiated the distribution

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of property and other bienes to the heirs. Unfortunately there does not appear to
have been any formal public record that documented the specific assets received
by each of the surviving heirs. Family members recalled that Januario Ch. Veloso
received 102,000 pesos as his share of the inheritance from his parents.126 If the
other heirs received similar amounts, it would suggest that the estate was most likely
valued at over a million pesos by the time it was divided among the heirs. Given
the reality that much of the inheritance was in the form of prime urban property in
Cebu City, the early 20th-century values of this property undoubtedly appreciated
tremendously in the next decades.127 Though the details pertaining to the exact size
of the estate and its distribution to the heirs are not available in the existing public
records, there is little doubt that Nicasio and Genoveva had more than guaranteed
the financial security of their children, especially for those who engaged in the
proper management of these assets.
By 1920, five of their children had died (Constancia, Potenciano, Cayetana,
Tomasa, and Estefania), and one was in criminal exile (Bartolome). While Eleuteria
died as a widow of 27 years on the eve of the war (1940), and Januario died during
the war (1943), three daughters survived into the post-war era: Maximina, a widow
and estranged from the family (1957), Hermenegilda, a widow of 32 years (1964),
and Corazon, also a widow (1968). Although the next generation of Chiong Velosos
continued to prosper, the stories of the grandchildren of Nicasio and Genoveva
remain beyond the purview of this essay.
Concluding Remarks
Was this a Chinese family? If the focus is genetic, perhaps the answer would be
yes: Nicasio was Chinese, and Genoveva was considered to be part Chinese. If the
focus was ethnic or cultural, finding an answer would be more complicated. Nicasio,
as a Chinese sojourner to the Philippines, performed his “racial” role as a foreign
entrepreneur in ways that were very similar to other Chinese operating in Cebu---he
was a very successful Chinese entrepreneur and shopkeeper. Moreover, he retained
his association with his Gremio, despite the fact that it was of only peripheral
importance to his family and business. While remaining Chinese (as well as being
perpetually designated Chinese), it is possible to conclude that he was different
from other Chinese. The most significant difference, of course, was his non-Chinese
family. Though he was acknowledged as the patriarch of his family, this designation
by no means meant that he was patriarchal or that his family privileged patrilineal
practices that may have prevailed in China, his country of birth. His family was
Filipino, operating through more bilateral practices that clearly portrayed a high

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level of female autonomy. At the time of his death, Nicasio was the family’s amahan
(tatay)--a native father, rather than the patriarch of a male lineage where he and
his sons prevailed.128 There was no sense that his daughters would marry out of
the family or be denied their share of, even their role in, the family’s wealth. This
reality, of course, was also determined by the prevailing laws of the land, laws
that originated in Spain, that underwent over 300 years of interaction with the
archipelago’s indigenous society, and were mostly reinstituted in the 1900s. Though
Nicasio was born a Chinese, he died a Filipino, presiding over a family that had its
roots in a Hispanic colonial milieu that had, by 1898, become Filipino.
One of the most interesting aspects pertaining to the Chiong Veloso family
identity was raised at the time of Nicasio’s death and was preserved in one of
the many post-1903 court cases related to his inheritance. Nicasio, as noted, died
eight days before Genoveva. Apparently, during this brief period before her death,
Genoveva and her surviving children gathered at this sad moment and discussed
their father’s funeral. Of course, it would have to be a grand event. What complicated
this moment, however, was the apparent realization of the widow and children that
their father was Chinese. That changed everything. As the court narrative explains,
the family decided to hire Chiong Jocsuy, an alleged relative (“adopted” child or
“nephew” of Nicasio) to arrange for a proper, even elaborate, “Chinese” funeral
for their father. Chiong Jocsuy was selected not only because he had an association
with the family but because he, too, was Chinese like their father and would know
how to prepare a Chinese funeral. As such, Genoveva agreed to pay him 50,000
pesos for this service, with part of the funds to cover the cost of the service (30,000
pesos) and the rest to him as a member of the family (20,000 pesos). From the
family’s viewpoint, Chiong Jocsuy failed in his mission and was sued; from his
perspective, he had carried out his duties. The court decided in favor of Chiong
Jocsuy, largely because the family seemed to have failed to explain to him what
they meant by a proper Chinese funeral.129 As it turned out, the family meant to
give their Chinese father a proper send-off, but were themselves so disconnected
from anything “Chinese” that they were uncertain how to proceed and ended up
disappointed with the results.

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Appendix 1: Chiong Veloso Family
Nicasio Veloso Chiong Tuico (1838-1903)

== Genoveva Rosales (1845-1903)
Eleuteria Ch Veloso (1863-1940)

=1891= Segundo Singson y Suico (1845-1911)
Potenciano Ch Veloso (1866-1903)

=1886= Damasa Ricablanca (b.1869)
Maximina Ch Veloso (d.1957)

=1882= Manuel Martinez Tio Cuangco (d.ca.1911)
Tomasa Ch Veloso (d.1911)

=ca.1906= Pedro Rodriguez y Lasala (1868-1932)
Cayetana Ch Veloso (1870-1905)

=1904= Dalmacio Francisco (d.1926)
Hermenegilda Ch Veloso (1871-1964)

=1899= Teodoro Velez y Climaco (1869-1932)
Estefania Ch Veloso (1875-1918)

=1901= Sergio Osmeña y Suico (1878-1961)
Januario Ch Veloso (1877-1943)

=1907= Encarnacion Garcia y Fortich (b.1885)
Constancia Ch Veloso (d.1900)
Corazon Ch Veloso (1880-1968)

=1916= Antonio Torres
Bartolome Ch Veloso (1886-1926)

=ca.1908= Rosalia Rosado

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Endnotes
1
This number is derived from a thorough inventory of the notarial records for Cebu
at the National Archives of the Philippines (NAP, Protocolos, Cebu), from 1860 to 1903.
2
On Gavino Veloso as his baptismal sponsor, see NAP, Chinos en Provincia, Cebu,
Elecciones, Año de 1885; on the Veloso family and Gavino Veloso, Veloso n.d. It should
be noted that during the Spanish period spelling fluctuated frequently, even for Spaniards.
As such, the name “Tuico” was often written as “Tuyco.” To be consistent, this essay will
use “Tuico.”
3
The official family booklet (Nicasio Chiong 2008) claims that there were twelve
children, including a son, Romeo (or Aureo), who was unknown to family members
and born after World War II. His name appeared as a sibling, written on the margins
of a family photograph in the early 1900s. If he was a child of Nicasio and Genoveva
it is quite likely that he died young and was not recalled by later family members; this
information was confirmed in an email communication from Marilou Bernardo [great
great granddaughter of Nicasio and Genoveva], 12/16/2007. A child named “Aurea” is
also mentioned in Briones 1983: 20-21. In this essay only the eleven known children will
be discussed. In the family booklet, it is also indicated that Nicasio and Genoveva had one
“adopted” child. The child is not named in the narrative section of the booklet, but at the
end of the list of children (p. 41), the authors included: Chiong Joc Suy, also named Jose
Chiong Veloso. His date and place of birth are not given, but his children are named, with
no reference to his wife. He will be discussed briefly later in this essay.
4
NAP, Protocolos, Cebu, 1332, 6/13/1863: 166-170, 171-174. Based on the price of
this house (700 pesos), it is evident that it was for this time period well-constructed and in
excellent condition. In a later transaction, it was determined that Nicasio purchased this
house from the grandmother of Genoveva Rosales: Leonora de la Visitacion y Rosales.
5
NAP, Protocolos, Cebu, 1421, Reconocimientos de Hijos Naturales, 8/4/1902.
6
Although the birth order is not certain, their eleven children were as follows:
Eleuteria (b.1863); Potenciano (b.1866); Maximina; Tomasa; Cayetana; Hermenegilda
(b.1871); Estefania (b.1875); Constancia; Januario (b.1877); Corazon (b.1880); and
Bartolome (b.1886). For more details, see Appendix A. The children listed above and
their birth order were confirmed by Marilou Bernardo in an email communication on
12/16/2007, based on her consultation with other members of the Ch. Veloso family.
On his origin in “Emuy,” see, among others: NAP, Protocolos, Cebu, 1345,
7
9/15/1873, 297: 774-776; 1380, 5/7/1887, 4: 11-12; on “Tangoa,” see 1390, 11/9/1896,
239: 902-904; 1422, 8/1/1900, 24: 89-91. On his birth month and year, see El Boletin
de Cebú, 9/1/1895 (on his being born in September), and NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1425,

