Thread by @indiohistorian

#TodayinHistory in 1920, 100 years ago, former Senate president, and democracy leader, Jovito Salonga, is born in Pasig #PH. Beyond his sterling achievements, his was a life devoted to his Protestant faith & love for the Filipino nation. New BLOG 👉tmblr.co/ZtGCUxYWSqbDCy…

Born in 1920 to a poor family, Salonga's father was a Presbyterian pastor and his mother a vendor in the market. He was the youngest of the 5 children. He would study in the @UPCollegeofLaw but would postpone his taking of the Bar upon the outbreak of #WWII.

Salonga joined the guerrillas but was soon captured in 1942. He would be sentenced by the Japanese military administration to 15 years in forced labor. This would be cut short when he was pardoned in 1943.

In 1944, he took the Bar exam and became Bar topnotcher who tied with Jose W. Diokno, another future senator whom he will be closely working with in the legislature. Salonga acquired scholarship and studied in Harvard and Yale universities, garnering awards & degrees in intl law.

He returned to #PH and became @FarEasternU's College of Law Dean. In 1960, persuaded by then VP & presidential candidate Diosdado Macapagal to enter politics, Salonga ran as congressman of the 2nd district of Rizal and won in 1961.

Salonga would be reelected in 1965, earning the highest vote for the Senate seat, even when it was dominated by the Nacionalistas. Ferdinand Marcos, under the Nacionalista banner, won as #PH president.

In 1968, becoming a fierce advocate of freedom and critic of the growing authoritarian ways of the Marcos administration, Salonga was called by the periodical Philippines Free Press as "Nation's Fiscalizer."

In the run up to the midterm elections, the Liberal Party, to which he was a running candidate, held its miting-de-avance at Plaza Miranda on 21 August 1971. 2 grenades were hurled at the candidates wounding them. Jovy Salonga was in a critical condition. tmblr.co/ZtGCUx2CI2cwP

Despite this he still won in 1971 elections. Even during Martial Law, Salonga became a democracy leader, convening Filipino Protestant church leaders to muster their dissent vs. the human rights violations of the Marcos regime. Ecumenical solidarity w/ other religious grps began.

After #EDSA 1986, Salonga was appointed by Pres. Cory Aquino as the first chairman of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (@newPCGG) tasked to sequester the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses, deposited in different parts of the world.

In 1987, under the 1987 Constitution, Salonga ran for the Senate, and won. He was elected by his peers as Senate President. He would later on preside the body in the historic #PH rejection of the U.S. Military Bases Agreement renewal in 1991.

Among his famous words:

Photo credits:

- Presidential Museum and Library (2010-2016)
- Esteban Salonga Collection (via Flickr)
@tonitiemsin @subselfie