Teodoro Manguiat Kalaw (March 31, 1884 – December 4, 1940) was a Filipino scholar, legislator, and historian.
Early life
He was born in
Lipa,
Batangas
Batangas, officially the Province of Batangas ( tl, Lalawigan ng Batangas ), is a province in the Philippines located in the Calabarzon region on Luzon. Its capital is the city of Batangas, and is bordered by the provinces of Cavite and La ...
on March 31, 1884. He was the third of four children of police chief Valerio Kalaw and Maria Manguiat. His siblings were scholar and political scientist
Maximo, and two sisters, Rosario and Manuela.
He finished his secondary studies at Instituto Rizal in Lipa, Batangas, and finished his bachelor's degree in arts with honors at
Liceo de Manila
The Manila Central University also referred to by its acronym MCU, and formerly named as the ''Escuela de Farmacia del Liceo de Manila'') is a private, non-sectarian, stock basic and higher education institution located on EDSA, Caloocan, Ph ...
.
He took up his law degree at Escuela de Derecho, where he was mentored by
Rafael Palma
Rafael Palma y Velásquez (: October 24, 1874 May 24, 1939) was a Filipino politician, Rizalian, writer, educator and a famous Freemason. He was a senator from 1916 to 1921 and was the fourth president of the University of the Philippines.
Biogr ...
and
Juan Sumulong
Juan Marquez Sumulong Sr. (born Juan Sumulong y Marquez; December 27, 1875 – January 9, 1942) was a Filipino former revolutionary, journalist, lawyer, educator and politician from the province of Rizal. He was the president of the opposition ...
. In 1905, he topped the bar examinations, having obtained "grade of 100 percent in civil law and three other subjects".
He served as secretary of then
Philippine Assembly Majority Floor Leader Manuel L. Quezon
Manuel Luis Quezon y Molina, (; 19 August 1878 – 1 August 1944), also known by his initials MLQ, was a Filipino lawyer, statesman, soldier and politician who served as president of the Commonwealth of the Philippines from 1935 until his de ...
until 1908.
Journalism
While pursuing law, Kalaw became a writer for ''
El Renacimiento
''El Renacimiento'' () was a bilingual Spanish– Tagalog language newspaper. It was printed in Manila until the 1940s by the members of the Guerrero de Ermita family. Its directors were Fernando Ma. Guerrero, Teodoro M. Kalaw, and Rafael Palma ...
'', along with Rafael Palma and
Fernando Ma. Guerrero
Fernando is a Spanish and Portuguese given name and a surname common in Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Switzerland, former Spanish or Portuguese colonies in Latin America, Africa, the Philippines, India, and Sri Lanka. It is equivalent to the G ...
. In October 1908, Interior Secretary
Dean C. Worcester filed a libel suit against the paper for their editorial entitled, ''"Aves de Rapiña"'' (''"Birds of Prey"'').
The case led to the closure of the paper. In January 1910, the court meted out prison sentences against Kalaw and publisher Martin Ocampo. Both Kalaw and Ocampo were pardoned by Governor General
Francis B. Harrison
Francis Burton Harrison (December 18, 1873 – November 21, 1957) was an American statesman who served in the United States House of Representatives and was appointed governor-general of the Philippines by President of the United States Woodrow ...
in 1914.
Political career
In 1909, Kalaw was elected the youngest member of the
Philippine Assembly
The Philippine Assembly (sometimes called the Philippine National Assembly) was the lower house of the Philippine Legislature from 1907 to 1916, when it was renamed the House of Representatives of the Philippines. The Philippine Assembly wa ...
at age 25, representing
Batangas's 3rd district. During his term, he sponsored bills supporting internal migration and agricultural development and maintenance of public schools through municipal taxation.
At the end of his term in 1913, he was appointed secretary to the Philippine Assembly. In 1916, he was appointed the first director of the National Library, earning him the moniker "Father of the Philippine Library System". He would serve as its director once more from 1929 to 1939.
In 1920, he was appointed Interior Secretary. His term as secretary was cut short on December 21, 1922, when Senate President Manuel L. Quezon appointed him as executive secretary and chief adviser of the Commission on Independence.
Memberships
He became a Mason in 1907, then later became grand master at age 31 in 1928. On June 15, 1932, he was made a 33° Mason in the Scottish Rite of Masonry. He became Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of the Philippines from 1928 to 1929.
Kalaw was a member of the Academy of Political Science, American Social and Political Science; Sociedad Americana de Derecho Internacional; Real Academia Hispano Americano de Ciencias y Artes, of whose Philippine Section he became president in 1925; Associacion Hispano-Filipina, and the Philippine Library Association.
He was conferred an honorary fellowship to the
Upsilon Sigma Phi
The Upsilon Sigma Phi () is the oldest Greek-letter organization and fraternity in Asia. Founded in 1918, it is also the oldest student organization in continuous existence in the University of the Philippines. It has two chapters — a single ch ...
fraternity.
Death
He died on December 4, 1940, aged 56, at the
Philippine General Hospital
The Philippine General Hospital (also known as University of the Philippines–Philippine General Hospital or UP–Philippine General Hospital), simply referred to as UP–PGH or PGH, is a tertiary state-owned hospital administered and operated ...
.
Personal life
Kalaw and his wife,
Pura
Pura may refer to:
Places
* Pura, Kushtagi, a village in Koppal district, Karnataka, India
* Pura, Iran, a village in Mazandaran Province, Iran
* Pura, Tarlac, a municipality in the Philippines
* Pura, Switzerland, a municipality in Ticino, S ...
, had three children. Their son, Teodoro Kalaw Jr., became a prominent businessman and was married to Philippine senator
Eva Estrada. Their daughter,
Maria
Maria may refer to:
People
* Mary, mother of Jesus
* Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages
Place names Extraterrestrial
* 170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877
* Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, ...
, was a Philippine Senator from 1961 to 1967. Another daughter,
Purita, was an art critic.
Works and writings
* ''La Campaña de Kuomintang''
* ''Reformas en La Enseñanza del Derecho''
* ''La Constitucion de Malolos (1910),'' a critical analysis of the ''
Malolos Constitution
The Political Constitution of 1899 ( es, Constitución Política de 1899), informally known as the Malolos Constitution, was the constitution of the First Philippine Republic. It was written by Felipe Calderón y Roca and Felipe Buencamino as ...
''
* ''Teorias Constitucionales (1912),'' theories and analysis of nationhood, government, and constitution
* ''The Constitutional Plan of the Philippine Revolution (1914)''
* ''La Revolucion Filipina (1914)''
* ''Manual de Ciencia Politica (1918)''
* ''Ang Pinagtatalunang Akta ng Katipunan'' (1930)
* ''Las Cartas Politicas de Apolinario Mabini'' (1930)
* ''Epistolario Rizalino'' (1930-1937)
* ''Gregorio H. Del Pilar: Heroe de Tirad'' (1930), biography of
Gregorio H. Del Pilar
* ''Aide-de-Camp to Freedom (1940)''
References
External links
National Historical Institute
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kalaw, Teodoro
1884 births
1940 deaths
Colegio de San Juan de Letran alumni
People from Lipa, Batangas
Writers from Batangas
20th-century Filipino historians
20th-century Filipino lawyers
Members of the House of Representatives of the Philippines from Batangas
Secretaries of the Interior and Local Government of the Philippines
Spanish-language writers of the Philippines
Members of the Philippine Legislature