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9/7/1901, 224: 172-175; 1425, 10/4/1901, 237: 246-249; 1425, 10/10/1901, 242: 268-
271; 1425, 11/19/1901, 272: 398-401; 1426, 6/9/1902, 60: 264-265 (on several consistent
reports on his age two years before his death).
On the death dates of Nicasio (10/18/1903) and Genoveva (10/28/1903), see the
8
couple’s joint grave marker (Restos Mortales) at the Recollect Church, Cebu City; see
also Ang Camatuoran, 10/14/1908, which gives Genoveva’s death date as 10/26/1903,
which is the same date given in Nicasio Chiong Veloso 2008: 8.
9
The only possible exception to this was Chiong Joc Suy (aka Jose Chiong Veloso),
who is considered by members of the Chiong Veloso family today to have been either
“adopted” by Nicasio Veloso Chiong Tuico or his nephew. Although Nicasio did not
officially acknowledge Chiong Joc Suy as a relative and does not appear to have had any
business relationship with him, Chiong Joc Suy was definitely included in the family’s
inheritance, but not apparently as designated by Nicasio but by his widow, Genoveva
Rosales, who commissioned Chiong Joc Suy to arrange for the formal burial of her late
husband; this case will be discussed in more detail at the end of this essay; on Chiong Joc
Suy, see Philippine Reports 1904-, Supreme Court case no. 3459, 3/22/1907, 8: 119-125;
and Nicasio Chiong Veloso 2008: 41. In the public records, there is no mention of Chiong
Joc Suy until 1907, and in no records is he referred to as Jose Chiong Veloso. In 1911, he
was identified as a resident merchant; see USNA, RE-350, 2694-21: “List of Importers
and Merchants in the City of Cebu,” 10/23/1911. In 1915, he was listed as one of the
Chinese signatories representing Cebu’s shipping companies protesting a rate increase
(Nueva Fuerza, 7/22/1915 and 9/16/1915).
For examples of the signature “Nicasio Veloso C.T.,” see NAP, Protocolos, Cebu:
10
1347, 12/24/1875, 11: 38-39; 1350, 3/23/1876, 56: 206-207; 1351, 8/9/1877, 171: 526-
530; 1369, 11/6/1883, 232: 468-469; 1373, 6/11/1885, 104: 243-246; 1380: 5/27/1887,
13: 26-30. See also El Boletin de Cebú, 1/11/1891.
As early as 1868, he was formally referred to as “Chino Nicasio Veloso, cristiano;”
11
see NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1340, 3/14/1868, 34: 116-118. On Genoveva’s name, see
NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1426, 1/31/1903, 12: 684-689.
Barili Parish Records, Marriage Registers, 3/9/1886. See also NAP, Protocolos,
12
Cebu: 1379, 2/9/1887, 34: 78-82; 1380, 6/19/1888, 154: 71-73.

13
See Libros de Matrícula, Seminario-Colegio de San Carlos, 1890-1892, located
at the Archives of the Minor Seminary at Mabolo, Cebu; the matriculation records of the
Colegio de San Juan de Letrán at the University of Santo Tomás, 1892-1895; El Boletin
de Cebú, 6/7/1896 and 9/13/1896; and El Pueblo, 1/26/1901.
The eldest daughter, Eleuteria, began using “Chiong Veloso” in 1896, see El
14
Boletin de Cebú, 10/11/1896; for earlier versions of her surname, see: NAP, Protocolos,

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Cebu: 1390, 9/25/1889, 119: 374-377; and 1422, 10/11/1891, 75: 333-338; see also El
Boletin de Cebú, 9/3/1891. Her sisters, Tomasa and Cayetana, were formally designated
“Chiong Veloso” in 1897; see NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1413, 5/8/1897, 93: 331-333; 1414,
8/9/1897, 169: 690-693; and 1414, 10/6/1897, 204: 845-848. For the various fluctuations
in the newspapers, see El Boletin de Cebú, 8/2/1891, 10/20/1895, 3/22/1896, 6/7/1896,
8/15/1896; and El Comercio, 10/23/1897.
15
See Ang Suga, 4/30/1902; El Pueblo, 4/5/1903 and 4/12/1903; Tingog sa Lungsod,
4/16/1904 and 7/19/1904.
16
The earliest record of Nicasio Chiong Veloso being referred to as Tuya was in
1882, and again in 1889: NAP, Protocolos, Cebu, 1365, 4/12/1882, 44: 116-118; 1391,
7/16/1889, 81: 41-79; see also Go 1976: 209; and Bagares 2005.
17
His earliest transaction in the late 1860s and early 1870s were with, among others,
prominent urban residents, such as Bernabe Burgos and Ramon Lasala; the Chinese
Mestizo Filomeno Roa; the Spaniards Ceferino Llorente and Juan González; the British
commercial agent Cornelius Robert Blair Pickford; the German manager of the British
firm of Smith Bell and Company, Ferdinand Steuben; and the Manila-born Chinese
Mestizo Emilio Tuason, representative of Ker and Company in Cebu City. On these
early business relationships in Cebu City, see NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1342, 4/20/1870,
69: 148-149; 1342, 5/20/1870, 84: 179-180; 1343, 7/28/1871, 36: 80-84. On his poder
general with Macario de Castro, procurador of the Real Audiencia, see NAP, Protocolos,
Cebu: 1340, 3/14/1868, 34: 116-118.
18
For these transactions, see NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1377, 11/3/1866, 97: 239-240;
1340, 3/14/1868, 34: 116-118; 1340, 5/6/1868, 70: 195-197; 1340, 5/13/1868, 76: 208-
209; 1342, 4/20/1870, 69: 148-149; 1342, 5/20/1870, 84: 179-180. In the liquidation of
his business dealings with Martin Meneses, a resident of Tubigon, Bohol, Nicasio also
acquired a large house and lot on Calle de 1520, near his other property in Lutaos; see
NAP, Protocolos, Cebu, 1342, 5/13/1870, 81: 171-176.
19
On these purchases, see NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1340, 6/17/1868, 105: 270-272;
1340, 8/7/1868, 127: 325-328 (purchased a “tienda de generos y efectos” from Chinos
Infieles Yu Ngusiong and Lim Congco); and 1342, 8/18/1870, 158: 339-341. The latter
purchase of this substantial finca was from the widow and children of Maximo Veloso
del Rosario, and within the year Gavino Veloso, Nicasio’s baptismal sponsor, acquired a
large commercial property beside Chiong Tuico’s growing commercial estate; see 1343,
9/1/1871, 158: 393-395.
On the sale of the Butuan house, see NAP, Protocolos, Cebu, 1345, 9/29/1873, 307:
20
815-818; the property was sold for 700 pesos to the wife of Cecilio Recio, a Spaniard who
would within the next few years become one of Cebu City’s prominent residents. Nicasio’s

202.92.128.119 on Thu, 06 Feb 2020 09:47:15 UTC
earliest acquisition of property on Calle de Alfonso XIII (at the time Calle de Maria
Victoria) was some six months before the family sold their Butuan residence, see NAP,
Protocolos, Cebu: 1345, 3/6/1873, 86: 202-205; at the time this casa y solar was bought
from the widow of the French merchant, Pedro Furbeyre, for 2,200 pesos, indicating that
this was a substantial house. In subsequent years, Nicasio acquired contiguous property
from various owners in this emerging retail district of Calle de Alfonso XIII (behind the
Convento de Santo Niño), mostly from Calle de Felipe II (today’s Juan Luna) and Calle
de 1520 or Calle Escolta. In the 1890s, the house was assigned the address No. 37, but
in the early 1900s this was changed to No. 31 Alfonso XIII, the street that was renamed
Norte America and, of course, later became D. Jakosalem. As noted this house was near
the intersection with Calle de Alcarazo, a street that disappeared after a devastating fire
in 1905, after which the streets in this area were realigned and Alcarazo ceased to exist.
21
The only record of Nicasio Veloso Chiong Tuico purchasing a vessel was in
1902, a year and a half before his death, when he purchased a banca from its owner in
Sorsogon; see NAP, 1426, 2/14/1902, 26: 124-126. It should be noted, however, that his
daughter Eleuteria purchased a large sailing vessel (a pailebot) in 1889, which was most
likely used by the family or sold for a profit; see NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1390, 9/25/1889,
119: 374-375.
Insight into his importing of rice through Chinese merchants can be observed
22
in NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1343, 6/20/1871, 94: 241-243. His first major tienda in
Zamboanguillo was acquired in 1868 from two Chinese merchants forced to sell their
property due to a debt to the American commercial house of Russell Sturgis and Company
operating at the time in Cebu City; see NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1340, 6/17/1868, 105:
270-272 (see also note 21).
In terms of the amount of “contribución industrial” paid in 1896, Nicasio Veloso
23
Chiong Tuico ranked sixth among his Chinese peers, with the five most heavily taxed
Chinese merchants being: Tan Tian-on, JC Uy Sinquin, LH Uy Chijon, Dy Pico, and PS
Go Tiaoco; see NAP, Contribución Industrial (SDS-15255), Cebu, 1893-1898: Altas y
Bajas, Matrícula de la Contribucón Yndustrial. Año 1896.
See NAP, Contribución Industrial (SDS-15257), Cebu, 1894-1897: Declaraciones,
24
1/9/1897.
25
See NAP, Padrón de Chinos, Cebu, 1893. The Chinese with the same or more
dependientes than Nicasio Veloso Chiong Tuico were: Tan Tiancuan (48); Quing Chioco
(47); JC Uy Singuin (46); DB Dy Yangco (37); LH Uy Chijon (28), AV Uy Sinchiong (23);
R Lao Yuco (22), Tan Chuanco (21); Jose Sy Boqui (19); M Sy Choco (21); Lim Piecco
(18); Yap Chuangtong (17); PS Go Tiaoco (15); J Tan Tuanco (15); and Liao Liecco (13).

