AN INVITATION to welcome the Board of Trustees of the Philippine Heritage Conservation Society and their special guests hosted by the City of Silay in the home of Senator Jose Corteza Locsin enriched my knowledge of local history and the senator into whose home the dinner was hosted.
Jose Locsin’s parents were originally from Molo, Iloilo. Migrating to Negros, they invested in lands and went into sugar farming and were among the pioneers of the sugar industry in the province.
Senator Locsin was born in Silay on August 27, 1891. He finished primary education in Silay and proceeded to Manila to study at Liceo de Manila for his Bachelor of Arts degree and graduated at the age of 21 from the Universidad de Santo Tomas, with the degree, Doctor of Medicine.
He married Salvacion Montelibano and had 18 children with her, 17 of whom survived. In 1962, a widower at 70 years of age, he remarried. His second wife, Delia Ediltrudes Santiago bore him a son and a daughter. 17 + 2 = 19. Quite a large family.
As a doctor in Silay, he established the Maternity and Children’s Hospital, later named the Silay General Hospital. If you visit Patag, the Rest and Resettlement Center for Tuberculosis was built through his initiative. He organized several women's clubs to run Puericulture Centers and for the province. He was responsible for the establishment of the Negros Occidental Provincial Hospital and later its School of Nursing.
Although quite a successful doctor by profession, having served as the president of the Philippine Medical Profession in 1938-1939, Dr. Jose Locsin had an inclination for politics. He was municipal councilor of Silay, then rose to be governor of Negros Occidental, then climbed up the political ladder as congressman, a delegate to the 1935 Constitutional Convention, became secretary of Health in 1945, and finally senator of the Republic of the Philippines (1951-1957).
Many believe that his authorship of the “Filipino First Policy” is his greatest contribution. The bill was signed during his term as chairman of the National Economic Council (NEC), now known as the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA). The Filipino First Policy gave impetus to agro-industrial development resulting in the establishment of more cement factories, flour mills, and Filoil–the first of the Filipino?owned gasoline companies.
It also led to the banning of importation of plywood, the financing of irrigation and fertilizer programs, and the construction of artesian wells and hydro?electric power plants in different parts of the Philippines. Another major result was the development of new industries through the Industrial Dispersal Program.
Aside from chairing NEC, he likewise headed the National Productivity Board of the Philippines. He contributed to the establishment of the Asian Productivity Organization (APO) where he was unanimously elected its first chairman in May 1961 during its inaugural meeting in Tokyo, Japan— a position of prestige not only to himself but to the country as well.
After his term as NEC chairman, he was appointed as acting secretary of the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Although his term was brief, he had the licensing of forest concessions investigated which led to a marked reduction.
Senator Locsin died at the age of 88 on May 1, 1977 leaving a rich legacy of dedicated and principled public service. The beneficiaries of his initiatives included sugarcane planters as well as plantation workers, Filipino industrialists as well as ordinary factory employees, public school teachers as well as farmers.
He served not only his city of Silay but the whole country in general. The Rizal Cultural and Civic Center in Silay was also built in his honor and named after him. It was during his term as senator that then President Carlos P. Garcia signed Republic Act 1621 on June 12, 1957 making Silay the second town in Negros Occidental to become a city.
This Dungganon na Silaynon said in his speech delivered to the Manila Jaycees in 1958, when he was chairman of the National Economic Council: “The owner of a house, if hospitable like the Filipinos, reserves the best room of the house, the best furnished and most comfortable, as a guest room, but he retains the rest.”
Another praiseworthy virtue of Senator Jose C. Locsin is his love for family. Despite his already large family of 19, when his nephews and nieces were orphaned, he welcomed all 12 of them under his roof and made them all part of his home.
Today in that Art Deco ancestral home, with the large household in the past now a heritage house, only Tita Charet Locsin lives. She most graciously showed us around and relive the many stories of the yesteryears. I feel most privileged to learn about this giant of man worth praising and emulating.
How I wish more public servants are of this mold of “Filipino First” and not “Sarili First.”