Cipriano Purugganan Primicias Sr. (September 14, 1901 – September 20, 1965) was a Filipino politician, who was best known for his service as a

Senator of the Philippines The Senate of the Philippines () is the upper house of Congress of the Philippines, Congress, the bicameral legislature of the Philippines, with the House of Representatives of the Philippines, House of Representatives as the lower house. The ...

. He was born in 1901 at Alcala, in the northern

Philippine The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

province of

Pangasinan Pangasinan, officially the Province of Pangasinan (, ; ; ), is a coastal Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located in the Ilocos Region of Luzon. Its capital is Lingayen, Pangasinan, Lingayen while San Carlos, Pangasi ...

to Javier Crescini Primicias and Cristeta Purugganan.

Education and early career

He completed his elementary education with highest honors, his high school courses with second-highest honors and passed the government first grade civil service tests when he was still in high school in 1919. He enrolled in the National Law College and at the same time worked as a clerk in the Bureau of Commerce in 1919 where he rose to the rank of Chief, Commercial Section. He finished his Bachelor of Laws degree in 1923 with highest honors and passed the

bar examination A bar examination is an examination administered by the bar association of a jurisdiction that a lawyer must pass in order to be admitted to the bar of that jurisdiction. Australia Administering bar exams is the responsibility of the bar associat ...

s in the top five that same year.Official Website of the Senate of the Philippines: Former Senators: Cipriano Primicias
(HTML) Accessed April 13, 2007. In 1924, he quit his post at the Bureau of Commerce and began his law practice as an assistant attorney in the law office of then-Senator Alejo R. Mabanag. By 1936 he was the President of the

Bar Association, a post he held till 1945.

Political career

House of Representatives

A ranking member of the

Nacionalista Party The Nacionalista Party (Filipino language, Filipino and Spanish language in the Philippines, Spanish: ''Partido Nacionalista''; , NP) is a political party in the Philippines which is the oldest existing party in the country and in Southeast Asi ...

(NP), Primicias entered politics in 1934 when he was elected to the

Philippine House of Representatives The House of Representatives (; '','' thus commonly referred to as ''Kamara'') is the lower house of Congress, the bicameral legislature of the Philippines, with the Senate of the Philippines as the upper house. The lower house is commonly refe ...

from the fourth district of Pangasinan. He represented his district for three consecutive terms beginning in 1934, 1941 and 1946. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia: Legislative Districts of Pangasinan - 4th District. (HTML) Accessed August 1, 2007. Being in the then-minority party at the time, Primicias was an oppositionist and fiscalizer in the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

Bell Trade Act of 1946

During his last term in the House, Primicias was one of nine Congressmen and three senators who opposed the ratification of the United States' Bell Trade Act of 1946 (also called the Philippine Trade Act of 1946) mostly because it required amending the Philippine Constitution to give American citizens and corporations equal access with Filipinos to the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

' natural resources. In addition the law also gave U.S. citizens the right to import goods without paying import duties and fixed the value of the Philippine peso to the U.S. dollar. Primicias and other opponents of the Bell Trade Act considered the measure an inexcusable surrender of Philippine sovereignty. Because ratification of the Bell Trade Act required a two-thirds vote of the House and the Senate, Primicias - with the eight other Congressmen and the three senators - were unseated from the Philippine Congress on spurious charges while the ratification process was underway in order to ensure its passage. Upon appeal to the Philippine Supreme Court all twelve legislators were reinstated, but by that time their temporary ejection had served its purpose and the Bell Trade Act had already been ratified.Sison, Corazon N. 2001. Senator Cipriano P. Primicias: Vignettes and Anecdotes on His Life and Times, Philippines: C.P.Primicias Memorial Foundation, Inc., 47-48. During his last term in the House (1946–1949), Primicias served as the Minority Floor Leader. From 1946 till 1964 he was the

Vice-President.

Senate

In the 1951 Philippine midterm elections, Primicias was elected in an 8-0 shut-out by the

to his first term as a

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

. While in the

Philippine Senate The Senate of the Philippines () is the upper house of Congress, the bicameral legislature of the Philippines, with the House of Representatives as the lower house. The Senate is composed of 24 senators who are elected at-large (the country f ...

he became chairman of the following Committees: Finance (1952–1953), Labor (1952–1953), Public Works (1953), Justice (1958–1960), Appointments (1958–1960) and the powerful Committee on Rules (1953–1963) as well as a member of the Senate Electoral Tribunal (1954–1963).Sison, Corazon N. 2001. Senator Cipriano P. Primicias: Vignettes and Anecdotes on His Life and Times, Philippines: C.P.Primicias Memorial Foundation, Inc., 16. He was reelected to the Senate for a second term in 1957. From 1953 till 1963 Senator Primicias was the Senate Majority Floor Leader.

Other positions

*Four-time Vice-President, World Inter-Parliamentary Union Conference: 1954 (

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), 1956 (

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), 1958 (

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), and 1960 (Tokyo). *Member, Council of State, 1953 to 1963. Senator Primicias was also the former Dean of the College of Law in Orient College, President of the Pindangan Agricultural Company and the Lingayen Gulf Fishing Company and was a member of the

Knights of Columbus The Knights of Columbus (K of C) is a global Catholic Church, Catholic Fraternal and service organizations, fraternal service order founded by Michael J. McGivney, Blessed Michael J. McGivney. Membership is limited to practicing Catholic men. ...

Personal life

In 1930, Primicias married Miss Pangasinan Nieves Ocampo Benito, with whom he had nine children: Cipriano Jr. (Tito) – himself a former

Congressman A member of congress (MOC), also known as a congressman or congresswoman, is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The t ...

and Governor of Pangasinan; Ma. Corazon (Marietta); Ricardo; Juan Augusto; Ramon; Edmundo; Carlos; Perla; and Baby Nieves. An ardent Hispanist, Primicias spoke fluent Spanish and regularly debated on the Senate floor in that language. He also spoke English, Filipino, Ilocano, and Pangansinense with equal facility. He died a week after his 64th birthday in

Quezon City Quezon City (, ; ), also known as the City of Quezon and Q.C. (read and pronounced in Filipino language, Filipino as Kyusi), is the richest and List of cities in the Philippines, most populous city in the Philippines. According to the 2020 c ...

, on September 20, 1965. AlcalaPangasinanjf075

Footnotes

References

External links

Official Website of the Senate of the PhilippinesThe NP Convention Story, 1953
{{DEFAULTSORT:Primicias 1901 births 1965 deaths Majority leaders of the Senate of the Philippines Senators of the 5th Congress of the Philippines Senators of the 4th Congress of the Philippines Senators of the 3rd Congress of the Philippines Senators of the 2nd Congress of the Philippines Politicians from Pangasinan Nacionalista Party politicians Members of the House of Representatives of the Philippines from Pangasinan 20th-century Filipino lawyers Minority leaders of the House of Representatives of the Philippines Members of the Philippine Legislature