202.92.128.119 on Thu, 06 Feb 2020 09:47:15 UTC
See NAP, Padrón de Chinos, Cebu, 1897. The five Chinese in Cebu City with
26
more dependientes than Nicasio Veloso Chiong Tuico were: LH Uy Chijon (54); PS
Gotiaoco (33); JC Uy Singuin (30); Tan Tianon (25); and C Uy Velasquez, widow of SP
Uy Toco (23).
See NAP, Contribución Industrial (SDS-15257), Cebu, 1894-1897: Declaraciones,
27
1-9/1897.
See NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1373, 6/11/1885, 104: 243-246; 1376, 4/14/1886, 82:
28
205-208; 1379, 2/10/1887, 36: 86-90; and 1379, 3/2/1887, 52: 123-125.
See NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1379, 3/8/1887, 64: 144-148; 1385, 3/11/1888,
29
63: 162-165; 1392, 12/20/1889, 205: 655-656; 1394, 11/27/1890, 182: 548-550; 1402,
10/31/1891, 122: 791-794; 1403, 2/17/1892, 57: 173-175; 1406, 12/12/1893, 329: 1042-
1044; 1412, 11/19/1896, 239: 902-904; 1413, 6/15/1897, 122: 465-468. At the same time,
Nicasio’s wife was generally listed with a 6th class Cédula Personal, see 1385, 5/10/1888,
111: 272-274. The other six Cebu-based Chinese assessed at the first class level were:
JP Cong Cueco, DB Dy Yangco, F Go Tengco, T Liao Juatco, LC Uy Chijon, JC Uy
Singuin, and C Uy Velasquez.
Since this study is focused on records originating from Cebu, largely the Protocolos
30
of Cebu, it is quite possible that there are a number of other records, especially among
the Protocolos of Manila, that would elaborate on some of his business transactions and
provide a broader perspective on his commercial operations.
An indication that his businesses had moved about from export commodities was
31
evident in 1894. Unlike the Guía Oficial of 1891, which listed Chinese comerciantes,
the 1894 Guía listed only the major Chinese exporters; Nicasio was not one of the three
included at that time; those listed were: Joaquin Castro Uy Sinquin, Lucio Herrera Uy
Chijon, and Arsenio Veloso Uy Sinchiong, all of whom, like Nicasio, were reported to
have their headquarters on Calle de Escolta.
On his Carcar interests, see NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1343, 2/12/1871, 26: 57-59;
32
1402, 8/24/1891, 183: 655-658; 1404, 10/14/1892, 299: 871-874; and NAP, Contribución
Industrial (SDS-15254), Cebu, 1891: Declaraciones, 1-3/1891; on Barili, see 1379,
2/28/1887, 46: 109-111; and 1390, 3/21/1889, 9: 52; it is also critical to note that his
son Potenciano acquired control over vast corn and, quite likely, tobacco lands in Barili
through his marriage to Damasa Ricablanca, who inherited the lands from the large
landowner Francisco Cabaton and his wife Gregoria Flores; see the latter’s will in NAP,
Protocolos, Cebu: 1413, 5/3/1897, 89: 312-323. For San Fernando, see NAP, Padrón de
Chinos, Cebu, 1897; and for Sogod, see also NAP, Contribución Industrial (SDS-15254),
Cebu, 1891: Declaraciones, 1-3/1891.

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The data for the non-Chinese of Table 1 derive from NAP, Protocolos, Cebu:
33
1340, 5/13/1868, 76: 208-209; 1342, 5/13/1870, 81: 171-176; 1347, 12/24/1875, 11: 38-
39; 1349, 2/11/1876, 29: 93-95; 1350, 1/10/1876, 6: 11-12; 1350, 3/23/1876, 56: 206-207;
1350, 3/17/1876, 60: 215-217; 1350, 10/9/1876, 195: 681-683; 1356, 7/14/1879, 162:
384-385; 1356, 8/6/1879, 182: 427-430; 1368, 1/17/1883, 20: 32-35; 1368, 2/3/1883, 35:
61-63; 1368, 5/14/1883, 99: 214-216; 1369, 8/30/1883, 177: 356-357; 1371, 6/16/1884,
159: 408-410; 1376, 6/4/1886, 146: 337-339; 1378, 10/30/1886, 4: 7-10; 1379, 3/8/1887,
64: 144-148; 1379, 6/6/1887, 119: 310-312; 1385, 5/10/1888, 293: 673-674; 1394,
5/3/1890, 79: 249-251; 1401, 1/26/1891, 19: 81-82. Data for the Chinese of Table 1 derive
from NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1350, 10/9/1876, 195: 681-683; 1365, 6/19/1882, 95: 219-
222; 1376, 12/18/1886, 297: 668-670; 1379, 1/8/1887, 7: 12-14; 1379, 2/10/1887, 36:
86-90; 1379, 3/14/1887, 69: 156-160; 1380, 5/7/1887, 4: 11-12; 1380, 5/21/1887, 13:
26-30; 1387, 10/12/1888, 342: 193-198; 1390, 3/14/1889, 5: 38-41; 1390, 5/29/1889, 50:
176-179; 1390, 11/9/1889, 150: 460-461; 1396, 2/3/1891, 42: 16-56; 1394, 7/26/1890,
127: 372-373; 1408, 12/18/1894, 295: 990-993; 1410, 7/20/1895, 154: 583-586; 1412,
8/23/1896, 174: 680-682; 1422, 7/29/1900, 21: 79-80; Court of First Instance, Docket, 7,
case 354, 11/18/1905.
On these transactions, see NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1376, 12/18/1886, 297: 668-
34
670; 1379, 2/10/1887, 35: 82-86 and 36: 86-90.

The data for Table 2 derived from: NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1353, 11/12/1878,
35
350: 751-754; 1356, 1/4/1879, 6: 14-17; 1356, 1/18/1879, 17: 42-44; 1356, 10/10/1879,
262: 656-658; 1359, 7/14/1880, 170: 435-438; 1361, 2/7/1881, 34: 90-93; 1365,
4/12/1882, 54: 138-142; 1366, 9/21/1882, 171: 403-404; 1368, 5/14/1883, 100: 216-219;
1371, 3/14/1884, 71: 170-173; 1371, 7/7/1884, 174: 436-438; 1373, 1/27/1885, 13: 35-
38; 1378, 10/30/1886, 4: 7-10; 1390, 3/14/1889, 5: 38-41; 1390, 5/29/1889, 50: 176-179;
1394, 5/3/1890, 79: 249-251; 1394, 10/10/1890, 163: 484-486; 1394, 10/26/1890, 168:
500-503; 1399, 7/2/1891, 146: 543-544; 1401, 1/26/1891, 19: 81-82; 1402, 10/1/1891,
205: 729-731; 1405, 2/17/1893, 51: 153-156; 1408, 12/18/1894, 295: 990-993; 1412,
11/19/1896, 239: 902-904; 1413, 6/15/1897, 122: 465-468; 1418, 3/8/1900, 22: 86-90;
1424, 4/23/1901, 105: 26-29; 1424, 6/7/1901, 146: 232-235; 1425, 10/10/1901, 242: 268-
271.
On these convenios, see NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1340, 5/13/1868, 76: 208-209;
36
1342, 5/13/1870, 81: 171-176; and 1343, 2/28/1871, 36: 80-84.

On the contract with Marcos Rubio, see NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1361, 4/5/1881,
37
73: 261-263; and 1404, 10/24/1892, 308: 895-896.

Nicasio’s interest in abacá from Leyte increased during the period of time he was
38
a socio of the Barcos Costeros, suggesting that this cooperative arrangement to share in

202.92.128.119 on Thu, 06 Feb 2020 09:47:15 UTC
the shipment of various commodities facilitated the expansion of his trade with Leyte.
For examples of these transactions, see NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1379, 3/19/1887, 71:
162-165; 1387, 10/12/1888, 342: 193-198; and 1390, 5/24/1889, 51: 180-183, where his
loans and business transactions concentrated on repayment in abacá.
39
On the Barcos Costeros, see NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1371, 3/27/1884, 97: 220-
230; 1371, 8/9/1884, 190: 473-477; 1390, 4/24/1889, 25: 110-113; and 1390, 6/25/1889,
70: 232-235. It is significant here to note that the family’s first recorded purchase of
a sailing vessel was in 1889, after the shipping cooperative collapsed; as noted, his
daughter Eleuteria at this time purchased a pailebot; see NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1390,
9/25/1889, 119: 374-375.
40
He served as fiador for Romano Famador and his wife at the time they were
awarded a government service contract, with this, perhaps, resulting from Nicasio’s
involvement in supplying meat to the city; see NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1348, 5/1/1875,
228: 737-753. He also served as fiador for his own apoderado, Jose G. de la Peña, when
he was promoted to Procurador under Cebu’s Real Audiencia; see NAP, Protocolos,
Cebu: 1376, 10/22/1886, 257: 569-571. The only recorded bond recorded on behalf of
Nicasio was by Uy Gingco, who served as his backer in a case before the Juzgado; see
41
The only time Nicasio served as albacea for a Chinese paisano was in 1900, when
he did so for the Chino Infiel Go Quingco: see NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1422, 7/29/1900,
21: 79-80. For his role in the testamento of Gregoria Flores, see NAP, Protocolos, Cebu:
1379, 2/9/1887, 34: 78-82; and 1413, 5/3/1897, 89, 312-322.
42
On the poderes issued by Nicasio Veloso Chiong Tuico and his wife, Genoveva
Rosales, see NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1340, 3/14/1868, 34: 116-118; 1340, 5/6/1868, 70:
195-197; 1343, 11/21/1871, 222: 581-584; 1345, 11/27/1873, 362: 1029-1031; 1346,
3/11/1874, 95: 244-246; 1346, 11/2/1874, 365: 930-932; 1348, 2/1/1875, 31: 76-78;
1351, 1/19/1877, 7: 16-17; 1361, 6/1/1881, 142: 449-451; 1369, 11/6/1883, 232: 468-
469; 1376, 4/15/1886, 86: 213-215; 1376, 10/22/1886, 257: 569-571; 1385, 3/11/1888,
63: 162-165; 1387, 10/3/1888, 335: 178-180; 1394, 6/3/1890, 98: 299-300; 1394,
6/14/1890, 104: 314-315; 1401, 1/7/1891, 5: 17-18; 1401, 2/6/1891, 23: 89-90; 1404,
8/20/1892, 216: 658-659; 1405, 2/17/1893, 51: 153-156; 1406, 7/15/1893, 209: 650-651;
1406, 12/6/1893, 323: 1030-1031; 1406, 12/6/1893, 324, 1032-1033; 1408, 12/7/1894,
287: 966-967; 1410, 7/22/1895, 155: 585-586; 1410, 9/26/1895, 209: 858-861; 1413,
2/22/1897, 38: 145-148; 1413, 3/13/1897, 58: 211-212; 1414, 11/11/1897, 230: 962-965;
1425, 9/7/1901, 224: 172-175; and see also: NAP (SDS-11139), Construcción de Casas,
Binondo, Autorización, 1862-1898, Book 11, 6/22/1894: 487-505.

