s a custom any practice, a wreath-laying ceremony on the monument of President Manuel Acuña Roxas is scheduled on the morning of April 15, 2013 at the Roxas City Public Plaza to mark the late President’s

65th death anniversary.

Immediate relatives of the late President and Roxas City and Capiz province officials are ex-pected to pay tribute to the illustrious son of Capiz.

The event coincides with the 112th founda-tion day of the civil government of Capiz on April 15, 2013.

Roxas, born on New Year’s day, January 1, 1892 in the town of Capiz, Capiz (now Roxas City) to Gerardo Roxas and Rosario Acuña, succumbed to a heart attack on April 15, 1948 afer delivering an impassioned speech before American forces at the Clark Air Base in Angeles City, Pampanga.

The young Manuel Roxas also manifested a life-long passion for learning. A product of public schools, he graduated with the highest honors. While he excelled in academics, he was also active in campus politics as President of the Uni-versity of the Philippines (UP) Student Council.

He finished Law at the UP Diliman and became the first bar topnotcher of the Philippines in 1913.

At 27, he was elected the 6th Governor of Capiz, becoming the youngest chief executive of the province and which distinction has remained unsurpassed to this date.

In 1920, at age 28, he was chosen by his peerers as president of the governor’s conven-tion.

At 29, he won the love of his heart and mar-ried to Trinidad de Leon, daughter of Ceferino de Leon of the province of Bulacan. From 1922 to 1938, at the prime of his life between the ages of 30 to 46 years, Roxas had been re-elected for four consecutive terms as Congressman for the first district of Capiz, ten years of which he had served therein as Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1923 to 1933 from the 6th to the 8th Philippine Legisla-tures.tures.

In 1934, at the age 42, Roxas was elected Capiz delegate to the Constitutional Convention and became one of the wise men who led the framing of the 1935 Constitution, which became the basic Charter upon which the Commonwealth of the Philippines with the United State of Ameri-ca was founded.

Together with Manuel Luis Quezon and Sergio Osmeña, the 1935 Constitution was the culmination of all of their joint effors for eventual Philippine Independence.

In 1938, at 46, he finally gave up his con-gressional seat to accept the portfolio of Secre-tary of Finance in the Cabinet of President Quezon.

In 1941, at the age of 49, Roxas was elected senator for the 3rd National Assembly during the Commonwealth period.

In 1945, at 53, he was elected Senate Presi-dent and organized the so-called “liberal wing” of the Partido Nacionalista, eventually to become the Liberal Party of the Philippine politics.

On April 23, 1946, at the age of 54, Roxas became President of the Philippines. In the after-math in the bloody war which was World War II,

and at the birth of a new, free and independent nation known as the Republic of the Philippines on July 4th, 1946, a great Filipino and an excep-tional Capizeño named Manuel Acuña Roxas steered thisthis country towards a new brave world.

The relevance of Roxas today, especially for the Fili-pino youth, was how he con-ducted himself throughout his life – how he spent it so wisely, how he lived it so productively and how he shared it so prolifically.

The illustrious son of Capiz always put forward his guiding philosophy in life… “COUNTRY ABOVE SELF.” (CAPIZTAHAN Publicity and Pro-motion Committee/Edward B. Basilonia)

MANUEL A. ROXAS

CAPIZTAHAN 2013CAPIZ PROVINCIAL PRESS BUREAUFor more info call us @ 6210 042 local 163www.facebook.com/CAPIZTAHAN2013

Capiz topay tributeto its illustrious son

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