Camilo Osías Explained

Honorific-Prefix:The Honourable
Camilo Osías
Order:6th
Office:President of the Senate of the Philippines
President:Elpidio Quirino
Appointer:Senate
Term Start:April 30, 1953
Term End:May 20, 1953
Predecessor:Eulogio Rodriguez
Successor:Jose Zulueta
President2:Elpidio Quirino
Appointer2:Senate
Term Start2:April 17, 1952
Term End2:April 30, 1952
Predecessor2:Quintin Paredes
Successor2:Eulogio Rodriguez
Office3:Senator of the Philippines
Term Start3:December 30, 1947
Term End3:December 30, 1953
Term Start4:December 30, 1961
Term End4:December 30, 1967
Term Start5:1925
Term End5:1929
Alongside5:Alejo Mabanag (1925-1928)
Teofilo Sison (1928-1929)
Constituency5:2nd district
Predecessor5:Bernabé de Guzmán
Successor5:Alejandro de Guzmán
Office6:Minister of Education
President6:José P. Laurel
Term Start6:October 1943
Term End6:February 1945
Predecessor6:Claro M. Recto
Office7:Member of the Philippine National Assembly from La Union's 1st district
Term Start7:November 15, 1935
Term End7:1938
Predecessor7:Francisco Ortega
Successor7:Delfin Flores
Office8:Resident Commissioner to the U.S. House of Representatives from the Philippine Islands
Term Start8:March 4, 1929
Term End8:January 3, 1935
Predecessor8:Isauro Gabaldon
Successor8:Francisco A. Delgado
Alongside8:Pedro Guevara
Birth Name:Camilo Osías y Olaviano
Birth Date:23 March 1889
Birth Place:Balaoan, La Union, Captaincy General of the Philippines
Death Place:Manila, Philippines
Party:Liberal (1953–1976)
Otherparty:KALIBAPI (1942–1945)
Nacionalista (1925–1942; 1947–1953)
Spouse:Ildefonza Cuaresma
Avelina Lorenzana
Children:6
Alma Mater:University of Chicago
Western Illinois University
Columbia University

Camilo Olaviano Osías Sr. (March 23, 1889 – May 20, 1976), was a Filipino politician, twice for a short time President of the Senate of the Philippines. Along with American Mary A. Lane, Osías translated into English the poem Filipinas that was set to the Marcha Nacional Filipina, producing the Philippine Hymn, now the national anthem Lupang Hinirang.

Biography

Early life and education

Osías attended school in Balaoan, Vigan and San Fernando, and was selected a government scholar to the United States in 1905. He studied at the University of Chicago in 1906 and 1907. He graduated from the Western Illinois State Teachers College at Macomb, Illinois in 1908, and from the Teachers College of Columbia University in New York City in 1910.

Early career

On his return to the Philippines, he taught and later assumed various administrative positions, particularly in the field of education. He successively became the first Filipino Superintendent of Schools (1915 to 1916), Assistant Director of Education (1917 to 1921), a lecturer at the University of the Philippines (1919 to 1921), and President of National University (1921–1936), a private institution.

Political career

Osías then entered national politics. He was a member of the first Philippine mission to the United States (1919 to 1920). He was elected to the Philippine Senate in 1925, and as a Nacionalista, was Resident Commissioner in the United States House of Representatives in 1928, reelected in 1931 and served from March 4, 1929 until January 3, 1935, when his term expired in accordance with the new government of the Philippine Commonwealth. In 1934, he was an unsuccessful candidate for election to the Philippine Senate, but became a member of the Constitutional Convention in 1934, and a member of the first National Assembly in 1935. In 1939, he was a member of the Economic Mission to the United States, and chairman of the Educational Mission between 1938 and 1941.

Back in the Philippines, Osías became chairman of the National Council of Education in 1941, Director of Publicity and Propaganda until January 1942, chairman of the National Cooperative Administration in 1941, later Assistant Commissioner of the Department of Education, Health, and Public Welfare, then Secretary of Education until 1945. He was also Chancellor of Osías Colleges. He was elected again to the Philippine Senate in 1947 for a term expiring in 1953. He was President of the Senate of the Philippines twice for a short time in 1952 and in 1953. He was the Philippines' representative to the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Rome and to the International Trade Conference in Genoa in 1948. He ran as a Nacionalista again, this time for President of the Philippines, in 1953 and lost to Ramón Magsaysay. He was again elected, this time as a Liberal to the Philippine Senate (1961–1967), and served as president pro tempore. He was a resident of Mandaluyong, Rizal (since incorporated into Metro Manila), until his death.

Personal life

Osías was married to Ildefonsa Cuaresma, a former public school teacher from Bacnotan, near his hometown, in 1914. The couple raised seven children, Camilo Jr., Salvador, Victor, Apolinario, Rebecca, Benjamin and Rosita. After more than 20 years of marriage, Camilo divorced Ildefonsa and married Avelina Lorenzana in Reno, Nevada. That marriage produced no children.

Bibliography

See also