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For these poderes, see: NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1406, 12/6/1893, 323: 1030-1031;
43
1408, 12/7/1894, 287: 966-967; 1413: 2/22/1897, 38: 145-148; 1413, 3/13/1897, 58: 211-
212; 1414, 11/11/1897, 230: 962-965; and NAP (SDS-11139), Construcción de Casas,
Binondo, Autorización, 1862-1898, Book 11, 6/22/1894: 487-505.
In the 1880s, especially in connection with the delicate transactions related to the
44
lands inherited by Damasa Ricablanca, wife of Nicasio’s eldest son, Potenciano, Jose
Geromino de la Peña was a major apoderado of Nicasio and his family, especially when
he was promoted to Procurador of Cebu’s Audiencia; see NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1376,
10/22/1886, 257: 569-571; 1376, 12/24/1886, 301, 677-678; 1379, 2/9/1887, 34: 78-82;
1379, 3/2/1887, 52: 123-125; 1390, 9/24/1889, 118: 372-373; and 1392, 12/20/1889, 205:
655-656.
See NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1345, 11/27/1873, 363: 1029-1031. By the 1890s,
45
Genoveva was also identified by her own occupation, on one occasion referred to as a
propietario and on another as an industrial; see NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1404, 11/26/1894,
335: 973-976; and 1418, 3/8/1900, 22: 86-90.
On the poder issued to Segundo Singson by Genoveva Rosales, see NAP,
46
Protocolos, Cebu: 1404, 11/26/1892, 335: 973-976; an example of his representation of

the couple, see: 1405, 2/17/1893, 51: 153-156. On the poder issued to Sergio Osmeña, see
For these five transactions, see NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1337, 11/3/1866, 97:239-
47
240; 1371, 7/23/1884, 180: 447-451; 1376, 12/28/1886, 304: 683-685; 1394, 11/22/1890,
180: 540-543; 1410, 9/26/1895, 290: 858-861.
See NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1404, 7/12/1892, 178: 564-567; and 1404, 7/13/1892,
48
179: 568-575.
49
On his properties, see NAP, Fincas Urbanas, Cebu City, Libro Registro, 1890-
1891, SDS-9541). The only two families that owned a larger number of fincas urbanas
than Nicasio Veloso Chiong Tuico were the heirs of Gavino Veloso (Buenaventura,
Mariano, Damiana, and Melchor Veloso) and those of Juan Climaco (Bernabe, Valeriano,
Isabel, and Josefa Climaco).
50
Only two of the fincas reported in 1890-91 as the property of Nicasio Veloso
Chiong Tuico had lots that were not included in the original purchases: the lots for two of
his houses, one on Calle de Alfonso XIII and another on Calle de Prim, had been owned
by the Convento de Santo Niño. Both of these lots were, however, purchased from the
Convento in 1890 and were by the time of the assessments already owned by Nicasio;
see NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1394, 9/5/1890, 147: 432-434; confirmed later in 1394,
10/11/1890, 166: 494-496. The only other finca owned by Nicasio where the usufruct
for lot was not owned by him was the large lot on Calle de Alcarazo purchased from

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Damiana Veloso in 1891; in this case the property was owned by the Ayuntamiento de
Cebú, under the designation of “San Vidal;” on this, see NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1402,
10/31/1891, 122: 791-794.
These purchases, totalling over 17,840 pesos, are documented in NAP, Protocolos,
51
Cebu: 1340, 6/17/1868, 105: 270-272; 1342, 5/13/1870, 81: 171-176; 1342, 8/18/1870,
136: 339-341; 1344, 1/7/1876, 2: 11-13; 1350, 5/18/1876, 99: 359-366; 1356, 1/4/1879, 6:
14-17; 1356, 10/4/1879, 247: 615-618; 1368, 5/14/1883, 100: 216-219; 1385, 4/27/1888,
100: 244-252; 1392, 11/7/1889, 178: 568-571.
52
The cost of acquiring these six fincas was over 25,000 pesos, with each of the
fincas documented as follows: NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1346, 9/7/1874, 312: 793-795 and
1878, 10/30/1886, 4: 7-10 (Calle de Prim); 1345, 3/6/1873, 86: 202-205; 1371, 6/3/1884,
150: 389-391; 1390, 3/14/1889, 5: 38-41; 1390, 5/29/1889, 50: 176-179; and 1394,
9/5/1890, 147: 432-434 (Calle de Alfonso XIII); 1379, 3/26/1887, 79: 180, 180-183
(Calle de Colon); 1368, 5/14/1883, 99: 214-216 (Recoletos); and 1368, 2/3/1883, 35: 61-
63; 1376, 6/4/1886, 146: 337-339 and 1413, 4/6/1897, 85: 305-309 (Calle de Urdaneta).
On the loss of 6 houses and 4 warehouses, see NAP, Fincas Urbanas, Cebu,
53
Declaraciones, SDS-9540; on the destruction of his property in Lutaos in the April

uprising see Go 1976, 209; and US National Archives, RG-395, 2607: Lutaos Property
Owners Petition, 3/26/1901.
54
An example of this was the rental of Nicasio’s large house and property on Calle
de Prim in Pampango to Sres. F. Gutierrez y C.a in 1887 for 100 pesos monthly; see NAP,
Protocolos, Cebu: 1380, 8/23/1887, 72: 167-169. Nicasio undoubtedly rented the bajos
of several of the houses he owned to other Chinese businessmen; for example, see NAP,
Protocolos, Cebu: 1390, 11/9/1889, 150: 460-461, where the Chinese shopkeeper, Sy
Buaco, was described as renting the lower portion of Nicasio’s house at No.4 Calle de
Lutaos. It is also evident that Nicasio used much of his urban property for stores managed
directly by him, his dependientes, and members of his family.
The data in Table 3 derive from: NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1356, 10/10/1879, 262:
55
656-658; 1371, 7/7/1884, 174: 436-438; 1372, 2/11/1886, 26: 58-61; 1391, 7/16/1889,
81: 49-79; 1391, 2/5/1889, 21: 61-63; 1394, 6/12/1890, 102: 308-310; 1394, 10/10/1890,
163: 484-486; 1394, 10/26/1890, 168: 500-503; 1401, 1/29/1891, 20: 83-84; 1401,
1/26/1891, 19: 81-82; 1402, 10/1/1891, 205: 729-731; 1402, 10/31/1891, 122: 791-
794; 1404, 8/17/1892, 213: 652-653; 1406, 8/28/1893, 240: 769-770; 1406, 12/12/1893,
329: 1042-1044; 1407, 4/22/1894, 98: 383-385; 1412, 11/19/1895, 239: 902-904; 1413,
6/15/1897, 122: 465-468; 1414, 8/25/1897, 179: 742-745; 1422, 8/1/1900, 24: 89-91;
1422, 8/6/1900, 25: 93-96; 1422, 8/11/1900, 32: 139-141; 1422, 10/24/1900, 86: 390-
392; 1423, 1/12/1901, 10: 39-41; 1423, 2/9/1901, 35: 153-156; 1424, 4/23/1901, 105: 26-

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29; 1426, 9/19/1902, 98: 450-453; 1426, 1/31/1903, 12: 684-689. This is not, of course,
a complete list of the properties held by Nicasio and Genoveva at the time of their death
(1903). As indicated by the executor of their estate, Jaime Vañó, there was considerable
rental property that he managed that did not appear in the above transactions, including
three large houses on Calle de Magallanes in Pampanga (Ang Camatuoran, 12/14/1904;
1/7/1905; and 8/19/1908).
On his landholdings in Cebu, see NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1390, 3/29/1889, 15:
56
68-74; 1404, 7/14/1892, 180: 576-579 (for Compostela); 1350, 5/6/1876, 87: 275-277;
1402, 12/9/1891, 252: 887-890; 1405, 1/17/1893, 16: 59-61; 1408, 7/19/1894, 153:
552-554; 1413, 1/18/1897, 14: 39-40; 1413, 6/9/1897, 116: 445-448 (for San Nicolas);
1351, 7/24/1877, 158: 493-496; 1353, 9/19/1878, 305: 635-640; 1356, 1/14/1879, 13:
30-32; 1371, 6/21/1884, 149: 387-389 (for Pardo); 1351, 5/15/1877, 92: 259-261; 1351,
5/29/1877, 111: 354-356; 1356, 1/22/1879, 27: 63-66; 1356, 5/16/1879, 122: 281-283;
1356, 9/27/1879, 233: 595-597; 1359, 4/3/1880, 56: 171-173; 1361: 8/4/1881, 211: 606-
608 (for Talisay); 1359, 6/22/1880, 137: 340-342; 1359, 7/12/1880, 169: 431-435; 1361,
1/25/1881, 18: 37-40 (for Minglanilla); 1343, 2/12/1871, 26: 57-59; 1402, 8/24/1891,
183: 655-658; 1404, 10/14/1892, 299: 871-874 (for Carcar); 1379, 2/28/1887, 46: 109-
111; 1390, 3/21/1889, 9: 52 (for Barili); 1394, 11/27/1890, 182: 548-550 (for Toledo).
On the houses in Binondo, see NAP (SDS-11139), Construcción de Casas,
57
Binondo, Autorización, 1862-1898, Book 11, 6/22/1894: 487-505; and NAP, Protocolos,
Cebu: 1426, 1/31/1903, 12: 684-689.
On Nicasio’s loans to the Roas and Sanson, see NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1347,
58
12/24/1875, 11: 38-39; 1349, 1/7/1876; 1349, 1/8/1876, 6: 27-28; 1350, 8/16/1876, 164:
549-551.
59
289; 1387, [10/3/1887], 335: 178-180; 1408, 10/2/1894, 212: 726-735. See also Fenner
1985: 124.
On this decision, see Philippine Reports 1904-, Supreme Court Case no. 570,
60
1/23/1903, 1: 644-647. See also El Pueblo, 1/25/1903.

