The Paternity of Sergio Osmeña Sr.

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More than 10 years ago while I was a college student, I remembered one of the topics raised was who in the world was the father of the late Sergio Osmeña Sr.? I remembered my Humanities subject while I studied at the University of San Carlos (USC) during my summer classes. I immediately took summer classes after I finished my associate's degree and proceeded to take my bachelor's degree in business administration. We had a field trip at Casa Gorordo in Cebu where one of the curators said, "Just who was his father?" There was a wild guess it was the late Pedro Lee Singson Gotiaoco.

The Freeman

I heard from someone, back in college, that neither Tomas Osmeña nor the late John Gokongwei Jr. admits to being related to each other. Gokongwei Jr. is a great-grandson of Gotiaoco. A Sunstar article about Juana Osmeña mentions this one about the past 145 years ago which may verify their mutual claims:

SCIENCE has settled almost a century-and-a-half-old mystery -- history and genealogy enthusiasts agreed -- when forensic genealogist Todd Lucero Sales announced Friday, June 2, 2023, who the father of Sergio Osmeña Sr. was.

Who sired the country's fourth president (1944-1946) and Cebu's Grand Old Man? Not Pedro Lee Singson Gotiaoco, a Chinese tycoon, but Antonio Sanson, a Chinese mestizo merchant-landowner "from an illustrious family."

Both were linked to Juana Suico Osmeña, who was to be Don Sergio's mother. Prominent "dons" in Cebu's Spanish era and neither one could marry the young Osmeña's mother. Thus, the child that Juana gave birth to on September 9, 1878 was considered born out of wedlock, illegitimate, a "padre no conocido" (father unknown).

And the identity of the father had been "a closely guarded secret" the Osmeña family, or the Sansons and Gotiacos, never publicly talked about.

But 145 years later, the times changed. The Osmeñas wanted to identify definitively the father of Cebu's great patriarch. A project to determine Don Sergio's paternity through DNA testing was initiated by two young Osmeñas. At the official announcement last June 2 at Casino Español de Cebu, present were two descendants of Don Sergio: Annabelle Osmeña- Aboitiz, his oldest living granddaughter, and Maria Lourdes Bernardo, Annabelle's niece.

I remembered there were talks that Osmeña Sr. was half-siblings with the Gaisano's matriarch, Doña Modesta Singson-Gaisano, whose image is erected at the White Gold House. I could remember seeing that statue of the matriarch whenever there was a party there. I was still a little child back then with no idea of how big the mystery was. If the father of Osmeña Sr. isn't Gotiaoco but the late Sanson then the Osmeñas are related to neither the Gokongweis nor the Gaisanos, both prominent Chinese-Filipino families. 

Here's an interesting piece of information from The Philippine Star about the Gaisanos too which links them to Gotiaoco:

Another branch of Gotiaoco descendants is that of his daughter Modesta Gaisano, whose husband was surnamed Gaisano but whose Chinese surname was Sy. Modesta’s sons built the dynamic retail and shopping mall chains from southern Philippines to other parts of the archipelago — David Gaisano, whose son Joseph Gaisano is boss of White Gold, Inc. of Cebu; Stephen Gaisano whose family owns Gaisano Country Mall of Cebu City; Henry Gaisano, whose family owns Gaisano Tabunok, Gaisano Capital South and others (this side of the Gaisano family had further divided into the Benito Gaisano and Eddie Gaisano groups); Victor Gaisano whose family owns Gaisano Metro in Cebu City and others plus having a son who tied up with the Ayala Group for department stores like Market Market in The Fort. Like his uncle Atty. Augusto Go, Joseph Gaisano had once also served as Cebu City Vice-Mayor.

What's also added is what fueled the mystery of the paternity of Osmeña Sr.:

[3] JUANA'S PARTNERS. There were two probable fathers, thus the public doubt about Don Sergio's paternity. Juana Osmeña -- in an item sourced to historian and National Artist in Literature Resil B. Mojares -- was close to Gotiaoco as they lived in the same block and he often visited the bakery owned by Juana's mom. Juana would buy kerosene and matches at Gotiaoco family's store. They were rumored to have an affair. Still, Mojares cautioned GMA News that interviewed him, "everything is speculation."

Another published item -- attributed to a Don Sergio granddaughter who cited historian Michael Cullinane -- said that even as a child, he'd visit the Sanson farm in Borbon and, older, during the Tres de Abril uprising, he hid in the farm.

[4] HYPER SECRECY. Tomas Osmeña told Rappler that during that period, society was "very conservative." It was a major scandal then: Juana Osmeña, single, being impregnated by a married man, whom obviously she couldn't marry.

Don Sergio himself was known to have refused to talk about his parentage, shunning conversation about his own mother. Mrs. Aboitiz told media an anecdote, perhaps apocryphal, that then senator, the late John "Sonny" Osmeña once asked his grandpa, "Who was your father?" Don Sergio was said to have "slightly slapped" Sonny with the rebuke, "Never ask that."

Not just the convention of his time but his career as a politician and public servant -- Cebu governor, founder of the Nacionalista Party, House speaker, senator, secretary of public instruction, and the first Visayan and only Cebuano to become president -- must have prompted him to shut out the circumstances of his birth.

Sergio Osmeña Sr. (left) and Antonio Sanson. (Photos from Britannica and Filipino Genealogy)

If anything, it seems to make sense that Osmeña Sr. was sired by Sanson than by Gotiaoco. The picture above starts to show a more startling resemblance. Also, I'd like to present this picture I found looking for Gotiaoco. What I found was a face of Sanson as well!

PEP.ph

Here's another photo that may look at the resemblance. The face of Sanson has a stronger resemblance to Osmeña Sr. On the right is Gotiaco. Both Sanson and Gotiaoco are Chinese Filipinos. Try to notice the face of Gotiaoco as an old man compared to that of Osmeña Sr.'s picture as an old man. We sometimes dig into younger photos of old people to find where the younger person gets his or her looks from. I did remember how old photos were dug up and people told me I resembled my late paternal grandfather who I never met nor would I mention his name.  

With this photo in mind, I wasn't too shocked to learn from what was published. Osmeña Sr.'s real father is no doubt, Sanson, and not Gotiaoco. Sure, some people may look alike but not be directly related. However, Osmeña Sr. really does strongly resemble Sanson himself instead of Gotiaoco. The aging photos themselves really resemble each other a lot! The DNA test mentioned from the source would have further verified that the celebrated figure of Cebu City was indeed sired by Sanson himself. 

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