61
416; 1348, 7/24/1875, 228: 737-753; 1353, 7/8/1878, 214: 439-453; and 1356, 1/22/1879,
28: 66-69.
62
See NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1361, 3/5/1881, 53: 140-180. Fifteen years later, on
the eve of the rebellion in Manila, Nicasio joined six other Chinese merchants to acquire
this leasehold, but the subsequent chaos of the post-revolutionary era appears to have
disrupted the government’s ability to carry out these functions; see NAP, Protocolos,
Cebu: 1412, 8/10/1896, 159: 634-635.

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63
On Nicasio’s successful bid and the official granting of the leasehold, see NAP,
Protocolos, Cebu: 1406, 7/26/1893, 215: 694-697; and 1406, 9/21/1893, 266: 848-861.
The discrepancy in the cost of the contract may be accounted for by the fact that the
bidding was for the entire trienio, while the contract awarded in September was focused
on the first year of the three-year period (63,700 pesos). On the control of Lucio Herrera
Uy Chijon (1887-1893) and his associates, Ambrosio Veloso Uy Sinchiong, Santiago
Pastrano Uy Toco (the 2nd highest bidder in 1893), and Juan Paulin Cong Cueco, see:
NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1381, 12/19/1887, 186: 447-448; 1381, 12/20/1887, 188: 450-
460; 1397, 10/18/1887, 209: 697-700; 1397, 11/7/1890, 227: 744-465; 1397, 12/3/1890,
249: 831-843; 1397, 12/12/1890, 254: 860-861. Nicasio’s opium leasehold was also
confirmed in NAP, Contribución Industrial (SDS-15259), Cebu, 1895-1897. It is possible
that Nicasio had been involved in the illicit trade in opium since the early 1870s, since
the only bail bonds (fianzas carceleras) in the existing records granted by him were for
two Chinese accused of smuggling opium, despite the fact that these transactions can
also be interpreted as acts by a prominent Chinese patron assisting his destitute paisanos;
see NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1342, 7/6/1870, 115: 232-234; and 1345, 9/15/1873, 297:
774-776.
64
It is possible that Nicasio made efforts to control this commodity elsewhere in the
Visayas and northern Mindanao, but the records for these areas have not been integrated
into this study.
65
On the grant of the opium contract to Osmeña in late 1898, and on the 3/1899
confirmation of his leasehold, see NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1416, 3/20/1899, 2: 1-2.
On Velez’s outbidding of Lucio Herrera Uy Chijon, see NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1416,
7/15/1899, 31: 98-104; and 1416, 7/18/1899, 33: 108-118. On the opium bidding at the
end of 1899, see 1416, 12/18/1899, 71: 318-328. Lucio Herrera Uy Chijon’s ascendancy
at the end of 1899 may also be attributed to his having been named the Chinese Consular
Agent for Cebu in October 1899; see USNA, RG-395, 2604, letter of Herrera to the
Military Governor of Cebu, Cebu, 10/31/1899; and The Manila Times, 11/11/1899.
In this context, it is instructive to observe that some members of the Chiong
66
Veloso family have concluded that Nicasio’s wealth derived from opium; this opinion
was expressed by Rosario Ch. Veloso del Mar and her husband, Jose Ma. del Mar, in
two interviews with the author in Cebu City in 1976 (4/6 & 5/21); in his interview with
the Sun Star Daily (9/9/1999), Antonio Osmeña emphasized the role of opium in the
family’s wealth, with a similar suggestion reported in Bagares 2005: 98-106. The family
involvement in the marketing of opium (legal and illegal) was even alluded to in the
author’s interview with John Osmeña at the Celebrity Steak House in Cebu City on
3/23/1974, where it was revealed that Doña Pipang also had her hand in the trade in the
early 1900s.

202.92.128.119 on Thu, 06 Feb 2020 09:47:15 UTC
Se NAP, Varias Provincias, Cebu, “Capitación, Año de 1855,” submitted on

67
2/29/1856.
On MC Uy Jepua’s incumbency as Celedor de Chinos, see: NAP, Protocolos,
68
Cebu: 1327, 7/6/1861, 74-76; and 1342, 8/1870, 302-336.

See NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1380, 5/7/1887, 4: 11-12; 1380, 6/3/1887, 23: 51-52;
69
1380, 8/2/1887, 55, 125-128. In the history of Cebu by Felix Sales (see Go 1976, 621),
the author included the names of nine Chinese who held the post of “Kapitan” of the
Gremio de Chinos. Though Sales was very knowledgeable of Nicasio Veloso Chiong
Tuico and included other information about him and his family during the 1880s and
1890s, he does not include him on his list; the eight who can be identified are: Diao
Contino, Domingo Burgos Dy Yangco, Jacinto Veloso Lao Jaco, Ramon Lao Yuco, Lucio
Herrera Uy Chijon, Santiago Pastrano Uy Toco, and Jaun Paulin Cong Cueco.
70
On this 1885 case, see NAP, Chinos en Provincia, Cebu, Elección, Año de 1885.
Yap Uyco’s selection as Celedor de Chino can only be understood within the context of
his relationship with Lucio Herrerea Uy Chijon, the incumbent Celedor. Unlike Nicasio
and Uy Chijon, Yap Uyco was not a major economic force in Cebu City at the time of
his election and owned no major property. He maintained a store (tienda) on Calle de
Lutaos that sold “poto, taju, y mami, unlike the major Chinese merchants of this time
period; on Yap Uyco, see NAP, Contribución Industrial (SDS-15257), Cebu, 1894-1897,
Declaraciones, January-December 1898.
71
In an unusual act, Cebu City’s newspaper, El Boletin de Cebú (7/30/1891 and
10/29/1891) published a list of the 47 members of Cebu’s Gremio de Mestizos, with
the full name of Nicasio Veloso Chiong Tuico included. The head of the Gremio at this
time, titled Teniente Absoluto, was Pedro Barroso Yap Pangco, a prominent contratista
of Cebu City.
72
Though consistently described as “Chino Cristiano Nicasio Veloso Chiong Tuico”
in official documents, within these records he was occasionally referenced as “Don
Nicasio,” “Señor Nicasio,” or “Chino Don Nicasio.” See, for example, NAP, Protocolos,
Cebu, 1347, 12/24/1875, 11: 38-39; 1365, 8/4/1882, 131: 282-284; and 1371, 3/27/1884,
77: 220-230.
NAP, Manila, Relación de Individuos que se Proponen para la Medalla del Mérito
73
Civil, Celestino F. Tejeiro, General Gobernador Cebu, 10/7/1897; and the document
issuing the award: Secretaría del Gobierno General de Filipinas, Sección de Estado,
Manila, 2/23/1898. The latter document did not include the other two Chinese; it is
possible that Lucio Herrera Uy Chijon was removed from this list of recipients by the
next governor of Cebu, Adolfo González Montero, who suspected Chino Lucio of being
involved in the growing conspiracy in Cebu City.

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74
Januario was detained, along with Julio Llorente and many others suspected to
be sympathetic to the revolt in Cebu and to the former revolutionaries of 1896; most,
including Januario, were released in December. It is possible that Januario had been
arrested based on his having returned to Manila to continue his studies in early 1898. On
Januario’s arrest and detention, see Go 1976: 246, 317.
On Lucio Herrera Uy Chijon’s involvement in the Tres de Abril 1898 uprising, see
75
Go 1976: 136-142, 171-175; Enriquez 1951: 58-59, 93-94.

In the context of the successful suit against Nicasio by Remberto Roa in 1896 in
76
the Juzgado de Cebú, it is not certain that the Chiong Veloso family had possession of
the Borbon lands in 1898, since the case of Roa was not decided in favor of Nicasio until
early 1903. There is considerable evidence that Sergio Osmeña took refuge in Borbon
during this chaotic period; see Cullinane 2003: 391.
77
It is ironic that Nicasio’s property was destroyed on the orders of General Celestino
Fernández Tejeiro, the same man who less than a year before had recommended Nicasio
for the Medalla de Mérito Civil.
78
See Go 1976: 349-350, where Felix Sales describes him at the time as the
Consejero de Justicia; the post is confirmed in NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1416, 3/20/1899,
4: 3-5.
The intense political undercurrents of this banquet and other events during this
79
time are discussed in Mojares 2000: 193-199, where he provides the political context and
the outcome of the banquet.
In 1901, the family residence was described as being beside the fashionable
80
almacén (Los Catalanes) owned by the Spaniard Pedro Boada, in front of Cebu’s Court
House (Juzgado), and behind the Cathedral; in fact, the Spaniard’s store advertised its
location in reference to Nicasio’s house (see regular advertisement in El Pueblo, 1901).
On the houses on Calle de Butuan, see NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1332, 6/13/1863:
81
166-170, 171-174; and 1341, 11/22/1869, 245: 589-593 (Leonora’s testamento). One
of the confusing factors in the connection between Padre Blas Rosales and Genoveva
Rosales is that the priest was mostly described as Mestizo Español, while Leonora and her
grandchild were often referred to as Mestizo Sangley; on Padre Blas, see Archdiocesan
Archives of Manila, Estado de Almas, Opispado de Cebu, Danao, 1834, 1836, and 1840.
On various transactions pertaining to the descendants of Leonora Rosales, see NAP,
Protocolos, Cebu: 1392, 9/4/1889, 141: 447-450; 1397, 9/22/1890, 190: 640-642; 1397,
11/11/1890, 233: 778-781; and 1422, 10/1/1900, 66: 297-300. On the connection between
Genoveva and Padre Blas, see also Bagares 2005: 98-105.

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On Apolonia Lasala, see Santiago 2005: 165-166; and NAP, Protocolos, Cebu:
82
1341, 11/22/1869, 245: 589-593.

Santiago 2005: 165-167; Breve Reseña 1912, chapter 29 (190-197) and 419; and
83
Reseña Histórica 1917, especially 58, 62, 64, 80-87.

84
The only other active cofradia in Cebu City at this time was devoted to
the Inmaculada Concepción (often referred to as Purísima Concepción), initially
administered by the Recoletos. Under Bishop Madridejos, the confraternity dedicated
to the Inmaculada Concepción was incorporated into the Cathedral, with the feast day
(December 8) celebrated by both the Recoleto Church and the Cathedral. In addition,
four other major feast days were routinely celebrated in Cebu City during the late 19th
century: San Vidal (April 28: Cathedral, Gremio de Naturales, and the Ayuntamiento);
San Juan Bautista (June 24: Parian and the Gremio de Mestizos); Nuestra Señora del
Carmen (July 16: Recollects); and Santo Niño (January: Augustinians).
Earlier the same year, in April, an equally grand banquet was hosted by Pedro
85
Cui to celebrate the fiesta of San Vidal, the then patron saint of Cebu City, with three
of Nicasio’s daughters reported to have been active participants (El Boletin de Cebú,
4/28/1891). This banquet and its significance is discussed in some detail in Mojares 2000:
185-193.
86
The Chiong Veloso family remained active in the Cofradia de Santo Rosario in
the early 1900s, with Eleuteria, like her mother, having been selected Hermana Mayor
of the sodality’s festivities in 1906, when she again hosted a large banquet; see Ang
Camatuoran, 10/17/1906.
Potenciano Chiong, described as a student from San Nicolas, Cebu, appeared in
87
the matriculation records for San Juan de Letrán at the Archives of the University of
Santo Tomás, 1878-79. There is no indication in the existing records that he attended the
Seminario-Colegio de San Carlos in Cebu, despite the fact that this institution was fully
functional at this time.
Libro de Matrículas and Libro de Calificaciones, 1890-1892, Seminario-Colegio
88
de San Carlos, AS, Mabolo, Cebu; AUST, Matriculation Records, 1892-1898 Colegio
de San Juan de Letrán. Described as an “estudiante,” he traveled to and from Manila in
1896, as recorded in El Boletin de Cebú (1896, 6/7 and 9/13). These AUST records also
suggest that Januario returned to his studies in Manila in 1898.
See Libro de Matrículas and Libro de Calificaciones, 1900-1903, Seminario-
89
Colegio de San Carlos, AS, Mabolo, Cebu. There is also some evidence that Bartolome
returned to school in Manila after the death of his parents in 1903; see Ang Suga, 8/6/1906.

202.92.128.119 on Thu, 06 Feb 2020 09:47:15 UTC
90
In 1883, Segundo Singson inherited most of the major properties of his father,
Mariano Singson, including lands in Medellin; see NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1369,
11/18/1883, 248: 505-598. As one of very few abogados in Cebu, he was a popular choice
to serve as the personal apoderado for commercially active residents of the city; in 1879,
he became the apoderado of Antonio Sanson during the time that Sanson and Antonio
Roa were becoming indebted to Nicasio Veloso Chiong Tuico; see NAP, Protocolos,
Cebu: 1356, 1/18/1879, 18: 45-47. In 1890, he was named Juez de Paz for Cebu City, as
well as serving as an interim judge on the provincial court, Juzgado de Primera Instancia,
and was listed as one of only seven abogados in Cebu City in 1891; see El Boletin de
Cebú, 1890: 8/30 and 12/4; NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1394, 11/19/1890, 178: 532-534;
and Guía Oficial, 1891. On his ownership of the three houses in Parian, see NAP, Fincas
Urbanas (SDS-9541), Cebu, 1890-1891.
On the poder general issued by Genoveva Rosales to Segundo Singson, see NAP,
91
Protocolos, Cebu: 1404, 11/26/1892, 335: 973-976.

92
Although the Velez-Climaco family of Cebu City was undoubtedly wealthy, with
considerable property, mostly inherited from the Climaco ancestors, the family was not
prospering at the end of the 19th century; the destruction of their property in April 1898
would have further complicated the economic position. In this context, Rosario Ch.
Veloso del Mar and Jose Ma. del Mar (in an interview in Cebu City, 4/6/1976), informed
the author that the success of Teodoro Velez, who was said to be a good businessman (and
effective manager of his pawn shop business later in his life), was based largely on the
wealth he obtained through his marriage to Hermenegilda Ch. Veloso.
93
On Teodoro Velez’s education, see AUST, Matriculation Records, San Juan de
Letrán, 1882-1884. For his active involvement in the Jockey Club, see El Boletin de Cebú,
9/22/1895 and 1/19/1896. On being married by 1899 and his apoderado relationship with
Segundo Singson and Sergio Osmeña, see NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1416, 7/15/1899, 31:
98-104. By early 1900, Marcial Velez joined the resistance to the Americans, resulting
in their parents and younger siblings going into exile in Hong Kong, where Teodoro and
Marcial’s father tragically died in 1901 (El Pueblo, 1901, 1/22 and 9/24). Having married
Hermenegilda, Teodoro was increasingly drawn into the Chiong Veloso realm and into
the world of their own family.
As related by John Osmeña (interview with the author, Cebu City, 3/23/1974),
94
Sergio Osmeña’s relationship with Nicasio Veloso Chiong Tuico began while Sergio was
engaged in his secondary studies at the Seminario-Colegio de San Carlos, which was
between 1889-1894. In search of a talented student to assist in his business operations,
Nicasio is reported to have approached the Vincentian priests, who recommended Sergio
Osmeña. This story, though it makes sense, suggests that Osmeña was recruited by his

202.92.128.119 on Thu, 06 Feb 2020 09:47:15 UTC
later father-in-law at the age of 16; the story remains intact, if their connection came a bit
later, after Osmeña’s return to Cebu in late 1896.
95
From Cebu, Osmeña submitted long articles to El Comercio, often titled “Croquis
Cebuano,” praising the administration of Governor Tejeiro and describing Cebu’s
continued loyalty to Spain; see El Comercio, 11/22/1896, 12/17/1896, and 2/12/1897.
It is important to observe that Osmeña’s residence, where he lived with his mother and
grandmother, was only three blocks--a short walk--from the house of Nicasio Veloso
Chiong Tuico and his active daughters.
On Osmeña becoming Nicasio’s apoderado, see NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1425,
96
11/19/1901, 181: 398-410; and 1426, 6/9/1902, 60: 264-265.

See also, Cullinane 2003, 210. On the anniversary of Constancia’s death in 1900,
97
see El Pueblo, 4/25/1901 and 5/4/1902.

Interviews with Rosario Ch. Veloso del Mar and Jose Ma. del Mar, Cebu City,
98
4/6/1976 and 5/21/1976.

99
On the family of Potenciano, see Nicasio Chiong Veloso 2008, 15-23. In addition
to his six children, five of whom are listed in the family commemorative volume (omitting
his first child, Genoveva), a seventh child of Potenciano is also listed: Gorgonia Regis Ch.
Veloso, but no information is supplied regarding her mother. Gorgonia married Jose Ma.
Roa in 1911 and resided in Cebu City with her husband and family.
See Cabaton’s last will: NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1377, 1/30/1886: 5-21. In
100
addition to property left to his widow and to Damasa Ricablanca, Cabaton left other
lands to his two sisters and another niece. In later records, the relationship with Damasa
Ricablanca became clearer. She was the grandchild of Gregoria Flores’s sister, Florentina
Flores (also from Cebu City), who married Cipriano Ricablanca. In this case, Damasa
was more accurately described as the grandniece of Gregoria Flores and of Francisco
Cabaton by marriage. On the marriage of Damasa and Potenciano, see Barili Parish
Records, Marriage Registers, 3/9/1886.
On the two testamentos of Gregoria Flores, see NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1379,
101
2/9/1887, 34: 78-82; and 1413, 5/3/1897, 89: 312-323. The birth and early death of
Genoveva Chiong y Ricablanca was not apparently known to the Chiong Veloso family,
since her name was omitted from the list of children of Potenciano. Their two youngest
children, Rosario and Corazon, were omitted from Gregoria Flores’s 1897 will since they
were not yet born. It is also interesting to note that in mid-1888, Gregoria revised some
of the property descriptions in her 1887 will, doing so through Cebu City’s Procurador
Jose Geronimo de la Peña, who was also the apoderado general of Nicasio; see NAP,
Protocolos, 1386, 6/19/1888, 154: 71-73.

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102
In the 1890 records for Fincas Urbanas, Gregoria Flores was reported to be the
owner of a major house (mampostería) in the municipality of Barili worth 2,000 pesos;
NAP, Fincas Urbanas (SDS-9540 & 9541), Barili, 1890-91; this house and its adjoining
warehouse were left to Damasa Ricablanca. In 1976, Potenciano’s daughter stated that
among the properties was “the family hacienda in Maigang, Barili,” a large estate “deep
in the bukid” that grew corn and coconuts and was managed by her brother, Alfonso Ch.
Veloso; from interviews with Rosario Ch. Veloso del Mar and Jose Ma. del Mar, Cebu
City, 4/6/1976 and 5/21/1976.
103
Much of this information comes from two interviews with Jose Ma. del Mar and
his wife, Rosario Ch. Veloso del Mar, Cebu City, 4/6/1976 and 5/21/1976. The post-war
members of the Chiong Veloso family are not aware of the relationship between Damasa
Ricablanca and Francisco Cabaton and Gregoria Flores; for example, Carmen Ch. Veloso
del Prado, reported to the family that Damasa’s lands were inherited from a wealthy
“adoptive father” and that Damasa was illiterate and “could not even sign her own name”
(Email communication from Marilou Bernardo, 12/27/2007). This allegation, of course,
comes very close to the real situation, even though there is no evidence that Francisco
Cabaton adopted Damasa; moreover, it was largely through his widow, Gregoria Flores,
that Damasa inherited nearly everything. One curious twist to the story is that it seems
that the property had already transferred to Damasa before the death of Gregoria Flores;
in 1909, it was reported that Damasa actually filed the testamento of Gregoria Flores (see
Ang Suga, 7/30/1909).
This assessment by Carmen Ch. Veloso del Prado, was supplied in an email
104
communication from Marilou Bernardo, 12/27/2007. As late as 1914, Sra. “Damasa

Ricablanca vda de Veloso” was reported as a major propietario of Barili (see Rivera Mir
1914: 130-131).
On the marriage of Eleuteria to Segundo Singson, see El Boletin de Cebú,
105
7/19/1891. The marriage of Hermenegilda to Teodoro Velez mostly likely occurred

sometime in 1899, since he is first recorded as being married in 1899; see NAP, Protocolos,
Cebu: 1416, 7/15/1899, 31: 98-104. On the marriage of Estefania to Sergio Osmeña,
see El Pueblo, 4/11/1891. On the families of these three daughters, see Nicasio Chiong
Veloso 2008: 10-14 (Eleuteria), 29-30 (Hermenegilda), 31-34 (Estefania).
On Manuel Martinez Tio Cuangco’s commercial activities involving Smith Bell
106
& Company and several other Chinese rice merchants, including Pedro Singson Go
Tiaoco, see NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1368, 4/18/1883, 83: 174-176; 1368, 4/18/1883, 85:
178-180; and 1368, 4/30/1883, 91: 199-201. On his 1882 marriage to Maximina Veloso
Chiong Tuico, see familysearch.org: Philippines, Civil Registration, Cebu, Indice de
Matrimonios, 1853-1896. On the family of Maximina, see Nicasio Chiong Veloso 2008:
24-27.

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On the prolonged effort of the family to counter Dalmacio Francisco’s claim

107
to Cayetana’s inheritance, see NAP, Registros Notarios, Cebu, 124, 4/27/1906 and 206,
10/13/1906; Court of First Instance, Cebu, Dockets, volume 7, case 422, 5/15/1906; Ang
Suga, 6/16/1907; and Philippine Reports 1904-, Supreme Court Case 3592, 1/14/1908,
9: 568-571. In 1926, Dalmacio Francisco was murdered in Masbate; see Bag-ong Kusog,
2/12/1926: 11.
108
On the family of Tomasa, see Nicasio Chiong Veloso 2008: 28.
Encarnacion Garcia y Fortich was born in 1885 in Sibonga; see Baptismal
109
Registers, Sibonga Parish Records, 6/21/1885. She had seven children with Januario.
Her father was the patriarch of the late 20th-century political family, the Garcias, who
produced, among others, Pabling Garcia y Paras, governor and congressman of Cebu,
and his daughter, Gwen Garcia, also Cebu governor. On the family of Januario, see
Nicasio Chiong Veloso 2008: 35-36.
110
On the family of Bartolome, see Nicasio Chiong Veloso 2008: 37-39.
111
On the family of Corazon, see Nicasio Chiong Veloso 2008: 40. In late 1906
and early 1907, Corazon was being courted by Manuel Quezon, at the time the close
political ally of Sergio Osmeña. Although the marriage never occurred, William C.
Forbes described it as an “inter-provincial marriage” between Quezon and Osmeña, one
that would cement their political alliance through marrying sisters (Cullinane 2003: 283-
284). The memory of this moment in the family history is still vivid as confirmed by
Marilou Bernardo (email communication with the author, 12/26/2007), who observed
that Corazon herself kept a copy of “a love letter from Quezon” safely in a family vault.
On Torres’s serving as Osmeña’s private secretary, see Official Roster 1902-, 1/1/1912;
and Nueva Fuerza, 1/2/1916.
112
This perception is not only one that derives simply from observing the historical
record, but is one that has been frequently articulated by members of the family. In his
story of the Chiong Veloso family, Gavin Sanson Bagares (2005: 104-105), citing a
member of the family, concluded that “the women held on to their fortunes, the men
squandered them” and later observing himself that: “Of the sons, sadly, none shone like
their father.” In a somewhat more critical vein, Antonio Osmeña, the grandson of Sergio
Osmeña, observed that “most of the Chiong Veloso males died relatively poor,” while
“most of the women ended up very wealthy” (Sun Star Daily, 9/9/1999: B1).
113
On this purchase, see NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1390, 9/25/1889, 119: 374-375.
On Eleuteria’s taxable commercial operations, see NAP, Contribución Industrial:
114
SDS-15254, Declaraciones, January-March 1891; SDS-15257, Declaraciones, January-

September 1897; and SDS-15255, 1893-1896, Altas y Bajas, Matrícula de la Contribución
Yndustrial, Año 1896.

202.92.128.119 on Thu, 06 Feb 2020 09:47:15 UTC
For examples of her business transactions, see NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1390,
115
9/25/1889, 119: 374-377; 1422, 9/11/1900, 53: 249-250; 1422, 10/4/1900, 68: 308-314;
1422, 10/8/1900, 73: 327-329; 1422, 10/11/1900, 75: 333-338; 1423, 4/6/1901, 86: 394-
397; 1423, 4/8/1901, 89: 404-407; 1423, 4/12/1901, 94: 424-427. In 1904, she was listed
as the owner of commercial property at No. 1 Calle de Mabini (Ang Camatuoran, 1904:
10/12, 10/15, and 12/4; and in 1914 she owned commercial property on F. Gonzalez
Street.
116
On her selection as the inaugural representative of El Bello Sexo, see the original
magazine (6/23/1891); my thanks to Dr. Erlinda Kintanar-Alburo for supplying me with
a copy of this periodical; for the coverage of this honor in the local press, see El Boletin
de Cebú, 8/2/1891. On her designation as traficante, see NAP, Contribución Industrial:
SDS-15254, Declaraciones, January-March 1891. On some of her activities, see NAP,
Protocolos, Cebu: 1413, 5/8/1897, 93: 331-332; 1426, 12/31/1902, 135: 618-619; and
NAP, Registros Notariales: 9/4/1904, Item 4; and 9/22/1906, Item 6: no. 192. Court of
First Instance of Cebu, Docket, 7, case 491, 10/29/1906. See also, Tingog sa Lungsod,
9/4/1904.
See NAP, Registros Notariales, Item 4, 11/21/1904.
117
On Maximina’s early 20th-century transactions, see NAP, Registros Notariales:

118
11/21/1904, item 4; 11/24/1904, item 4; 2/9/1906, item 6. Precursor, 1908 regular

advertisement); Ang Camatuoran, 8/30/1911; Nueva Fuerza, 6/25/1916 & 11/7/1916; and
Philippine Reports, Supreme Court Case 9421, 7/24/1915, 31: 160-172; and Philippine
Reports, Supreme Court, 10/15/1917, 26: 63-70. Maximina’s conflicts with the other
members of the Chiong Veloso family may also have been exacerbated by her daughter
Lucia’s husband: Domingo Franco, an attorney, journalist (the founder of Precursor) and
ambitious political leader who in 1907-1908 began to challenge the leadership of Sergio
Osmeña, closely allied with the remainder of the family at this time.
On Franco’s law suit, see Ang Suga, 6/17/1907; on his death, see The Cebu
119
Chronicle, 5/27/1911; Ang Camatuoran, 5/31/1911. On his opposition to Sergio

Osmeña, often together with the Cuenco family in the newspaper El Precursor, see
Ang Camatuoran, 1907: 12/21; 1908: 1/4 and 1/18; and 1909: 2/24, and 11/24). On his
loss to Osmeña in the Assembly election, see Ang Camatuoran, 11/3/1909; Ang Suga,
11/22/1909.
On Cayetana’s travels to and from Manila, see El Boletin de Cebú, 10/20/1895,
120
3/22/1896, 6/7/1896; Tingog sa Lungsod, 7/26/1904; and Ang Camatuoran, 2/11/1905.

On her purchase of land in Pardo and San Nicolas, see NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1414,
10/6/1897, 204: 845-848; 1414, 10/16/1897, 212: 873-874; 1414, 11/12/1897, 231: 966-
969; 1415, 1/4/1898, 1: 1-4; 1415, 1/17/1898, 10: 41-44; 1415, 1/28/1898, 17: 65-68;

202.92.128.119 on Thu, 06 Feb 2020 09:47:15 UTC
1415, 1/29/1898, 19: 71-74; 1415, 2/11/1898, 33: 141-144; 1426, 7/5/1902, 79: 344-
347. See also, Court of First Instance, Docket 7, case 282, 1/26/1905. It is quite likely
that Cayetana’s acquisition of these lands was carried out on behalf of her parents in the
potentially volatile post-revolutionary era and before the rebellion in Cebu. On her illness
and death, see Ang Camatuoran, 6/10/1905; and 6/17/1905.
Email communication with Marilou Bernardo, 12/16/2007.
121
On examples of some of these ventures, see: NAP, Protocolos, Cebu: 1424,

122
5/7/1901, 123: 108-110; NAP, Registros Notariales, Item 4, 6/8/1904; and Court of First
Instance of Cebu, Docket, 7, case 589, 7/29/1907.
On this case, see The Cebu Courier, 10/5/1907; Ang Camatuoran, 1/22/1908
123
and 4/24/1909; Ang Suga, 2/1/1909, 3/24/1909, 4/19/1909, and 5/5/1909; and Philippine
Reports 1904-, Supreme Court case no. 4632, 12: 789. Five years later, Bartolome was
back in court, since he was in arrears on his payments, and his guarantors (his siblings)
had been forced to cover the payments, a situation that led to another appeal to the
Supreme Court; see Philippine Reports, 1904-, 26: 627-532.
On this case, see Nueva Fuerza, 10/17/1918, 10/27/1918, and 1/10/1919; Bag-
124
ong Kusog, 3/19/1919 and 6/29/1923; Freeman, 11/9/1919; Independent, 11/6/1920.

According to Rosario Ch. Veloso del Mar and Jose Ma. del Mar (interview: Cebu City,
4/6/1976), who constructed Bartolome as the family “troublemaker,” the pardon was
arranged by Sergio Osmeña, and Bartolome never went to Hong Kong, but instead
remained in the Philippines up to the time of his death.
Philippine Reports. 1904-. Supreme Court case no. 3459, 3/22/1907, 8: 119-
125
125. This figure, 800,000 pesos, was very substantial for the early 20th century, certainly
representing the status of a millionaire by the standards of the 1930s. Moreover, the value
of Nicasio’s urban property in the 1890s, estimated at over 80,000 pesos, would have
multiplied many times over by the third decade of the 1900s.
126
See Nicasio Chiong Veloso 2008: 9.
127
It remains unclear what happened to several of Nicasio and Genoveva’s major
assets, in particular the properties destroyed in 1898 along Calle de Escolta and the
alcohol manufacturing plant on the Cebu north road in Tejero. Though it appears that
the Tejero property was sold off, the prime commercial property of Zamboanguillo/
Lutaos (Calle de Escolta) appears to have been retained by family members. Prior
to their deaths, Nicasio and Genoveva were in the process of rebuilding some of the
structures lost in this commercial district, an area that after a devastating fire in 1905 was
completely reorganized under the supervision of their son-in-law, Sergio Osmeña. On
their re-building projects, see El Pueblo, 4/28/1900, 10/19/1902; Ang Suga, 8/1/1902,

202.92.128.119 on Thu, 06 Feb 2020 09:47:15 UTC
8/20/1902; and USNA, RG-395, 2607: Petition dated 3/26/1901. On the 1905 fire and the
reorganization of Zamboanguillo/Lutaos area, see The Philippines Free Press, 5/5/1907,
6/16/1907; and Ang Camatuoran, 5/2/1908.
128
The word amahan is the formal Cebuano word for father, but the term of address
is tatay, or the more common tay.
129
On the family’s case against Chiong Jocsuy, see Philippine Reports 1904-,
Supreme Court Case no. 3459, 3/22/1907, 8: 119-125; on the family’s references to him,
see Nicasio Chiong Veloso 2008: 41.
REFERENCES CITED
Archives
Archdiocesan Archives of Manila (AAM, Intramuros, Manila)
Archives of the Minor Seminary of Cebu (AMSC, Mabolo, Cebu)
National Archives of the Philippines (NAP, Luneta, Manila)
Parish Records
United States National Archives (USNA, Washington DC)
Periodicals
El Bello Sexo (Manila)
El Boletin de Cebú
The Cablenews-American (Manila)
Ang Camatuoran (Cebu)
The Cebu Chronicle
The Cebu Courier
El Comercio (Manila)
The Freeman (Cebu)
Independent (Manila)
La Justicia (Cebu)
The Manila Times

202.92.128.119 on Thu, 06 Feb 2020 09:47:15 UTC
Nueva Fuerza (Cebu)/Bag-ong Kusog

El Nuevo Dia (Cebu)
The Philippines Free Press (Manila)
El Precursor (Cebu)
El Pueblo (Cebu)
Ang Suga (Cebu)
Sun Star Daily (Cebu)
Tingog sa Lungsod (Cebu)
Articles and Books
Aguilar, Filomeno V., Jr. 1998. Clash of Spirits: The History of Power and Sugar
Planter Hegemony on a Visayan Island. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila
University Press.
Bagares, Gavin Sanson. 2005. “The Sangley Dons,” Southwall 1(1): 98-106).
Breve Reseña Histórica de la Labor Realizada en Estas Islas por la Doble Familia
de San Vicente de Paul y por un Sacerdotes de la Congregación de la Mision.
1912. Manila: Imprenta de Santos y Bernal.
Briones, Concepcion G. 1983. Life in Old Parian. Cebu: University of San Carlos,
Cebuano Studies Center.
Chu, Richard T. 2010. Chinese and Chinese Mestizos of Manila: Family, Identity,
and Culture, 1860s-1930s. Leiden and Boston: Brill.
Comyn, Tomás de. 1969 [1810]. State of the Philippines in 1810, trans. William
Walton. Manila: Filipiniana Book Guild, Number 15.
Cullinane, Michael. 2003. Ilustrado Politics: Filipino Elite Responses to American
Rule, 1898-1908. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press.
_____________. 2013. The Parian of Cebu City: A Historical Overview, 1565-
1898. Cebu City: Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. Monograph on Culture &
Heritage. Issue no. 1.
Enriquez de la Calzada, Manuel. 1951. Ang Kagubut sa Sugbu 1898. Sugbu:
Rotary Press.

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Fenner, Bruce Leonard. 1985. Cebu under the Spanish Flag (1521-1898): An
Economic and Social History. Cebu: San Carlos Publications, University of
San Carlos.
Go, Fe Susan T. 1976. “Ang Sugbu sa Karaang Panahon: An Annotated Translation
of the 1935 History of Cebu.” MA Thesis, University of San Carlos.
Guía Oficial de Filipinas. 1891. Manila: Tip. Lit. de Chofré y Comp.
Mojares, Resil B. 2000. “Deciphering a Meal.” In Feasts and Feats: Festschrift
for Doreen G. Fernandez, ed. Jonathan Chua, 185-206. Quezon City: Office
of Research and Publications, Ateneo de Manila University.
The Nicasio Chiong Veloso-Genoveva Rosales Family Reunion. 2008. Cebu City:
s.p.
Official Roster. 1902-. Manila: Bureau of Printing.
Philippine Reports (cover title): 1904-. Philippines (Republic). Supreme Court.
Report of Cases Determined in the Supreme Court of the Philippines. Manila:
Bureau of Printing.
Reseña Histórica del Seminario-Colegio de San Carlos de Cebú, 1867-1917.
1917. Manila: E.C. McCullough & Co.
Rivera Mir, Pedro, comp. 1914. Guide and Directory of the Province of Cebu.
Cebu: Falek Printing House.
Santiago, Luciano P.R. 2005. To Love and to Suffer: The Development of the
Religious Congregation for Women in the Spanish Philippines, 1565-1898.
Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press.
Veloso, Cirilo A. n.d. The Veloso Genealogy. Cebu City: Veloso Foundation and
Association of the Philippines, Inc.
Villamor, Cayetano M. 1948. Ang Gugma sa mga Bantugang Lider. Cebu City:
Villamor Publishing House.

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A Chinese Life in Late Spanish Era Cebu CityAuthor(s): Michael Cullinane

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/26476477

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A Chinese Life in Late Spanish

Keywords: Chinese, Cebu City, Late Nineteenth century, Family history,

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Chino Don Nicasio Veloso Chiong Tuico, 1838-1903

Chino Cristiano, Vecino de la Ciudad de Cebú

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Nicasio’s baptismal surname--Veloso--has caused some confusion, since

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Table 1: Moneylending Transactions, 1868-190333

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1890 1,047 FA Diao Ypco repaid

One of the best examples of how Nicasio’s moneylending activities resulted in

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Table 2: Pacto De Retroventa Transactions, 1878-190335

* seller rented back from buyer

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Based on the figures recorded in Tables 2 and 3, it is significant to note that,

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to Chinese; 19 to non-Chinese; and three to procuradores of the Real Audiencia in

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Table 3: Urban Property Acquired in Cebu City, 1890-190355

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Principal, Ciudadano, Feligrés

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City, Nicasio operated in two somewhat distinct urban communities. As a sojourner

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Stancampiano, sang an aria from El Barbero de Sevilla. Local observers concluded

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Subsequent marriage partners, especially for their seven remaining single

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of Damasa Ricablanca in his will; and 3) Potenciano’s marriage in Barili to Damasa

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entertainment. In 1900, he joined with the outspoken intellectual and newspaper

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'A Chinese Life in Late Spanish Era

'A Chinese Life in Late Spanish Era